OF FOREST-TREES.

were counted as Termini k , which none'might remove, without being ac- chapcounted as sacrilegious, and the person punished with death. These, andthe llerme, were reputed protectors of such boundaries;

-- >et te pater

Silvane, tutor finium! Hou. ■

In the mean time, no trees whatsoever might be planted near public!aqueducts, lest the roots should insinuate into, and displace the stones 3nor on the. very, margent of navigable rivers, lest the boats and other ves-sels, pafsing to and fro, should be hindered; therefore such impedimentswere- called re tee, quia naves retinent, fays the Glofs ; and because thefalling of the leaves corrupted the water: So nor within such a distance offhighways, (which also our own laws prohibit) that they might dry the bet-ter, and lefs cumber the traveller. Trees that obstructed the foundationof houses were bn be felled : Barthoh lib, i. doct. c. de Interdict. Ulp. irrL. priore ff. de Arb. caedend. Trees spreading their roots in neighbour--ground to be in common: See Cujas and Paulus in L. Arb. ff. de Com-muni dividend, where more of the Alienation of trees felled, and not stand-ing but with the Funds, as also of the Usu-fruit of trees, and the differ-ence betwixt Arbores Grandes, and Cremiales or Ceduce ; of all whichUlpian, Baldus, Alciat , with the law T s to govern the Conlucatores and

k The Hernia, or what the Latins call Termini, were placed for boundaries of lands.They were sometimes worshipped as Gods , but the sacrifices offered to them were uniloody33d Plutarch gives the reason, “lest they should violate the tokens of peace and agree-ment by staining them with blood.” The Termini were originally square statues of Mer-cury, and generally without legs or arms.. The Athenians placed them in the vestibles oftheir houses and temples, and it was esteemed highly criminal to remove or deface them.

_One night (says Thucydides ) the heads of all the Hermre in the city were cut off.

Strict search was made after the perpetrators of this crime, in order to bring them to pu-nishment: Alcibiades was suspected,-and obliged to fly into banishment: Other

heads, besides that of Mercury, were placed upon square pillars, and constituted Termini. .When it was a head of Minerva, called in Greek .Athena, it was named &..Hermathena. .Those which had Apollo’s head were named Jlermajiollo; and-those Ilcrmeros which had the .head of Cupid from his being named Eros . Such as had the heads of Hercules, Anubis,Osyris, or Harpocrates , were called Hermlerades, Hermatmlis, Hermosiris , and Hermharfiocrates,These names frequently occur in the Latin clafsics. Exclusive of worship, it was strictpolicy both in the Greeks and Romans to consider their Termini as sacred; aud if we look. finto the books of the Old Testament we shall find that vengeance was denounced against *such as removed them. “ Cursed is he that removeth his neighbour’s land-mark.?