INTIlODQCTIOn, 



HE analogy existing between the vegetable 

 and animal worlds, and the resemblances 

 between human and tree life, have been 

 observed by man from the most remote 

 periods of which we have any records. 

 Primitive man, watching the marvellous 

 changes in trees and plants, which accu- 

 rately marked not only the seasons of the 

 year, but even the periods of time in a day, could not fail to be 

 struck with a feeling of awe at the mysterious invisible power 

 which silently guided such wondrous and incomprehensible opera- 

 tions. Hence it is not astonishing that the early inhabitants of 

 the earth should have invested with supernatural attributes the 

 tree, which in the gloom and chill of Winter stood gaunt, bare, 

 and sterile, but in the early Spring hastened to greet the welcome 

 warmth-giving Sun by investing itself with a brilliant canopy of 

 verdure, and in the scorching heat of Summer afforded a re- 

 freshing shade beneath its leafy boughs. So we find these men 

 of old, who had learnt to reverence the mysteries of vegetation, 

 forming conceptions of vast cosmogonic world- or cloud-trees over- 

 shadowing the universe; mystically typifying creation and regene- 

 ration, and yielding the divine ambrosia or food of immortalit}', 

 the refreshing and life-inspiring rain, and the mystic fruit which 

 imparted knowledge and wisdom to those who partook of it. So, 



