(7) Behold and consider a Tree; on the Outside it has a hard gross Rind or Bark, which is dead, benumbed, and without Vegetation, yet it is not quite dead, but in a Faintness or Imbecility, and there is a great Difference between it and the Body, which grows next under the Rind or Bark. But the Body has its living Power, and breaks forth through the withered Rind, and generates many fair young Bodies or Twigs, all which stand in the old Body.

(1) NOW learn a parable of the fig tree: Behold the fig tree when her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves; and behold the trees when they now shoot forth: ye see and know of your own selves that summer is nigh at hand.

(15) it was with me as with a young Tree, which is planted in the Ground, and at first is young and tender, and flourishing to the Eye, especially if it comes on lustily in its growing : But it does not bear Fruit presently; and though it blossoms, they fall off; also many a cold Wind, Frost and Snow, puff upon it, before it comes to any Growth and bearing of Fruit.

(41) view this World diligently, and consider what Manner of Fruit, Sprouts, and Branches, grow out of the Salitter of the Earth, from Trees, Plants, Herbs, Roots, Flowers, Oils, Wine, Corn, and whatever else there is that your Heart can find out; all is a Type of the heavenly Pomp.

(6) I will mention them also a second time: all whose fruit is not welcome as food of men, and are perennial (sâlvâr), as the cypress, the plane, the white poplar, the box, and others of this genus, they call trees and shrubs (dâr va dirakht).

(25) It is concerning plants that every single kind with a drop of water on a twig (teh) they should hold four finger-breadths in front of the fire; Most of all it is the lotos (kûnâr) they speak of.

(13) And he saw. and behold, the land was very wide and good, and everything grew thereon — vines and figs and pomegranates, oaks and ilexes, and terebinths and oil trees, and cedars and cypresses and date trees, and all trees of the field, and there was water on the mountains.

(27) Of trees the myrtle and date, on which model, it is said, trees were formed, are worth all the trees of Khvanîras, except the Gôkard tree with which they restore the dead.

(4) The branches either stand as the symbol of the first food, or they are that the multitude may know that fruits spring and grow universally, remaining a very long time; but that the duration of life allotted to themselves is brief. And it is on this account that they will have it that the branches are given; and perhaps also that they may know, that as these, on the other hand, are burned, so also they themselves speedily leave this life, and will become fuel for fire.

(55) Then you taste the bitter Quality, which makes the Tree moveable or stirring, so that it springs and grows green and flourishes, and so gets its Branches, Leaves, and Fruit.

(21) And as regards the wood of the sacrifices, beware lest thou bring (other) wood for the altar in addition to these :* cypress, d&fran, sagad, pine, fir, cedar, savin, palm, olive, myrrh, laurels and 'citron, juniper, and balsam.

(54) Wilt thou not believe this? Then open thy Eyes, and go to a Tree, look upon it, and bethink thyself; there you see first the cubic Tree, take a Knife and cur- God in it, and taste how it is; then you first taste the astringent, harsh, choaky Quality, which draws your Tongue together, and that also draws and holds together all the Powers of the Tree.

(4) The budding wood bears some; in time of spring, They come. So springs one race of men, and one departs."

(2) I think he thought that I perhaps might think So many voices issued through those trunks From people who concealed themselves from us; Therefore the Master said: "If thou break off Some little spray from any of these trees, The thoughts thou hast will wholly be made vain." Then stretched I forth my hand a little forward, And plucked a branchlet off from a great thorn; And the trunk cried, "Why dost thou mangle me?" After it had become embrowned with blood, It recommenced its cry: "Why dost thou rend me? Hast thou no spirit of pity whatsoever? Men once we were, and now are changed to trees; Indeed, thy hand should be more pitiful, Even if the souls of serpents we had been." As out of a green brand, that is on fire At one of the ends, and from the other drips And hisses with the wind that is escaping; So from that splinter issued forth together Both words and blood; whereat I let the tip Fall, and stood like a man who is afraid. "Had he been able sooner to believe," My Sage made answer, "O thou wounded soul, What only in my verses he has seen,

(21) Trees are repeatedly mentioned in the Old and New Testaments, and in the scriptures of various pagan nations. The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil mentioned in Genesis, the burning bush in which the angel appeared to Moses, the famous vine and fig tree of the New Testament, the grove of olives in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went to pray, and the miraculous tree of Revelation, which bore twelve manners of fruit and whose leaves were for the healing of the nations, all bear witness to the esteem in which trees were held by the scribes of Holy Writ. Buddha received his illumination while under the bodhi tree, near Madras in India, and several of the Eastern gods are pictured sitting in meditation beneath the spreading branches of mighty trees. Many of the great sages and saviors carried wands, rods, or staves cut from the wood of sacred trees, as the rods of Moses and Aaron; Gungnir--the spear of Odin--cut from the Tree of Life; and the consecrated rod of Hermes, around which the fighting serpents entwined themselves.

