In the time of Plutarch, an aged tree still bore the title of "Alexander's Oak," and marked a spot rendered memorable by one of that hero's exploits. It stood near the river Cephisus, and not far from the burial-place of many valiant Macedonians. How old this tree may have been during Alexander's youth, does not appear; but it grew near Cheronæa where he signalised himself in battle 337 years before Christ; and Plutarch died 119 years after Christ. It may, however, have existed to a much later period. In Africa, the modern Muselmans and Pagans seem equally inclined to distinguish particular trees as sacred objects. Every tribe of the Galla nation, in Abysinnia, worship avowedly as a god, the Wanzey tree. Mr. Salt confirms this statement of Bruce, using similar language. Mungo Park mentions the Neema Tuba, a large tree decorated with innumerable rags or scraps of cloth--"a tree which nobody presumed to pass without hanging up something." Barbot informs us that the inhabitants of Southern Guinea make offerings and pray to trees, more especially in time of sickness; from an expectation of thereby recovering their health. Colonel Keatinge, in his "Travels in Europe and Africa," speaks of a resemblance or identity between the _Argali_ (wild olive) and the _Arayel_ or the sacred tree of the Hindus; and he noticed the offerings strung upon those _Argali_, "rags, potsherds, and the like trash." Why such things were offered, or the origin of such a custom, no person attempts to explain, but he observes, "a traveller will see precisely the like in the west of Ireland, and will receive an equally satisfactory account upon the subject." A multiplicity of extracts might be quoted to prove how long this superstition lingered among various nations of Europe, besides the Irish. We need scarcely premise that it was widely diffused in pagan times throughout those nations. We have already seen it among the Greeks and Romans. It flourished among the ancient Germans, as Tacitus and Agathias inform us; among the Scandinavians also, and different tribes of the north, according to their _Edda_ and other works. The Druids of the Celts, Gauls and Britons of course afford familiar examples. But after the introduction of Christianity we find the worship of trees condemned, as a practice still existing, by the councils of Auxerre, of Nantes, and of Tours. It was also strongly forbidden by the laws of Canute, as may be seen in Wilkins's "Leg. Ang. Sax."