Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Sycamore Truth


Long ago recognized by the characters of its flowers and fruit, not to mention the arrangement and veining of its leaves, as a Maple, and correctly named accordingly the Great Maple, the remarkable denseness of its foliage, and the grateful shade which it in consequence affords, caused it to be confused in Western Europe, at an early period, with the true Sycamore, or Fig Mulberry (Ficus Sycamorus) of scripture, a confusion which it is stated is still retained in the language of flowers, according to which mystic code of symbolism this tree signifies "curiosity," because it is identified with that on which Zaccheus climbed that he might see Christ at His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This confusion is said to have led to a considerable planting of this species by religious persons in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Similarly in Scotland it is still commonly known as the Plane, a confusion commemorated by Linnaeus in the specific name pseudo-platanus, and in the French "fausse Platane."



It is a tree of rapid growth, reaching a good height in a short time. Trees ten years old are recorded as reaching twenty-five or twenty-eight feet in height, whilst the species reaches its full growth of from fifty to sixty feet at an age of as many years. Click here to learn more. Be sure to watch the Sycamore Truth video and leave Ed and Elaine Brown alone.

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