HISTORIC TREES 157 



under which Plato and Socrates are said to have 

 once had a particularly animated discussion. St. 

 Paul is also credited with having rested under it on 

 his memorable journey to Athens. This vegetable 

 greybeard is two thousand years old, but still bears 

 fruit. On the Island of Ceylon is a sacred bo-tree 

 which authentic records indicate was planted 228 

 B. C. It is carefully guarded and never touched 

 by human hands, though pious pilgrims may catch 

 the leaves as they fall. 



Coming into Europe, there are a whole host of 

 trees held in historic veneration. The ancient oak 

 of Guernica in Spain is a noteworthy monument. 

 Under its leaves Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1476, 

 made oath to the Biscayans to faithfully maintain 

 the privileges of the subject race. In 1810 Words- 

 worth visited the tree and wrote a sonnet to it. The 

 Sultan's cypress in the Generalife Gardens in the 

 city of Granada is also associated with the patrons 

 of Columbus. Irving describes in his Conquest of 

 Granada how, when the royal pair entered the city 

 at the head of their troops, the wife of Boabdil, 

 the last Moorish Sultan of Spain, took refuge in its 

 trunk. 



At the Cathedral of Hildesheim, a small city 

 sixteen miles south of Hanover, Germany, is what 

 is claimed to be the oldest rose tree in the world. 



