174 THE WONDERS OF VEGETATION. 



ence, while the shadow cast by its still green branch- 

 es, covers an extent of 70 feet. A monument of his- 

 tory, for after seeing the Roman legions pass, it was 

 watered by the tears of Charlotte d'Albret, the .un- 

 fortunate wife of Caesar Borgia, Duke of "Valentinois, 

 and by those of Jeanne, of France, divorced from 

 Louis XII., who came hither to mingle her grief 

 with that of her cousin. 



At present one-half of the tree is dead, and no 

 longer reclothes itself with foliage in the spring ; but 

 the main trunk remains a permanent monument of 

 an age long gone by. This yew stands in one of the 

 courts of the feudal castle of la Motte-Feuilly, not 

 far from the road leading from Chatre to Chateau- 

 meillant, on the borders of the former provinces of 

 Berry and la Marche. 



THE ELM OF BRIGNOLES. 



There is in the department of the Yar, a little 

 river called the Caranci, which now flows outside of 

 the walls of Brignoles, but which formerly passed, 

 if we believe the local tradition, through the centre 

 of the square which still bears its name, at the foot 

 of a venerable elm. This aged tree was already 

 well known in the fifteenth century, having witnessed 

 great events, and given shelter to countless guests. 

 In the sixteenth century, Michel de PHopital sang 

 its magnificent proportions, to while away the time 

 of his exile in Provence. King Charles IX. was 

 present on the 25th of October, 1564, at a to/7 cham- 

 petre, which was given under this gigantic el in 



