330 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



with their proper suite of attendants. Evelyn gives a 

 curious account of the adoration Xerxes is said to have 

 paid to a Plane tree. 



" This beautiful and precious tree, anciently sacred to 

 Helena (and with which she crowned the lar and genius 

 of the place), was so doted on by Xerxes, that ^Elian 

 and other authors tell us he made halt, and stopped his 

 prodigious army of 1,700,000 soldiers, which even co- 

 vered the sea, exhausted rivers, and thrust Mount Athos 

 from the continent, to admire the pulchritude and pro- 

 cerity of one of them ; and became so fond of it, that 

 spoiling both himself, his concubines, and great persons 

 of all their jewels, he covered it with gold, gems, neck- 

 laces, scarfs, bracelets, and infinite riches. In sum, was 

 so enamoured of it, that for some days neither the con- 

 cernment of his grand expedition, nor interest of honour, 

 nor the necessary motion of his portentous army, could 

 persuade him from it : he styled it his mistress, his 

 minion, his goddess ; and when he was forced to part from 

 it, he caused the figure of it to be stamped on a medal 

 of gold, which he continually wore about him." 



He tells us that the Romans first brought it out of the 

 Levant, " and cultivated it with so much care and in- 

 dustry for their proud and stately heads, that the great 

 orators and statesmen, Cicero and Hortensius, would ex- 

 change now and then a turn at the bar, that they might 

 have the pleasure to step to their villas, and refresh their 

 Platans, which they would often irrigate with wine in- 

 stead of water.*" 



In another passage, he says that when this tree was 

 removed into France, a tribute was exacted of any person 

 who should presume to put his head under it ; and that 

 he had been informed by a worthy knight, that since the 



