62 pPant T^ore, Tscg©^/, and. "bLjrIc/, 



(Gen. XXXV. 8). The other was a solitary Palm, known in after 

 times as the Palm-tree of Deborah. Under this Palm, as Saul 

 afterwards under the Pomegranate-tree of Migron, as St. Louis 

 under the Oak-tree of Vincennes, dwelt that mother in Israel, 

 Deborah, the wife of Lapidoth, to whom the sons of Israel came to 

 receive her wise answers." 



Since the time when Solomon cut the Cedars of Lebanon for 

 the purpose of employing them in the erection of the Temple of the 

 Lord, this renowned forest has been greatly shorn of its glories ; 

 but a grove of nearly four hundred trees still exists. Twelve of 

 the most valuable of these trees bear the titles of " The Friends 

 of Solomon," or " The Twelve Apostles." Every year the 

 Maronites, Greeks, and Armenians go up to the Cedars, at the 

 Feast of the Transfiguration, and celebrate mass on a homely stone 

 altar erected at their feet. 



In Evelyn's time there existed, near the tomb of Cyrus, an 

 extraordinary Cypress, which was said to exude drops of blood 

 every Friday. This tree, according to Pietro della Valla, was 

 adorned with many lamps, and fitted for an oratory, and was for 

 ages resorted to by pious pilgrims. 



Thevenot and other Eastern travellers mention a tree which 

 for centuries had been regarded with peculiar reverence. " At 

 Matharee," says Thevenot, " is a large garden surrounded by 

 walls, in which are various trees, and among others, a large 

 Sycamore, or Pharaoh's Fig, very old, which bears fruit every 

 year. They say that the Virgin passing that way with her son Jesus, 

 and being pursued by a number of people, the Fig-tree opened to 

 receive her ; she entered, and it closed her in, until the people had 

 passed by, when it re-opened, and that it remained open ever 

 after to the year 1656, when the part of the trunk that had separated 

 itself was broken away." 



Near Kennety Church, in the King's County, Ireland, is an 

 Ash, the trunk of which is nearly 22 feet round, and 17 feet high, 

 before the branches break out, which are of enormous bulk. When 

 a funeral of the lower class passes by, they lay the body down a 

 few minutes, say a prayer, and then throw a stone to increase 

 the heap which has been accumulating round the roots. 



The Breton nobles were long accustomed to offer up a prayer 

 beneath the branches of a venerable Yew which grew in the 

 cloister of Vreton, in Brittany. The tree was regarded with much 

 veneration, as it was said to have originally sprung from the staff 

 of St. Martin. 



In England, the Glastonbury Thorn was long the object of 

 pious reverence. This tree was supposed to have sprung from the 

 staff of Joseph of Arimathea, to whom the original conversion 

 of this country is attributed in monkish legends. The story runs 

 that when Joseph of Arimathea came to convert the heathen 

 nations he selected Glastonbury as the site for the first Christian 



