Mac'Ai.istkk — The History and Antiquities of Inis Cealtra. 99 



and driiik to Euadhaii and his fifty monks, so that they were able to 

 spend their whole time in genuliexions and prayer, without the necessity 

 of labour to satisfy their bodily wants. K"aturally Loi-rha grew in faA'onr 

 with those who sought the monastic life, and the other saints began 

 to find their houses deserted. Indignant, they went on a deputation 

 to St. Findian, the master of Euadhan, and begged him to command 

 his pupil to cease from this idle life. Findian accordingly came to Lorrha, and 

 signed the tree with the cross, whereupon the flow of juice dried up. The 

 story goes on to tell us how the loss was made up to Euadhan ; but this part 

 of the tale does not at present concern us. The important point is the 

 destruction of the virtues of the tree by the sign of the cross, clearly showing 

 that it was an ancient sacred tree that Euadhan had inherited from some 

 pagan predecessor. 



In the Irish Life of St. Findian, edited by Stokes,' the Lorrha story is 



'told again. Here the tree is called crann leimh, and described as a tree " from 

 which distilled a tasty fluid wherein everyone found the taste he liked best." 

 In the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick- there is a confused story of a great 



lem tree at Clonmacuois. Now a lem or leimh is an elm ; but an elm 



obviously does not possess the desirable qualities which distinguished the 

 trees of Inis Cealtra and Lorrha. Even a lime-tree doet; not naturally possess 



these virtues ; and a lemon (which might yield such a juice) is not indigenous 



to Ireland. 



In this difficulty I applied to Dr. Henry, than whom there can be no 



better authority, and it is to his kindness I owe the following facts and 



attempt at a solution of the problem. 



In the first place, the lime-tree is not indigenous to Ireland, and therefore, 



whatever the tree may have been, it was not a tilia. The lime is, however, 



native to Germany and Switzerland, and often lives to a great age and size. 



There are several well-known specimens of great lime-trees in those countries 



at the present day, some at least of which, there is every reason to believe, 



are ancient sacred trees. 



Moreover, there is no tree which during the flowering season yields such a 



rich store of honey as the lime ; and Dr. Henry's suggestion is that the juice 



in question was simply honey in large quantities. 



The elm-tree has a sufficiently close superficial resemblance to the lime to 



make it possible for a careless observer to mistake one for the other. 



Dr. Henry, therefore, suggests that the tree on Inis Cealtra was an elm, and 



that it was still in existence when some returned ecclesiastic from 



' Lives of the Saints from the Book of Lismore, p. 80, 

 " Rolls Series edition, vol. i, p. 84. 



