( '25 ) 



prince \ but it is my bufmefs only to pay 

 honour to the tree*. 



In Arcadia, at the foot of the mountains, 

 bounding the Stymphalian plains (famous for 

 one of the labours of Hercules) flood the little 

 town of Caphiae ; and juft above it rofe a 

 fountain, called the Menalaid fountain ; by the 

 fide of which Paufanias tells us-)-, grew a 

 plane-tree of extraordinary fize and beauty, 

 called the Menalaid-plane. It was generally 

 believed in the country, he tells us, that 

 Menelaus coming to Caphias to raife forces 

 for the Trojan war, planted this tree with 

 his own hands. Paufanias travelled through 

 Greece in the reign of Antoninus Pius who 

 fucceeded to the empire, A. D. 1 5 1 . So that the 

 age of the tree, when Paufanias faw it, muft 

 have been about a thoufand, three hundred years. 



I mall next exhibit another plane-tree of 

 great celebrity, which flourifhed in Lycia, 



* This account is taken from Elian, f Pau Arcad. c. 23. 



during 



