“ maa oy SaaS y » eye " Sa YaNL faanys | s ~a, eee nee -~ ~ ~ oe - bveene em oh POE Se RN RN Str ete he arate 4! , eh cialis " 4 pe Bere: Hoe Ss, yb sie het e ¢ i re : oe Zi As} ‘- +1, 4 OE / Ree KSOLRG sheisest ely 3 aerate porscsestynses wee at i? 9s ‘ + anal wae nee sn omtesa sol) is rite ne Ss ae rs Boag noon atom SSE A « See EE yr etgtes > me is mea eee tie ae SP Ot og oP Ang ee ene ried geben | a 44 — -— eee eae - » —_—-. < 7 > * . — = —" oo! ded ye TA eT 7 i Sblv Ja n” < de hant.parle p Feber : ~ Vv “OU es coe V0 xe Pas Et de "pe ! rofl | By rome wi hig Vv cnfor 3B tC; PZ; a Parti i —. o1S a Q AES} 7) Garden eS 4 : s ‘ AS a Pym an yt} me ay © Pp i i ate aa ate Jinstan, mm. 7 K ofa a Tike cea \ ot tu PSS bot Ee iy 4 —PLANT » KORE TSEGENDS, 4 [sYRICS. Mythy, Graditions, Superstifions, aro oofk-loore of the ®)fant Ringdom. RICBARD FOLKARD, JUD. LIBRAR) YTANICAL GARDEN bORHGOR: Sampson aow, Mardfon, Searfe, ajo Rivington, Grown Buitdings, 188, Sfeef Street. 1884. [All Rights Reserved] PRINTED BY R. FOLKARD AND SON, 22, DEVONSHIRE STREET, QUEEN SQUARE, BLOOMSBURY, LONDON, W.C. —_ =e SE oe u PREFACE. ——__ +> + —__— AVING, some few years ago, been associated in the conduct of a journal devoted to horticulture, I amassed for literary purposes much of the material made use of in the present volume. Upon the discontinuance of the journal, I re- solved to classify and arrange the plant lore thus accumulated, with a view to its subsequent publication, and I have since been enabled to enrich the colle¢tion with much Con- tinental and Indian lore (which I believe is quite unknown to the great majority of English readers) from the vast store to be found in Signor De Gubernatis’ volumes on plant tradition, a French edition of which appeared two years ago, under the title of La Mythologie des Plantes. To render the present work comprehensive and at the same time easy of reference, I have divided the volume into two sections, the first of which is, in point of fact, a digest of the second; and I have endeavoured to enhance its interest by introducing some few reproductions of curious illustrations per- taining to the subjects treated of. Whilst preferring no claim for anything beyond the exercise of considerable industry, I would state that great care and attention has been paid to the revision of the work, and that as I am both author and printer of my book, I am debarred in that dual capacity from even palliating my mistakes by describing them as “errors of the press.” In tendering my acknowledgments to Prof. De Gubernatis and other authors I have consulted on the various branches of my subject, I would draw attention to the annexed list of the principal works to which reference is made in these pages. RICHARD FOLKARD, Jun. 554. _ 7 if. _— . . eo . . rf vie ™ 4 ‘ : ' - 7 we ee ¥ recy (re “a : pal f if it 5 * @ ok ‘ ! & £ . y * w on TY - , ' if i ‘ 7 ‘ y j yal } ‘ L 7 ‘ é ‘ ‘ ; 4 Ld - Ti <7 ‘ y x a if + - 4, \ © 4 a Ly “ - ry q ’ ° u ‘ : , ed yee. .? : : > om . Principal OWorks Referred. Co. Adams, H.C. * Flowers; their Moral, Language, and Poetry.” Albertus Magnus. De Mirabilibus Mundi. Aldrovandus. Ornithologia. Bacon, Lord. ‘Sylva Sylvarum, and ‘ Essay on Gardens.” Bauhin, C. De plantis a divis sanctisve nomen habentibus (1591). Brand, f. ‘ Popular Antiquities.’ Bright, H. A. © A Year ina Lancashire Garden.’ Campbell, 7. F. ‘Tales of the Western Highlands.’ ‘Choice Notes from Notes and Queries.’ Coles, W. « Adam in Eden’ (£657) ; and ‘The Art of Simpling’ (1656). ‘The Compleat English Gardener’ (1683). “The Countryman’s Recreation ’ (1640). Croker, T. C. ‘Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland.’ Culpeper, N. ‘ British Herbal.’ Cutts, Rev. E. ‘ Decoration of Churches.” Darwin, E. ‘The Botanic Garden’: a Poem. Dasent, Sir G. W. ‘ Popular Tales from the Norse.’ Daubeny, C. ‘Trees and Shrubs of the Ancients,’ Day, Rev. Lal Behari. ‘ Folk-Tales of Bengal.’ De Gubernatis, A. La Mythologie des Plantes; ou les Légendes du Riegne Végétal. Dixon, W.G. ‘The Land of the Morning: Japan.’ ‘ The Dutch Gardener’ (1703). Dyer, Rev. T. F. ‘English Folk-lore.’ Ennemoser, f. ‘ History of Magic. Evelyn, F. ‘Sylva: a Discourse of Forest Trees’ (1662) ; ‘The French Gar- dener ’ (1648) ; and ‘ Kalendarium Hortense’ (1664). © The Expert Gardener’ (1640). € The Fairy Family.’ Farrer, 7. A. ‘The Names of Flowers’ (In § Cornhill Magazine,” Vol. XLV.). Fitzherbarde, Sir Anthony. ‘ Boke of Husbandry’ (1523). Fleetwood, Bishop. ‘Curiosities of Nature and Art in Husbandry and Gar- dening’ (1707). ‘Flower Lore’ (M’Caw & Co., Belfast). Gerarde, F. ‘The Herbal; or, General Historie of Plantes.’ Edited by Johnson 1633). oe a ‘Teutonic Mythology * (Translated by Stallybrass.) Henderson, W. ‘Folk-lore of the Northern Counties.” Hunt, R. ‘ Popular Romances of the West of England.’ Ingram, F. ‘ Flora Symbolica, Jameson, Mrs. ‘Sacred and Legendary Art’; Legends of the Monastic Orders’; and ‘ Legends of the Madonna.’ : Karr, Alphonse. ‘ A Tour Round my Garden.’ Kelly, W. K. * Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore.’ Kent, Miss. ‘ Flora Domestica, and ‘Sylvan Sketches,’ vi. Dfant loore, laegenos, dnd lsyries. King, R. J. ‘Sketches and Studies.’ Kircherus. De Luce et Umbra, Ars Magnetica, & c. ‘The Language of Flowers’ (Saunders and Otley). Liger, Louis. ‘The Retired Gardener’ (1717). Loudon, #. C. ‘ Encyclopedia of Gardening.’ Loudon, Mrs. ‘Companion to the Flower Garden.’ Macer Floridus. De Viribus Herbarum (1527). Mallet, M. <‘ Northern Antiquities.’ Mannhardt, Prof. Baumkultus der Germanen; Germanische Mythen; and Wald- und Feld-Kulte. Marmier, X. Légendes des Plantes. Marshall, S. ‘ Plant Symbolism’ (In ‘ Natural History Notes,” Vol. IT.). Martyn, Thos. ‘ Miller’s Gardener’s and Botanist’s Dictionary.’ Matthiolus. De Plantis (1585). Maundevile, Sir Fohn. ‘Voiage and Travaile’ (Edit. 1725). Mentzelius, C. Index Nominum Plantarum Multilinguis (1682). Moore, T. ‘Lalla Rookh,’ Miiller, Max. ‘ Selected Essays.’ Murray, E.C.G. ‘Songs and Legends of Roumania.’ Newton, W. ‘ Display of Heraldry.’ Nork. Mythologie der Volkssagen. Oldenburg, Dr. H. ‘Buddha: his Life, Doctrine, and Order.’ Parkinson, #. ‘ Paradisi in Sole: Paradisus Terrestris” (1656). Paxton, Sir Foseph. ‘ Botanical Dictionary.’ Percival, Rev. P. ‘The Land of the Veda.’ Phillips, F. ‘ Flora Historica.’ Pirie, M. ‘ Flowers, Grasses, and Shrubs.’ Plat, Sir Hugh, Knt. ‘The Garden of Eden” (1600). Pliny. ‘ Natural History.’ Porta, 7. B. Phytognomica (1588). Pratt, A. ‘ Flowering Plants and Ferns of Great Britain.” Prior, Dr. ‘Popular Names of British Plants.’ Ralston,W.R. ‘Forest and Field Myths’ (In ‘ Contemporary Review,’ Vol. XXXI.). Rapin, R. De Hortorum Cultura (Gardiner’s trans., 1665). Rawlinson, Rev. G. ‘The Religions of the Ancient World.’ Reade, W.W. ‘The Veil of Isis; or, the Mysteries of the Druids.” Rea, 7. ‘Flora, Ceres, and Pomona’ (1665). Rimmel, E. ‘The Book of Perfumes.’ The ‘ Royal and Imperial Dream Book.”’ Sawyer, F. E. ‘Sussex Folk-lore and Customs.’ Shway Yoe. ‘The Burman: his Life and Notions.’ Thorpe, B. ‘ Yule-tide Stories.’ Tighe,W. ‘The Plants’: a Poem. Timbs, F. ‘Popular Errors ;’ ‘ Curiosities of History ;’ and ‘Things Not Generally Known.’ Turner, Robert. ‘ Botanologia: The Brittish Physician; or, the Nature and Vertues of English Plants ” (1687). Turner, W. ‘The Herball.’ : Tusser, Thomas. ‘ Five Hundred Points of Husbandry ” (1562). White, Rev. Gilbert. ‘ Natural History of Selborne.’ Wilkinson, Sir G. € The Ancient Egyptians.’ Zahn, F. Specule Physico-Mathematico-Historice (1696). TABLE OF CONTENTS. PART THE FIRST. BELO: s ¢ « ‘ (ai) ey es «9 we “6 CHAPTER I. THE WORLD-TREES OF THE ANCIENTS.—The Scandinavian Ash—The Hindu World-Tree—The World-Tree of the Buddhists—The Iranian World-Tree— sks a Sacred Tree—The Mother Tree of the Greeks, Romans, and Teutons . P CHAPTER II. THE TREES OF PARADISE AND THE TREE OF ADAM.—The Terrestrial Paradise—The Paradise of the Persians, Arabians, Hindus, Scandinavians, and Celts—The Mosaic Paradise—Eden and the Walls of its Garden—The Tree” of Life—The Tree of Knowledge—The Forbidden ‘Fruit—Adam’s Departure from Paradise—Seth’s Journey to the Garden of Eden—The Death of Adam—The Seéds of the Tree of Life—Moses and his Rods—King David and the Body palpsier and pe ara + Eee Tree Adam and the Tree of the Cross . : > CHAPTER IIL. SACRED PLANTS OF THE ANCIENTS.—The Parsis and the Cypress—The Oak— Sacred Plants and Trees of the Brahmans and Buddhists—Plants Revered by the Burmans —The Cedar, Elm, Ash, Rowan, Baobab, Nipa, Dragon Tree, Zamang, and Moriche Palm —The Nelumbo or Sacred Bean—Plants Worshipped by Egyptians—The Lotus, Henna, and Pomegranate—Sacred Plants - the ve Roman Divinities—Plants of the Norse . . . . . . . . , . CHAPTER IV. FLORAL CEREMONIES, GARLANDS, AND WREATHS.—tThe Altars of the Gods—Flowers, Fragrant Woods, and Aromatics—Incense—Perfurhes—Ceremonies of the Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans—The Roman Triumphs—Festivals of the Terminalia and Floralia—May-day Customs—Well-flowering—Harvest Festivals—Flowérs and Weddings—Floral Games of Toulouse and Salency—The Rosiére—Rose Pelting—Battle of Flowers—Japanese New Year’s Festival—Wreaths, Chaplets, and Garlands a Z CHAPTER V. PLANTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.—The Virgin Mary and her Flowers— Joseph’s Plants—The Plants of Bethlehem—Flora of the Flight mto Egypt—The Herb of the Madonna—Plants ‘of the Virgin—The Annunciation, Visitation, and Assumption—The Rosary—The Plants of Christmas—The Garden of Gethsemane—Plants of the Passion— The Crown of Thorns—The Wood of the Cross—Veronica—The Plants of Calvary—The Trees and the Crucifixion—The Tree of Judas—Plants of St. John the Baptist—Plant Divination on St. John’s Eve—Flowers of the Saints—The Floral Calendar—Flowers of the Church’s Festivals—Decoration of Churches—Gospel Oaks—Memorial cee ae Glas- tonbury Thorn—St. Joseph’s Walnut Tree—St. Martin’s Yew - : P 3 - CHAPTER Vis PLANTS OF THE FAIRIES AND NAIADES.