40 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



and the ground opened and so rescued her, 

 and in her place sprang up a laurel-tree ; and 

 Apollo thereupon declared that the laurel 

 should be sacred to him. In the same way. 

 Syrinx, fleeing from Pan, was changed by her 

 father, Ladon, into a reed. The three daughters 

 of the Sun and Clymene, mourning when Zeus 

 had hurled their presumptuous brother Phaethon 

 into the river Eridanus, were changed into 

 poplars growing by the river-side, while their 

 mother vainly sought to save them from their 

 fate. Phyllis, who hanged herself because she 

 thought her lover Demophoon had deserted 

 her, was changed into an almond-tree ; and 

 when the repentant lover embraced it, its 

 branches broke out into leaf and flower. Nor 

 are such stories confined to the lands that we 

 call classic. They are to be found everywhere. 

 A Cornish legend tells that Tristram and 

 Iseult were buried in the same church, only, 

 by command of King Mark, at some distance 

 from each other ; but that ivy started from the 

 grave of each and met in the vaulted roof 

 above. Once more we find that romance 

 need not be sought in other, distant lands. 

 The trees of our own gardens, fields and 



