22 LANGUAGE AND 
Pleasant a sight to our eyes as is this tree in 
blossom, in Oriental climes it is seen in far 
greater perfection. It grows to between twenty 
and thirty feet high, and the blooms spread from 
one end of the young branches to the other, as 
thickly as they can grow, and before a leaf is to 
be seen. 
The ancient fabulists, who had some beautiful 
legend to account for all the phenomena of na¬ 
ture, ascribed the origin of the ahnond-tree to 
Phillis, a young and beautiful Thracian queen,- 
who became enamored of and wedded Demo- 
phoon, the son of Theseus and Phaedra, and 
who, on his return from the siege of Troy, had 
been cast by a storm upon the shores of Thrace. 
Recalled to Athens by his father’s death, the 
royal consort promised to return in a month, 
but failing to do so, the afflicted bride gradually 
lost all hopes of seeing him again, and, after 
several unfruitful visits to the sea-shore, died 
of grief and was transformed into an almond- 
tree. After three months’ absence the truant 
husband returned, and, overwhelmed with sor¬ 
row, offered a sacrifice by the sea-shore to ap¬ 
pease the manes of his luckless bride. Loving 
even in death, she appeared to respond to his 
repentance ; for the almond-tree, into which she 
was metamorphosed, immediately put forth flow¬ 
ers, as if to prove by one last effort the un- 
ehangeableness of her affection. 
