Pli/INT MRE, EiEGENDS, JIND byRJCS- 



CHAPTER I. 



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T is a proof of tlie solemnity with which, from the 

 very earHest times, man has invested trees, and 

 of the reverence with which he has ever regarded 

 them, that they are found figuring prominently 

 in the mythology of almost every nation ; and 

 despite the fact that in some instances these 

 ancient myths reach us, after the lapse of ages, 

 in distorted and grotesque forms, they would 

 seem to be worthy of preservation, if only as curiosities in plant 

 lore. In some cases the myth relates to a mystic cloud-tree which 

 supplies the gods with immortal fruit ; in others to a tree which 

 imparts to mankind wisdom and knowledge ; in others to a tree 

 which is the source and foimtain of all life ; and in others, again, 

 to the actual descent of mankind from anthropological or parent 

 trees. In one cosmogony — that of the Iranians — the first human 

 pair are represented as having grown up as a single tree, the 

 fingers or twigs of each one being folded over the other's ears, till 

 the time came when, ripe for separation, they became two sentient 

 beings, and were infused by Ormuzd with distinct human souls. 



But besides these trees, which in some form or other benefit 

 and populate the earth, there are to be found in ancient myths 

 records of illimitable trees that existed in space whilst yet the 

 elements of creation were chaotic, and whose branches over- 

 shadowed the universe. One of the mythical accounts of the 

 creation of the world represents a vast cosmogonic tree rearing its 

 enormous bulk from the midst of an ocean before the formation of 

 the earth had taken place ; and this conception, it may be remarked, 



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