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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
29
Mr.
Fergusson
in
his
elaborate
researches
has
traced
many
indications
of
tree-adoration
in
Germany,
noticing
their
continuance
in
the
Christian
period,
as
proved
by
Grimm,
whose
opinion
is
that,
"the
festal
universal
religion
of
the
people
had
its
abode
in
woods,"
while
the
Christmas
tree
of
present
German
celebration
in
all
families
is
"almost
undoubtedly
a
remnant
of
the
tree-worship
of
their
ancestors."
According
to
Mr.
Fergusson,
one
of
the
last
and
best-known
examples
of
the
veneration
of
groves
and
trees
by
the
Germans
after
their
conversion
to
Christianity,
is
that
of
the
"Stock
am
Eisen"
in
Vienna,
"The
sacred
tree
into
which
every
apprentice,
down
to
recent
times,
before
setting
out
on
his
"Wanderjahre",
drove
a
nail
for
luck.
It
now
stands
in
the
centre
of
that
great
capital,
the
last
remaining
vestige
of
the
sacred
grove,
round
which
the
city
has
grown
up,
and
in
sight
of
the
proud
cathedral,
which
has
superseded
and
replaced
its
more
venerable
shade."
Equally
undoubted
is
the
evidence
of
tree-worship
in
Greece--particular
trees
having
been
sacred
to
many
of
the
gods.
Thus
we
have
the
oak
tree
or
beech
of
Jupiter,
the
laurel
of
Apollo,
the
vine
of
Bacchus.
The
olive
is
the
well-known
tree
of
Minerva.
The
myrtle
was
sacred
to
Aphrodite,
and
the
apple
of
the
Hesperides
belonged
to
Juno.[12]
As
a
writer
too
in
the
Edinburgh
Review[13]
remarks,
"The
oak
grove
at
Dodona
is
sufficiently
evident
to
all
classic
readers
to
need
no
detailed
mention
of
its
oracles,
or
its
highly
sacred
character.
The
sacrifice
of
Agamemnon
in
Aulis,
as
told
in
the
opening
of
the
'Iliad,'
connects
the
tree
and
serpent
worship
together,
and
the
wood
of
the
sacred
plane
tree
under
which
the
sacrifice
was
made
was
preserved
in
the
temple
of
Diana
as
a
holy
relic
so
late,
according
to
Pausanias,
as
the
second
century
of
the
Christian
era."
The
same
writer
further
adds
that
in
Italy
traces
of
tree-worship,
if
not
so
distinct
and
prominent
as
in
Greece,
are
nevertheless
existent.
Romulus,
for
instance,
is
described
as
hanging
the
arms
and
weapons
of
Acron,
King
of
Cenina,
upon
an
oak
tree
held
sacred
by
the
people,
which
became
the
site
of
the
famous
temple
of
Jupiter.
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