vocalisation) is a tree of Arabia Felix, very different from the Chinar, for it is the well-known Indian Banyan, or a closely-allied species, as may be seen in Forskal’s description.  The latter indeed says that the Arab botanists called it Delb, and that (or Dulb) is really a synonym for the Chinar.  But De Sacy has already commented upon this supposed application of the name Delb to the Tholak as erroneous. (See Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica, pp. cxxiv. and 179; Abdallatif, Rel. de l’Egypte, p. 80; J.  R. G. S. VIII. 275; Ritter, VI. 662, 679.)

The fact is that the Solque of M. Pauthier’s text is a mere copyist’s error in the reduplication of the pronoun que.  In his chief MS. which he cites as A (No. 10,260 of Bibl.  Nationale, now Fr. 5631) we can even see how this might easily happen, for one line ends with Solque and the next begins with que.  The true reading is, I doubt not, that which this MS. points to, and which the G. Text gives us in the second passage quoted above, viz. Arbre SOL, occurring in Ramusio as Albero del SOLE.  To make this easier of acceptation I must premise two remarks:  first, that Sol is “the Sun” in both Venetian and Provencal; and, secondly, that in the French of that age the prepositional sign is not necessary to the genitive.  Thus, in Pauthier’s own text we find in one of the passages quoted above, “Le Livre Alexandre, i.e.  Liber Alexandri;” elsewhere, “Cazan le fils Argon,” “a la mere sa femme,” “Le corps Monseigneur Saint Thomas si est en ceste Province;” in Joinville, “le commandemant Mahommet” “ceux de la Haulequa estoient logiez entour les heberges le soudanc, et establiz pour le cors le soudanc garder;” in Baudouin de Sebourc, “De l’amour Bauduin esprise et enflambee.”

Moreover it is the TREE OF THE SUN that is prominent in the legendary History of Alexander, a fact sufficient in itself to rule the reading.  A character in an old English play says:—­

    “Peregrine.  Drake was a didapper to Mandevill: 
  Candish and Hawkins, Frobisher, all our Voyagers
  Went short of Mandevil.  But had he reached
  To this place—­here—­yes, here—­this wilderness,
  And seen the Trees of the Sun and Moon, that speak
  And told King Alexander of his death;
  He then
  Had left a passage ope to Travellers
  That now is kept and guarded by Wild Beasts.”
      (Broome’s Antipodes, in Lamb’s Specimens.)

The same trees are alluded to in an ancient Low German poem in honour of St. Anno of Cologne.  Speaking of the Four Beasts of Daniel’s Vision:—­

  “The third beast was a Libbard;
  Four Eagle’s Wings he had;
  This signified the Grecian Alexander,
  Who with four Hosts went forth to conquer lands
  Even to the World’s End,
  Known by its Golden Pillars. 
  In India he the Wilderness broke through
  With Trees twain he there did speak,” etc. 
      (In Schilteri Thesaurus Antiq.  Teuton. tom. i.[1])