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71. THE BUILDER OAKE. In the Middle Ages most manor houses and churches
were built of oak.

72. THE CYPRESSE FUNERALL, an emblem of death among the ancients, and
sacred to Pluto. Sidney says that they were wont to dress graves with
cypress branches in old times.

73. THE LAURELL. Victors at the Pythian games and triumphing Roman generals
were crowned with laurel. It was also sacred to Apollo, the god of poetry,
hence "meed of poets sage. "

74. THE FIRRE THAT WEEPETH STILL. The fir exudes resinous substance.

75. THE WILLOW.
"Willows: a sad tree, whereof such who have lost their love
make their mourning garlands. "--Fuller's _Worthies_, i, 153. Cf. Heywood's
_Song of the Green Willow_, and Desdemona's song in _Othello_, IV, iii, 39.

76. THE EUGH. Ascham in his _Toxophilus_ tells us that the best bows were
made of yew.

78. THE MIRRHE, the Arabian myrtle, which exudes a bitter but fragrant gum.
The allusion is to the wounding of Myrrha by her father and her
metamorphosis into this tree.

79. THE WARLIKE BEECH, because lances and other arms were made of it. THE
ASH FOR NOTHING ILL. "The uses of the ash is one of the most universal: it
serves the souldier, the carpenter, the wheelwright, cartwright, cooper,
turner, and thatcher. "--Evelyn's _Sylva_. The great tree Igdrasil in the
northern mythology was an ash.