330 



SYLVAN SliETCHES. 



with their proper suite of attendants. Evelyn gives a 

 curious account of the adoration Xerxes is said to have 

 paid to a Plane tree. 



" This beautiful and precious tree, anciently sacred to 

 Helena (and with which she crowned the lar and genius 

 of the place), was so doted on by Xerxes, that Julian 

 and other authors tell us he made halt, and stopped his 

 prodigious army of 1,700,000 soldiers, which even co- 

 vered the sea, exhausted rivers, and thrust Mount Athos 

 from the continent, to admire the pulchritude and pro- 

 cerity of one of them ; and became so fond of it, that 

 spoiling both himself, his concubines, and great persons 

 of all their jewels, he covered it with gold, gems, neck- 

 laces, scarfs, bracelets, and infinite riches. In sum, was 

 so enamoured of it, that for some days neither the con- 

 cernment of his grand expedition, nor interest of honour, 

 nor the necessary motion of his portentous army, could 

 persuade him from it : he styled it his mistress, his 

 minion, his goddess ; and when he was forced to part from 

 it, he caused the figure of it to be stamped on a medal 

 of gold, which he continually wore about him.^' 



He tells us that the Romans first brought it out of the 

 Levant, " and cultivated it with so much care and in- 

 dustry for their proud and stately heads, that the great 

 orators and statesmen, Cicero and Hortensius, would ex- 

 change now and then a turn at the bar, that they might 

 have the pleasure to step to their villas, and refresh their 

 Platans, which they would often irrigate with wine in- 

 stead of water.'' 



In another passage, he says that when this tree was 

 removed into France, a tribute was exacted of any person 

 who should presume to put his head imder it ; and that 

 he had been informed by a worthy knight, that since the 



