MYSTIC PLANTS. 419 



stricken and leafless, and yet suggesting hope — for the 

 legend is of Christian origin — since a child in glitter- 

 ing raiment was seated on its top, the symbol of hope 

 for all future generations." 



This ancient legend — the dream, perhaps, of a 

 Syrian hermit — shows that the cedar of Lebanon, 

 the timber-tree of the temple built on Zion, was held 

 in high estimation, and exercised the fancy. The 

 story proceeds that Seth received from the angel 

 three seeds of that tree which he beheld still standing 

 upon the spot where sin had been first committed, 

 but standing there blasted and dead. He carried the 

 seeds home, placed them in the mouth of the dead 

 Adam, and so buried them. And here the natural 

 history of the legend is at fault, for the three seeds, 

 ripened on the same tree in Paradise, produced three 

 trees of different kinds. The truth is, the cedar of 

 Lebanon, the cypress, and the pine, which grew from 

 those seeds, were held in equal estimation by the 

 recluse who dreamt this legend, and therefore the 

 same marvellous, though inconsistent origin, was 

 claimed for them all. Their future history is curious. 

 Growing on the grave of Adam, in Hebron, they were 

 afterwards most carefully protected by Abraham, 

 Moses, and David. After their removal to Jerusalem, 

 the Psalms were composed beneath them ; and in 

 due time, when they had grown together and united 

 into one giant tree, they or it — for it was now one 

 2 E 2 



