if I underftand Pliny rightly *, it had frolics 

 alfo, (probably artificial flooring) in the boughs 

 of the tree. Caligula ufed to call it, his neft. 



From the fame author we have an account 

 of four holm-trees -f, ftill exifting in his 

 time, which were of great antiquity. Three 

 of them, he fays, flood upon the fite of 

 the ancient Tibur, which was a city older 

 than Rome; and thefe trees were not only 

 older than Tibur; but were trees of con- 

 fequence in the days of Tiburtus, who founded 

 it. For tradition aflures us, fays Pliny, they 

 were the very trees, on which that hero ob- 

 'ferved an ominous flight of birds, and was 

 determined by them in the fite of his town. 

 As Tiburtus was the fon of Amphiareus, who 

 died at Thebes a hundred years before the 

 Trojan war; thefe trees, at the loweft cal- 

 culation, muft have been fourteen or fifteen 

 hundred years old, in the time of Pliny. 

 Tho this is far from being incredible, yet 



* Lib. xii. c. i. f Lib. xvi. c. 44. 



as 



