Show tribute to trees the treba formed the first temples of the gods and even at the present day the country people preserving in all their simplicity their ancient rites consecrate the finest ot their trees to some divinity indeed we feel our selves inspired to adoration not less by the sacred groves and their tory stillness than by the statues of the gods resplendent as they are with gold and ivory each kind of tree remains consecrated to some divinity the beech to jupiter the laurel to apollo the olive to minerva the myrtle to venus and the poplar to hercules in more recent times it was the trees that by their juices more soothing even than corn first mollified the natural asperity of man pliny |