Note 1234 — Chapter XX · THE WORSHIP OF THE OAK

It is said to have been observed that lightning strikes an oak twenty times for once that it strikes a beech (J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 4th ed., iii. 64). But even if this observation were correct, we could not estimate its worth unless we knew the comparative frequency of oaks and beeches in the country where it was made. The Greeks observed that a certain species of oak, which they called haliphloios, or sea-bark, was often struck by lightning though it did not grow to a great height; but far from regarding it as thereby marked out for the service of the god they abstained from using its wood in the sacrificial rites. See Theophrastus, Histor. plant. iii. 8. 5; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xvi. 24.