“We’ve quaffed the soma bright
   And are immortal grown,
  We’ve entered into light
   And all the gods have known. 
  What mortal can now harm,
   Or foeman vex us more? 
  Through thee beyond alarm,
   Immortal God! we soar.”

Then there is the peepul or bo-tree (Ficus religiosa), which is held in high veneration by the followers of Buddha, in the vicinity of whose temples it is generally planted.  One of these trees in Ceylon is said to be of very great antiquity, and according to Sir J. E. Tennant, “to it kings have even dedicated their dominions in testimony of their belief that it is a branch of the identical fig-tree under which Gotama Buddha reclined when he underwent his apotheosis.”

The peepul-tree is highly venerated in Java, and by the Buddhists of Thibet is known as the bridge of safety, over which mortals pass from the shores of this world to those of the unseen one beyond.  Occasionally confounded with this peepul is the banyan (Ficus indica), which is another sacred tree of the Indians.  Under its shade Vishnu is said to have been born; and by the Chinese, Buddha is represented as sitting beneath its leaves to receive the homage of the god Brahma.  Another sacred tree is the deodar (Cedrus deodara), a species of cedar, being the Devadara, or tree-god of the Shastras, which in so many of the ancient Hindu hymns is depicted as the symbol of power and majesty. [3] The aroka, or Saraca indica, is said to preserve chastity, and is dedicated to Kama, the Indian god of love, while with the negroes of Senegambia the baobab-tree is an object of worship.  In Borneo the nipa-palm is held in veneration, and the Mexican Indians have their moriche-palm (Mauritia flexuosa).  The Tamarindus Indica is in Ceylon dedicated to Siva, the god of destruction; and in Thibet, the jambu or rose-apple is believed to be the representative of the divine amarita-tree which bears ambrosia.

The pomegranate, with its mystic origin and early sacred associations, was long reverenced by the Persians and Jews, an old tradition having identified it as the forbidden fruit given by Eve to Adam.  Again, as a sacred plant the basil has from time immemorial been held in high repute by the Hindus, having been sacred to Vishnu.  Indeed it is worshipped as a deity itself, and is invoked as the goddess Tulasi for the protection of the human frame.  It is further said that “the heart of Vishnu, the husband of the Tulasi, is agitated and tormented whenever the least sprig is broken of a plant of Tulasi, his wife.”

Among further flowers holding a sacred character may be mentioned the henna, the Egyptian privet (Lawsonia alba), the flower of paradise, which was pronounced by Mahomet as “chief of the flowers of this world and the next,” the wormwood having been dedicated to the goddess Iris.  By the aborigines of the Canary Islands, the dragon-tree (Dracoena draco) of Orotava was an object of sacred reverence; [4] and in Burmah at the present day the eugenia is held sacred. [5]