204 TRANSACTIONS OF ROVAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



part in mythology, namely, the myths and legends connected 

 with our own familiar trees. First there is the oak. 



Many a fact of history is associated with the oak. The mind 

 immediately reverts to the Druids who took their name from it 

 and who wore its leaves as wreaths around their brow ; to the 

 civic crown of the Romans made of oak leaves, and awarded for 

 eminent services rendered to the State ; to the round oak-table 

 of Arthur; to the arrow of Walter Tyrell, which struck against 

 the stout trunk of an oak on its way to the heart of William II.; 

 to the king who sheltered beneath its boughs; or to William 

 Wallace who slept nightly in the hollow of the oak of Torwood. 

 Often has a sight of this tree recalled the old idea of the Greeks 

 that it was the emblem of hospitality ; or the fancy of the 

 Arcadians that it was the first created of trees. The oak was 

 considered the emblem of hospitality by the Ancients, because 

 when Jupiter and Mercury were travelling in disguise and 

 arrived at the cottage of Philemon, they were treated with the 

 greatest kindness. Philemon was turned into an oak tree and 

 his wife into a lime, they and their entwined branches forming 

 the magnificent portal of the Phrygian temple. 



The Greeks had two remarkable sayings relative to this tree. 

 First, "I speak to an oak," as a solemn asseveration; and 

 second, "born of an oak," as applied to a foundling; because 

 anciently children whom parents wished to get rid of were 

 frequently exposed in the hollow of an oak tree. 



Another saying often met with in old records, as, for example, 

 in the "Doomsday Book," was a value of i: a single hog" or 

 " twenty hogs," as the case may be. This refers to the value 

 placed upon oak-woods in Britain in olden times, according to 

 the number of hogs they could fatten by means of the acorns. 

 The survey of oak-woods was extremely rigid, and the laws 

 enacted as to Pannage, as it is called, very strict. 



The ancient legends and superstitions regarding the oak are 

 very remarkable. According to Herodotus all the trees in the 

 sacred groves of Dodona were endowed with the gift of prophecy, 

 and the sacred oaks not only spoke and delivered oracles, but 

 when some of them were cut down to build the ship " Argo," 

 the beams and masts of that ship often spoke and warned the 

 Argonauts of their danger. Homer says that in the sacred 

 groves the oaks themselves spoke— hollow trees no doubt being 

 chosen in which a priest might be concealed. 



