TREE LORE 



Which one appeals to you the most? 

 Have you thought of it ? You have your 

 favorite flower, your choice book, your 

 especial friend which then, of all these 

 tender leaved beings with their hundred 

 thousand whispering tongues, touches 

 the deepest chord in your consciousness? 

 The flood of pink and white blossoms 

 from the fruit trees, the sweet odors 

 from the oozing pines, the lofty jets of 

 foliage of the elms, which Dr. Holmes 

 says come nearer to having a soul than 

 any other vegetable creature among us, 

 which sets in vibration higher notes than 

 any to which your inward sense has be 

 fore responded? Trees have been loved 

 and venerated for centuries. The 

 curious myths and traditions that among 

 many nations gravely ascribe the de 

 scent of man from trees are very fasci 

 nating reading. You remember in the 

 "Odyssey" the disguised hero is asked 

 to state his pedigree. "For," says his 

 questioner, "belike 'you are not come of 

 the oak, told of in old times, nor of 

 the rock." 



And in our school "Aeneid": 



These woods were first the seat of sylvan 

 powers, 



Of nymphs and fauns and savage men who 

 took 



Their birth from trunks of trees and stub 

 born oaks. 



The old Celts and Britons, worshipped 

 the oak. "Jove's own tree" Virgil calls 

 it. It shaded the Druid's sacred fire and 

 has at all times been the emblem of 

 grandeur, strength and duration. They 

 are the patriarchs of their kind in En 

 gland to-day we are shown noble old 

 oaks which were old in the time of 

 William the Conqueror. The famous 

 Charter Oak of Hartford. Conn., was 

 believed to be several hundred years old. 

 When the first settlers were clearing the 

 land the Indians begged that it might be 

 spared. "It has been the guide of our 

 ancestors for centuries," said they, "as 



to the time of planting our corn ; when 

 the leaves are the size of a mouse's ears, 

 then it is time to put the seed in the 

 ground." 



The Indians' request was granted and 

 the tree, afterwards becoming the cus 

 todian of the lost charter, became famous 

 for all time. "King Edward's Oak" in 

 Central Park, New York, planted by the 

 king many years ago when he visited us 

 as the Prince of Wales, caused a good 

 deal of comment over all the world 

 when at the time of the recent illness of 

 the king it too sickened to remain so 

 until its convalescense was coincident 

 with that of the human monarch. 



When one looks through a long, dou 

 ble row of elms, he beholds " a temple 

 not built with hands, fairer than any 

 minister that ever grew in stone with all 

 its clustered stems and fluttering capi 

 tals." A winter beauty too, when 

 stripped like an athlete for its contest 

 with the winds and storms of winter, 

 it discloses the secret of its grace, its 

 weakness or its strength, the sinewy vig 

 or of the trunk is most evident and the 

 fine spray of its delicate branches stands 

 clear cut in exquisite tracery against 

 the sky. One member of the elm family 

 is mentioned as the "Lotus" of the 

 ancients. Homer has Ulysses tell us 

 of the lotus eaters who gave him of the 

 lotus plant to taste sweet food which 

 whoever tasted once, wished not to see 

 his native country more, nor give his 

 friends the knowledge of his fate. 



Even the Nature blind among us, 

 must appreciate the grace and beauty of 

 our beeches. Have you noticed them re 

 cently? The pearly white of their small 

 er branches and twigs fairly challenging 

 the prime of their sturdier limbs. They 

 have been the shining mark of lovers 

 from earliest days : 



On the smooth beechen rind the pensive dame 

 Carves in a thousand forms her Tancred's 



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