50 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



Central Asia. The garden stood on the flank 

 of a great mountain, from which flowed the four 

 great rivers that nourished the earth. It was 

 sometimes a mountain, sometimes a tree, that 

 was believed to hold heaven in its place above 

 the earth. Let us quote from the Hebrew 

 version of the story. It may come to us with 

 a fresh significance after all the tree-lore we 

 have been studying. "And the Lord God 

 formed man of the dust of the ground, and 

 breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; 

 and man became a living soul. And the Lord 

 God planted a garden eastward in Eden ; and 

 there he put the man whom he had formed. 

 And out of the ground made the Lord God 

 to grow every tree that is pleasant to the 

 sight, and good for food ; the tree of life also 

 in the midst of the garden, and the tree of 

 knowledge of good and evil. And a river 

 went out of Eden to water the garden ; and 

 from thence it was parted into four heads." 

 Here then, according to the ancient belief, 

 were placed our first parents, in a paradise, a 

 walled garden, where grew only the trees that 

 were pleasant to the sight and good for food ; 

 no thorns or thistles grew in it. The fruit of 



