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