(57) Now these three Qualities would be dark and deep, if the Heat was not therein: But as soon as the Spring Time comes, that the Sun with its Beams supplies and warms the Earth, the Spirit becomes living by the Heat in the Tree, and the Spirits of the Tree begin to grow green, flourish, and blossom. [Spring Time]

(2) And in forty years, with the shape of a one stemmed Rîvâs-plant, and the fifteen years of its fifteen leaves, Matrô and Matrôyâô grew up from the earth in such a manner that their arms rested behind on their shoulders (dôsh), and one joined to the other they were connected together and both alike.

(13) When our artisan awaked and told his dream, his apprentice said, "If the tree aimed at uselessness, how was it that it became a sacred tree?" "What you don't understand," replied his master, "don't talk about. That was merely to escape from the attacks of its enemies. Had it not become sacred, how many would have wanted to cut it down! The means of safety adopted were different from ordinary means, and to test these by ordinary canons leaves one far wide of the mark." Tzŭ Ch'i of Nan-poh was travelling on the Shang mountain when he saw a large tree which astonished him very much. A thousand chariot teams could have found shelter under its shade. "What tree is this?" cried Tzŭ Ch'i. "Surely it must have unusually fine timber." Then looking up, he saw that its branches were too crooked for rafters; while as to the trunk he saw that its irregular grain made it valueless for coffins. He tasted a leaf, but it took the skin off his lips; and its odour was so strong that it would make a man as it were drunk for three days together. "Ah!" said Tzŭ Ch'i. "This tree is good for nothing, and that is how it has attained this size. A wise man might well follow its example." In the State of Sung there is a place called Ching-shih, where thrive the beech, the cedar, and the mulberry. Such as are of a one-handed span or so in girth are cut down for monkey-cages. Those of two or three two-handed spans are cut down for the beams of fine houses. Those of seven or eight such spans are cut down for the solid sides of rich men's coffins.

(6) E. Y. Kenealy, quoting from the Cosmodromium of Doctor Gobelin Persona, describes the incident of Alexander and the talking trees, into the presence of which the King of Macedon is said to have been brought while on his campaign in India: "And now Alexander marched into other quarters equally dangerous; at one time over the tops of mountains, at another through dark valleys, in which his army was attacked by serpents and wild beasts, until after three hundred days he came into a most pleasant mountain, on whose sides hung chains or ropes of gold. This mountain had two thousand and fifty steps all of purest sapphire, by which one could ascend to the summit, and near this Alexander encamped. And on a day, Alexander with his Twelve Princes, ascended by the aforenamed steps to the top of the Mountain, and found there a Palace marvellously beautiful, having Twelve Gates, and seventy windows of the purest gold, and it was called the Palace of the Sun, and there was in it a Temple all of gold, before whose gates were vine trees bearing bunches of carbuncles and pearls, and Alexander and his Princes having entered the Palace, found there a Man lying on a golden bedstead; he was very stately and beautiful in appearance, and his head and beard were white as snow. Then Alexander and his princes bent the knee to the Sage who spake thus: 'Alexander, thou shalt now see what no earthly man hath ever before seen or heard.' To whom Alexander made answer: 'O, Sage, most happy, how dost thou know me?' He replied: 'Before the wave of the Deluge covered the face of the earth I knew thy works.' He added: 'Wouldst thou behold the most hallowed Trees of the Sun and Moon, which announce all future things?' Alexander made answer: 'It is well, my lord; greatly do we long to see them.' * * *

(16) So also it went with this Spirit: The first Fire was but a Seed, and not a constant lasting Light: Since that Time many a cold Wind blew upon it; but the Will never extinguished. This Tree was also often tempted to try whether it would bear Fruit, and show itself with Blossoms; but the Blossoms were struck off till this very Time, wherein it stands in its first Fruit, in the Growth or Vegetation.