“Thus, to signify a woman who, after a life of wandering, abandons this life to settle down in a certain place, they will imagine that she has turned into a plant. This was the manner of thinking from which metaphors such as ‘to plant oneself’ for ‘to settle down’, ‘the plants of houses’ for their foundations’, and, above all, that of ‘family trees’, with which their stocks or trunks, certainly arose.”
~ Vico, The First New Science, Section 272, Principle II: Concerning metamorphoses
Ariana's Florilegia 