SYLVAN GIANTS. 271 



ordinary size and beauty, called the Menelaid 

 Plane. It was generally believed in the country, 

 he tells us, that Menelaus, coming to Gaphiae to 

 raise forces for the Trojan war, planted this tree 

 with his own hands. Pausanias travelled through 

 Greece in the reign of Antoninus Pius, who 

 succeeded to the empire, a.d. 151. So that the 

 age of the tree, when Pausanias saw it, must 

 have been about a thousand three hundred years.'* 

 It is said of this tree that, long after, the name 

 of Menelaus was found engraved on the bark. 

 He adds : ' I shall next exhibit another Plane 

 Tree of great celebrity, which flourished in Lycia 

 during the -reigns of the Roman Caesars. From a 

 vast stem it divided into several huge boughs, 

 every one of which had the consequence of a large 

 tree, and, at a distance, the whole together exhi- 

 bited the appearance of a grove. Its branches 

 still flourished, while its trunk decayed. This, in 

 process of time, mouldered into an immense 

 cave, at least eighty feet in circumference, around 

 the sides of which were placed seats of pumice 

 Stone, cushioned softly with moss. This tree was' 

 * 'Forest Scenery,' page 165. 



