sacred plane tree under which the sacrifice was made was preserved in
the temple of Diana as a holy relic so late, according to Pausanias, as
the second century of the Christian era." The same writer further adds
that in Italy traces of tree-worship, if not so distinct and prominent
as in Greece, are nevertheless existent. Romulus, for instance, is
described as hanging the arms and weapons of Acron, King of Cenina, upon
an oak tree held sacred by the people, which became the site of the
famous temple of Jupiter.

Then, again, turning to Bible history,[14] the denunciations of
tree-worship are very frequent and minute, not only in connection with
the worship of Baal, but as mentioned in 2 Kings ix.: "And they (the
children of Israel) set themselves up images and groves in every high
hill, and under every green tree." These acts, it has been remarked,
"may be attributable more to heretical idolatrous practices into which
the Jews had temporarily fallen in imitation of the heathen around them,
but at the same time they furnish ample proof of the existence of tree
and grove worship by the heathen nations of Syria as one of their most
solemn rites." But, from the period of King Hezekiah down to the
Christian era, Mr. Fergusson finds no traces of tree-worship in Judea.
In Assyria tree-worship was a common form of idolatrous veneration, as
proved by Lord Aberdeen's black-stone, and many of the plates in the
works of Layard and Botta.[15] Turning to India, tree-worship probably
has always belonged to Aryan Hinduism, and as tree-worship did not
belong to the aboriginal races of India, and was not adopted from them,
"it must have formed part of the pantheistic worship of the Vedic system
which endowed all created things with a spirit and life--a doctrine
which modern Hinduism largely extended[16]."

Thus when food is cooked, an oblation is made by the Hindu to trees,