in antiquity, the carrying of boughs or branches of trees; a religious ceremony so called, because certain priests called from thence dendrophori, dendrophori, tree-bearers, marched in procession, carrying the branches of trees in their hands in honour of some god, as Bacchus, Cybele, Sylvanus, &c. The college of the dendrophori is often mentioned in ancient marbles; and we frequently see in basso relievos the bacchanals represented as men carrying little shrubs or branches of trees.