A 



ARBOR DA Y MAX UAL. 291 



TREES OF HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY. 



YOUTH once rode into a forest, and asked of the trees : 



" O, if ye have a singing leaf. The music of seas far away; 



I pray you give it me." Only the Aspen pattered 

 But the trees all kept their counsel, With a sound like the growing rain, 



They said neither yea or nay ; That fell fast and ever faster, 

 Only there sighed from the Pine tops Then faltered to. silence again. 



Tennyson tells us of the talking Oak, but to us, who are less fortunate in 

 poetic imagery, the trees are speechless ; if the birds understand the language 

 of rustling leaves, they keep it a secret from us, who would fain open and read 

 this page in nature's volume. 



Sacred history is full of allusions to trees in their various stages of growth 

 and abundance. The first sin of our common mother was in partaking of the 

 forbidden fruit from the tree in the garden of Paradise. At the foot of Mount 

 Lebanon eight gigantic Cedars stand as the only representatives of the once 

 immense forests. The prophecy concerning them has come to pass, " They 

 shall be few that a child may count them." The Olive, the Fig and the Oak 

 are likewise often referred to in the sacred Scriptures. We read of the righteous 

 as representing a tree of life, and they are declared to be like a tree planted by 

 the rivers of water, while the wicked are likened to a Green Bay tree, and the 

 ungodly to an Oak whose leaf fadeth. The Green Bay tree is a species of 

 Laurel. Pliny collected and recorded the information and opinions concerning 

 it current in his time. It was held sacred to Apollo, and used as a symbol of 

 victor}-. It was used by the Romans to guard the gates of Caesar, and that 

 . worn by Augustus and his successors had a miraculous history. The grove at 

 the Imperial villa having grown from a shoot sent by Livius Drusilla from 

 heaven. 



Among the Indians of Brazil there is a tradition that the whole human race 

 sprang from a Palm tree. It has been a symbol of excellence for things good 

 and beautiful. Among the ancients it was an emblem of victory, and. as such, 

 was worn by the early Christian martyrs, and has been found sculptured on their 

 tombs. The Mohammedans venerate it. Certain trees, said to have been propa- 

 gated from some originally planted by the prophet's daughter, are held sacred 

 and the fruit sold at enormous prices. The day upon which Christ entered 

 Jerusalem, riding upon the colt of an ass, is called Palm Sunday, being the first 

 day of the Holy Week. In Europe real Palm branches are distributed among 

 the people. Goethe says : 



" In Rome on Palm Sunday, 



They have the true Palms, 

 The cardinals bow reverently 

 And sing old psalms. 



Elsewhere these songs are sung 'mid Olive branches ; more southern climes 

 must be content with the sad Willow. 



