Nicholai raised his hand, "That is the Ash Tree, sir; it was believed to 'court the flash' so to speak."

Cale raised his hand. "I believe it is the Ash Tree, professor," he answered with a smile.

Upon listening to the next question, Evangeline looked down at the textbook and flipped a few pages, to confirm her thoughts. "That'd be the Ash tree, Sir." She said, raising her hand.

Lima raised her hand and replied, "that would be the Ash tree, Professor"

"Its the Ash tree, Professor." Astrid replied with her hand raised high.

Anna raised her hand. "The answer is Ash tree, sir," she said.

Camira raised her hand. "The Ash Tree, Sir", she said simply.

"Excellent. One point all of you."

"Now, on about our friend the Ash,...Who can explain, in your own words, the dualitous nature of the Ash tree individual?"

Anna raised her hand once again. "Ash people have duality in all their natures. For example, on one hand, they tend to very artistic and vulnerable, yet at the same time, on the other hand, they can find themselves being very pragmatic. They are compassionate and senstive, and they can understand the baser parts of man, as well as the spiritual parts. They are known to also have a great deal of compassion for animals, as well," she said. "Through nursing and the power of prayer, they have a unique ability to relieve the suffering of others. As far as religion goes, their faith is rarely orthodox, however, they have a strong, deep sense of spiritual matters. They tend to be able to adapt to most situations and can recover from a variety of emotional blows."

Anna thought some more and then continued. "Ash people can also frequently have trouble when dealing with the practicalities of everyday life. They tend to be easily influenced by others and can let this effect their life by lacking self-confidence and being isolated," she finished.

Nicholai raised his hand, "Ash individuals are artistic, intuitive and somewhat vulnerable but also fairly pragmatic. They may look like they are frail but emotionally have the ability to recover from almost anything. They are easily influenced by others and despite their intutive and compassionate nature; can be low on self-confidence and risk becoming isolated. Their hypersensitive nature can undermine their self-confidence and ambitions. They aren't the best equipped type to deal with the practical nature of every day life; and are often half in a fantasy world."

Astrid raised her hand to reply. "Ash people are often low on self confidence and have a tendency towards isolating themselves from others. They have a creative genius for making money but often fail to carry things to completion. They require careful direction as children in order to learn to use these talents to their fullest. Ash people tend to have a rather mystical quality about them and are drawn to fantasy worlds. They love the theater and movies. They are usually attracted to the ocean or any other body of water either with great fascination or great fear. There is no in-between when it comes to their feelings about water. Their career choice should never involve too strict a routine. The arts are a good choice but because of their compassionate nature they are often attracted to the medical field. They are also good at organizing charity functions. They are very gentle people and are easily hurt, yet they are well able to cope with the negative as well as the positive. They are kind and considerate friends although they are sometimes lost in a fog. Ash people are great lovers and caring parents. They are romantics and dreamers."

Ash tree individual, eh? Clifford looked through his textbook once more before raising his hand. "Well, apparently ash-tree-born people are true discoverers. They like to have a permanent state of progression, and doscover the world via their intellect." Heh.. that sounded weird. Ah well. "The weakness of the ash tree shows openly, once you try to suppress their will for liberty." He quoted unsurely, wondering what on Earth that meant.

"Very nice. Five points to you."

"Or 'The Land of the Sidhe' as the Celts like to refer to it. Five points."

"Excellent! And, thank you for pointing out their relationships with water. 5 points."


Professor Kapoor listened as Clifford explained about the Ashes in his own words. "Through their minds, yes, but not quite through their intellect, as they are more 'dreamer' types. Four points."

"Many times, the Celtic Zodiac's symbolic trees will have certain attritbutes which are echoed in nature. Ivy, for example is said to be a very co-dependent personality, with a strong need to be surrounded by friends and people, much the way natural Ivy requires a trellis of some kind in order to grow upwards...to ascend! This sort of similar relationship occurs in another Zodiac tree, which sprouts catkins in order to attract bees and start their pollination as it is symbolic of 'the cycle'?"

Nicholai thought about the question and raised his hand, "While there are a few Celtic trees that sprout Catkins- including Birch and Alder; the one that sprouts them for the purpose of attracting bees to start the cycle of pollination is the Willow, which is the tree associated with the moon, female and earthly cycles."

Anna raised her hand to answer the next question, hoping she could gain herself a few extra points. "The Willow tree sprouts catkins for the purpose of attracting bees to start the cycle of pollination, sir," she said.

Allie raised her hand.
"I think sits the willow tree, Porfessor." she said.

Astrid raised her hand and said, "The Willow is an imposing tree, with a thick trunk covered by dark gray, heavily ridged bark. Her catkins, which appear in early spring before her leaves, attract bees to start the cycle of pollination."

"Good. 2 points."

"Correct. 2 points."

"It is. 2 points."

"Good. 2 points."


"In the Greek language, what does 'korys' mean and what tree is that associated with?".

Anna raised her hand to reply once again. "Korys means 'helmet,' and it is associated with the Hazel tree," she said.

"Sir, Korys means 'helmet,' and it is associated with the Hazel tree," Astrid answered, her hand high in the air.

Nicholai frowned, half-hinking about things that he shouldn't be thinking about during class, misheard the question and raised his hand, "Greek for boy... or youth... associated with Persephone and so the Ivy Tree." he blinked and paused, "Wait, Korys or Kouros? If its Korys then its associated with Hazel which has a latin name of Corylus avellana and comes from the Greek word korys meaning helmet." Nicholai blinked again. Good thing Kayla wasn't nearby or he'd have completely lost the plot.

"The latter is correct. I'm sorry. My Greek isn't very good. 'Korys'. Very good, Mr. Toussaint."

"Two points to you all. Speaking of etymology, which tree's name is derrived from the root of the word 'robust'."

Astrid raised her hand and said, "The Oak. Its name derived from the Latin robur which is the root of the English word "robust."

Jillian raised her hand. "I think it's the Common Oak that got it's name from 'robust', professor" she answered.

Nico raised his hand, "Oak, Sir. Robust derives from the Latin name for Oak which is Quercus robur; and that reflects the stoic nature of an Oak individual who is generally courageous, strong, unrelenting, independent, sensible and able to keep their feet planted firmly on the ground, so to speak."