SACRED AND CLASSICAL PLANTING. 
481 
Cedar of Lebanon. 
SACRED AND CLASSICAL PLANTING. 
BY JAMES GRIGOK, NORWICH. 
Tree-planting in general has been actively 
prosecuted of late years ; but there is one 
sections of arboriculture which has not, in my 
opinion, been carried to that degree of per- 
fection of which it is susceptible. I refer to 
Sacred and Classical Planting, or the congre- 
gating together of such trees as are interesting 
purely on account of the almost holy associa- 
tions which they invariably awaken. To some, 
this subject may appear to be but of trifling 
import ; to others, I am happy to say, the idea 
is fraught with an importance which the un- 
initiated have little conception of. 
To underrate any description of planting is 
by no means the object of this paper. Such 
an attempt would meet with little sympathy in 
a country which in pure love for the sylvan fea- 
tares of Nature takes precedence of all the 
nations of the world. Yet, although the 
ligneous productions of the earth, wherever 
found, are highly prized in this country, there 
are unquestionably some which, by association 
alone, are wrapped up in a more interesting 
garb than others. It is true the trees of 
America, Australia, and India, are, equally 
with those of Palestine and Greece, " taber- 
nacula quae tixit Dominus," — " the tents which 
the Lord hath spread ;" yet, who hears in any 
if them those whisperings of an antiquity 
loved and dwelt upon 'i Those countries may 
boast of their eternal forests, but still they are 
i insecrated. The American and Australian 
ligneous floras are especially devoid of any 
accompaniment derived from Fame. The arts 
and m iences have as yet no temples there 
which will be thought of in after ages, and, 
consequently, no link has been formed with 
existing objects or individuals. Poetry in 
those countries has not yet taken up those 
■17 
images presented by their magnificent sylva, 
and set them to the end of time in verse. 
Their forests, therefore, indicate only the 
changes in the vegetable world everywhere 
going on — a gradual approach to maturity — 
that maturity gigantic and long-lived — and 
then a like gradual descent to decay and death. 
Hence it is that the humble thyme plant, not 
a foot high, nourishing the apiaries of Hymet- 
tus, lives in the recollection of mankind, 
whilst the loftiest Platanus on the Ohio 
awakens no retrospective sentiment whatever. 
In these matter-of-fact days, it will be 
asked, of what use is Biblical and Classical 
Planting ? To this question it might be suf- 
ficient to refer to the numerous and earnest 
pages that have been devoted by natural his- 
torians to such plants referred to in sacred and 
classical works, as are now of dubious identi- 
fication : for example, the Mustard-tree, the 
Hyssop, and the Lily of the valley; but it may 
be stated at once that planting such trees 
forms a pure source of pleasure, inasmuch as 
it leads back the mind to some of the holiest 
and best days of the world, and serves inva- 
riably to suggest some of the finest passages 
of its history. To youth, especially, such trees 
form the best means for awakening the lights 
of antiquity : all its greatest actions, all its 
holiest and sweetest spots, live in such pro- 
ductions, and are thus easily impressed on the 
mind. In Biblical times, we find the patriarchs 
expressing themselves in earnest language 
with reference to trees as ornaments to their 
last resting-place. Thus, "Let us have the 
field, and the cave which is therein ; innl all 
tin- trees that are in the field, ami that are in 
the borders round about ; and let them he 
made sure for a possession to us.'' In classic 
I I 
