1724

ARBORETUM ANU FRUTICETUM.

PART III.

the cottage of Philemon, who was afterwards changed into an oak tree, tlievwere treated with the greatest kindness. Philemon was a poor old man, wholived with his wife Baucis in Phrygia, in a miserable cottage, which Jupiter, toreward his hospitality, changed into a magnificent temple, of which he madethe old couple priest and priestess, granting them the only request they madeto him; viz. to be permitted to die together. Accordingly, when both weregrown so old as to wish for death, Jove turned Baucis into a lime tree, andPhilemon into an oak; the two trees entwining their branches, and shadingfor more than a century the magnificent portal of the Phrygian temple. Thecivic crown of the Romans was formed of oak ; and it was granted for eminentcivil services rendered to the state, the greatest of which was considered to bethe saving of the life of a Roman citizen. Scipio Africanus, however, whenthis crown was offered to him for saving the life of his father at the battle ofTrebia, nobly refused it, on the ground that such an action carried with it itsown reward. Lucan alludes to this custom in his Pharsalia.

“ Straight Lelius from amidst the rest stood forth,

An old centurion of distinguish’d worth :

An oaken wreath his hardy temples bore,

Mark of a citizen preserved he wore.” Rowe's Lttcnn, book i.

Shakspeare, when making Cominius describe the merits of Coriolanus, men-tions this crown, as having been won by that hero.

——“ At sixteen years,

When Tarquin made a head from Rome, he foughtBeyond the mark of others : our then dictator,

Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight,

When with his Amazonian chin he droveThe bristled lips before him : he bestridAn o’erpress’d Roman, and i’the consul’s viewSlew three opposers : Tarquin’s self he met,

And struck him on his knee : in that day’s feats,

When he might act the woman in the scene,

He proved best man i’the field, and for his meed

Was brow-bound with the oak." Coriolanus, act. ii. scene 2.

Acorns having been the common food of man till Ceres introduced coni( Lucretius , v. 937., &c.), boughs of oak were carried in the Eleusinian Mys-teries.

“ Then crown’d with oaken chaplets march’d the priestOf Eleusinian Ceres, and with boughsOf oak were overshadow’d in the feastTile teeming basket and the mystic vase.” Ticjhe.

Virgil, in the first Georgia, says,—

“ Bacchus and fostering Ceres, powers divine!

Who gave us corn for mast, for water wine.” Drydrn’s Virgil.

And Spenser alludes to this fable in the following lines : —

“ The oak, whose acorns were our food beforeThat Ceres’ seed of mortal man was known,

Which first Triptolemene taught to be sown.”

Boughs of oak with acorns were carried in marriage ceremonies, as emblemsof fecundity. (Archceol. Attic., 167.) Sophocles, in the fragment of Rhizotomi,describes Hecate as crowned with oak leaves and serpents. Pliny relates ofthe oaks on the shores of the Cauchian Sea, that, undermined by the waves,and propelled by the winds, they bore off with them vast masses of earth on theirinterwoven roots, and occasioned the greatest terror to the Romans, whosefleets encountered these floating islands. (Hist. Nat., xvi. 1.) Of the Her-cynian Forest he says, “ These enormous oaks, unaffected by ages, and coevalwith the world, by a destiny almost immortal, exceed all wonder. Omittingother circumstances, that might not gain belief, it is well known that hills areraised up by the encounter of the jostling roots; or, where the earth may nothave followed, that arches, struggling with each other, and elevated to thevery branches, are curved, as it were, into wide gateways, able to admit thepassage of whole troops of horse.” (Ibid., xvi. 2.) This forest is described