We find the
following: 'The vainglorious man is like a showy Plane Tree, rich in
boughs but producing nothing, and affording no fruit to its owner.'" The
same reproach of sterility is cast at the Plane by Ovid's Walnut: -
"At postquam platanis, sterilem praebentibus umbram,
Uberior quavis arbore venit honos;
Nos quoque fructiferae, si nux modo ponor in illis,
Coepimus in patulas luxuriare comas." (Nux, 17-20.)
I conclude with another passage from Khanikoff, though put forward in
special illustration of what I believe to be a mistaken reading (Arbre
Seul): "Where the Chinar is of spontaneous growth, or occupies the centre
of a vast and naked plain, this tree is even in our own day invested with
a quite exceptional veneration, and the locality often comes to be called
'The Place of the Solitary Tree.'" (J. R. G. S. XXIX. 345; Ferrier,
69-76; Fraser, 343; Ritter, VIII. 332, XI. 512 seqq.; Della Valle,
I. 703; De Sacy's Abdallatif, p. 81; Khanikoff, Not. p. 38.)
[See in Fr. Zarncke, Der Priester Johannes, II., in the chap. Der Baum
des Seth, pp. 127-128, from MS. (14th century) from Cambridge, this
curious passage (p. 128): "Tandem rogaverunt eum, ut arborem siccam, de
qua multum saepe loqui audierant, liceret videre. Quibus dicebat: 'Non est
appellata arbor sicca recto nomine, sed arbor Seth, quoniam Seth, filius
Adae, primi patris nostri, eam plantavit.' Et ad arborem Seth fecit eos
ducere, prohibens eos, ne arborem transmearent, sed [si?] ad patriam suam
redire desiderarent.
