Ancient writings supply an abundance of anecdotes relating to wonderful trees which have flourished at various periods of the world's history, but many of these are so thickly encumbered with matter purely legendary that it is often difficult to distinguish the genuine from the apochryphal. Among others there is in a Greek manuscript preserved in the library of Augsburgh, and quoted by Jacobus Gretser, in his work "De Sancta Cruce," an account of an extraordinary triple tree, planted by the patriarch Abraham, and existing until the death of Christ--a period of about nineteen hundred years. Greek writers tell of a wild olive which had taken root and grown from the club of Hercules, and Pausanias describes it as existing in the second century. The same writer speaks of a number of other celebrated trees remaining in his own time, including the large and beautiful plane called _Menelais_, which was planted at Caphya by Menelaus, when engaged in military preparations for the siege of Troy, or by his brother Agamemnon, described as the "king of men," according to Pliny. An instance of tree veneration somewhat similar to that recorded by Xerxes, already cited, may here be mentioned. According to the historian we are quoting, the consul Parsienus Crispus so loved a certain tree that he was accustomed to kiss and embrace it, to lay himself down under it and to besprinkle it with wine. "The kisses and embraces," says Ousley, "might have authorized Ælian to give the Roman consul a place in his chapter on strange and ridiculous loves. But to recline under the shade of a beautiful tree seems perfectly natural; and, perhaps, we may discover in the libation or affusion with wine, something of a religious ceremony, for it appears that the tree stood in an ancient grove consecrated to Diana, and we know that wine was sprinkled on trees in the early ages, as still in some parts of France." Near Cairo, at a fountain wherein the Virgin Mary washed her infant's clothes, a lamp was, three centuries ago, kept burning to her honour in the hollow of an old fig tree, which had served them as a place of shelter, according to the "Itinerario de Antonio Tenreio;" and Maundrell, who travelled in 1697, saw between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the famous turpentine tree, in the shade of which the blessed Virgin is said to have reposed when she was carrying Christ in her arms. In the time of Hamdallah Cazvini (fourteenth century), a dry or withered tree distinguished the grave of a holy man at _Bastam_; this tree had once been (they say) Mohammed's staff, and was transmitted through many generations, until finally deposited in the grave of Abu Abdallah Dasitani, where it took root and put forth branches, like the club of Hercules. Those who injured this sacred tree perished on the same day.