Pliny tells us of a grove of beech trees 

 not far from Rome, one of which was 

 of such surpassing loveliness, that Pas- 

 senius Crispus, a celebrated orator, was 

 so fond of it, that he not only delighted 

 to repose beneath its shade, but fre- 

 quently poured wine on the roots and 

 would often tenderly embrace it. 



The popular belief among the farmers 

 that a beech is never struck by lightning, 

 has recently had scientific verification. 

 The general conclusion now being that 

 trees ''poor in fat" like the oak, willow, 

 maple, elm, ash oppose much less re- 

 sistance to the electric current than trees 

 "rich in fat" like the beech, chestnut, lin- 

 den and birch. The mulberry was dedi- 

 cated by the Greeks to Minerva, because 

 it was considered the wisest of trees — 

 wisest because of all cultivated trees it 

 is the last to bud, cautiously waiting un- 

 til the cold weather is past. You havn't 

 forgotten when you sung: 



As we go round the mulberry bush, 

 The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, 

 As we go round the mulberry bush 

 So early in the morning. 



Perhaps you didn't know at the time 

 of your singing that it was Minerva's 

 tree, but a folk-lore specialist tells me 

 your children forefathers did. Shake- 

 speare's mulberry, or its scions, delights 

 the tourist who makes the Strathford 

 pilgrimage, and in Christ Church col- 

 lege at Cambridge one still plucks de- 

 licious fruit from a mulberry planted by 

 Milton. It is related in Samuel how 

 David came out against his enemies 

 from behind mulberry trees, and Ovid 

 says the mulberry is the tree mentioned 

 in the Pyramus and Thisbe story. 



Because the sycamore so ably tri- 

 umphs over the hard conditions of city 

 life, we must admire it. In the New 

 Testament story it is said Zaccheus 

 climbed a sycamore tree that he might 

 better see Jesus as he passed by. Sy- 

 camore is derived from two Greek 

 words, one meaning fig, and the other 

 mulberry. That sycamore was a fig 



tree, common enough by the wayside in 

 Palestine, but not native in Europe. 

 The interesting question is, how did the 

 European tree get the name of the east- 

 ern tree Simply through word trans- 

 ference. In the twelfth and thirteenth 

 centuries when miracle plays were pro- 

 duced in all the churches of Europe, 

 for the instruction of the people, one 

 of the favorite scenes for acting was 

 the flight into Egypt of Joseph and 

 Mary. It was easily put upon the stage. 

 One legend says that on their way they 

 rested under a sycamore tree. But no 

 sycamore grew in the countries where 

 these plays were acted and so this Euro- 

 pean tree, our sycamore maple was 

 chosen to take its place, because the 

 leaves were somewhat like the Oriental 

 tree. In the play it was called sycamore, 

 and naturally the people began to call 

 it sycamore, and such it has remained to 

 this day. 



Swedish legends tell us it was the 

 birch tree that afforded the rod with 

 which Christ was scourged, and there 

 lingers in Scotland yet the belief that the 

 aspen is the tree of whose wood the 

 cross of our Savior was made and that 

 it still shivers in remembrance of that 

 fact. 



Truth now laughs at fancy's lore, but 

 we all love the pretty stories of our trees 

 and will not believe the unkind ones. 



Have these few thoughts awakened 

 any lighter vibrations than those to 

 which your inward sense has before re- 

 sponded? And supposing you were a 

 believer in metempsy-chosis and were 

 striving for a worthy place in tree 

 Valhalla, into which glorious old mon- 

 arch would you desire your soul to 

 glide ? 



Many voices there are in Nature's choir, and 

 none but were good to hear, 



Had we mastered the laws of their music well, 

 and could read their meaning clear ; 



But we who can feel at Nature's touch, can- 

 not think as yet with her thoughts ; 



And I only know that the voice of each tree 

 with a spell of its own is fraught 



Emily F. Bass. 



138 



