In the midst of these lamentations of the flowers the Poplar alone held himself upright, cold, and arrogant as a free-thinker. As a punishment for this pride, from that day forth, at the least breath of wind it trembles in all its limbs. Revolutionists have, therefore, made it the Tree of Liberty. The Tree of Judas Iscariot. In connection with the Crucifixion of our Lord many trees have had the ill-luck of bearing the name of the traitor Judas--the disciple who, after he had sold his Master, in sheer remorse and despair went and hanged himself on a tree. [Illustration: The Tree of Judas. From _Maundevile’s Travels_.] The Fig, the Tamarisk, the Wild Carob, the Aspen, the Elder, and the Dog Rose have each in their turn been mentioned as the tree on which the suicide was committed. As regards the Fig, popular tradition affirms that the tree, after Judas had hung himself on it, never again bore fruit; that the Fig was the identical Fig-tree cursed by our Lord; and that all the wild Fig-trees sprang from this accursed tree. According to a Sicilian tradition, however, Judas did not hang himself on a Fig but on a Tamarisk-tree called _Vruca_ (_Tamarix Africana_): this _Vruca_ is now only a shrub, although formerly it was a noble tree; at the time of Judas’ suicide it was cursed by God, and thenceforth became a shrub, ill-looking, misshapen, and useless. In England, according to Gerarde, the wild Carob is the Judas-tree (_Cercis Siliquastrum_): this _Arbor Judæ_ was in olden times known as the wild or foolish Cod. By many, however, the Elder has been supposed to be the fatal tree: thus we read in Piers Plowman’s ‘Vision’:-- “Judas he japed With Jewen silver, And sithen on an Eller Hanged hymselve.” Sir John Maundevile, from whose work the foregoing illustration has been copied, corroborates this view; for he tells us that in his day there stood in the vicinity of Mount Sion “the tree of Eldre, that Judas henge him self upon, for despeyr.” A Russian proverb runs:--“There is an accursed tree which trembles without even a breath of wind,” in allusion to the Aspen (_Populus tremula_); and in the Ukraine they say that the leaves of this tree have quivered and shaken since the day that Judas hung himself on it. The Plants of St. John. Popular tradition associates St. John the Baptist with numerous marvels of the plant world. St. John was supposed to have been born at midnight; and on the eve of his anniversary, precisely at twelve o’clock, the Fern blooms and seeds, and this wondrous seed, gathered at that moment, renders the possessor invisible: thus, in Shakspeare’s Henry IV., Gadshill says: “We have the receipt of Fern-seed, we walk invisible.” The Fairies, commanded by their queen, and the demons, commanded by Satan, engage in fierce combats at this mysterious time, for the possession of the invisible seed.