—The Elves and the Oak—Elves of the Forest—The Elf of the Fir-tree—The Rose Elf—Moss or Wood Folk—The Black Dwarfs—The Still Folk—The Procca—English Fairies—The Fairy Steed—Fairy Revels— Elf Grass—Fairy Plants—The Cowslip, or Fairy Cup—The Foxglove, or Lusmore—The Four-leaved Clover—The Fairy sg i Pe and beter mn es TD The Fontinalia—Fays of the Well . . Ph he - CHAPTER VII. SYLVANS, WOOD NYMPHS, AND TREE SPIRITS.—Fauns, Satyrs, Dryads, and Hamadryads—The Laurel Maiden—The Willow Nymph—The Sister of the Flowers —Sacred Groves and their Denizens—The Spirits of the Forest—The Indian Tree Ghosts— The Burmese Nats—The African Wood Spirits—The Waldgeister a the Cegia one Elder-mother—German Tree and Field Spints. . F = = - CHAPTER VIII. 7 PLANTS OF THE DEVIL.—Puck’s Plant—Pixie-stools—Loki’s Plants—The Trolls and the Globe-flower—Accursed and Unlucky Plants—Plants connected with the Black Art— Plant-haunting Demons—The Devil and Fruit Trees—Tree Demons on St. John’s Eve— Demons of the Woods and Fields—The Herb of the Devil—Poisonous and Noxious Plants —lIll-omened Plants—The Devil’s Key—Plants Inimical to the Devil—The Devil-Chaser— The Deadly Upas—The Manchineel—The Oleander—The Jatropha Urens—The Lotos— The Elder—The Phallus Impudicus—The Carrion Flower—The Antchar—The Loco or Sena Le apa lag ee ee ee = nena: oe by armani j-" aes te 4 ‘ ; « Xi 26 40° 74 82 Viil. Pant lore, lbegenos, dna lsyries. CHAPTER IX. PLANTS OF THE WITCHES.—tThe Herbs of Hecate, Circe, and Medea—Witch Powder—Witches and Elders—Sylvan Haunts of Witches—Witches’ Plant-steeds—Witches’ Soporifics—The Nightmare’ Flower—-Plants used in Spells—Potions, Philtres, and Hell- broths—The Hag Taper—Witch Ointment—The Witches’ Bath—Foreign Witches and their Plants—Plants used for Charms and ci ac siege ae of Witchcraft— Plants Antagonistic to Witches . . ° ° . . * . . CHAPTER X. MAGICAL PLANTS.—Plants producing Ecstasies and Visions ~ Soma— Laurel — The Druids and Mistletoe—Prophetic Oaks—Dream Plants—Plants producing Love and Sympathy—The Sorcerer’s Violet—Plants used for Love Divination—Concordia—Dis- cordia—The Calumny Destroyer—The Grief Charmer—The Sallow, Sacred Basil, Eugenia, Onion, Bay, Juniper, Peony, Hypericum, Rowan, Elder, Thorn, Hazel, Holly—The Mystic Fern-seed—f'our-leaved Clover—The Mandrake, or Sorcerer’s Root—The Metal Melter— The Misleading Plant — Herb of Oblivion — Lotos Tree — King Solomon’s Magical Herb Baharas—The Nyctilopa and Springwort —Plants influencing Thunder and Lightning—The Selago, or Druid’s Golden Herb—Gold-producing Plants—Plants which disclose Treasures— The Luck) Flower—The Key-Flower—Sesame—The Herb that Opens—The Moonwort, or Lunary—The Sferracavallo—Magic Wands and Divining Rods—Moses’ Rod. ‘ CHAPTER XI. FABULOUS, WONDROUS, AND MIRACULOUS PLANTS.—Human Trees— Man- bearing Trees—The Wak- Wak, or Tree bearing Human Heads—Chinese and Indian Bird-bearing Tree—Duck-bearing Tree—The Barnacle, or Goose Tree—The Serpent- bearing Tree—The Oyster-bearing Tree—The Animal- bearing Tree—The Butterfly-bearing Tree—The Vegetable Lamb—The Lamb-bearing Tree—Marvellous Trees and Plants— Vegetable Monstrosities—Plants bearing Inscriptions and Figures—Miraculous Plants— The Tree of St. Tbemas 7h Withered EEE of tie Sang ote Tree of Tiberias—Father Garnet’s Straw. _ . oe CHAPTER XII. PLANTS CONNECTED WITH BIRDS AND ANIMALS.—Seed-sowing Birds— Birds as Almanacks—The Cuckoo and the Cherry Tree—Augury by Cock and Barley—The Nightingale and the Rose—The Robin and the Thorn—The Missel-Thrush and Mistletoe— The Swallow and Celandine—The Hawk and Hawkweed—Life-giving Herb—The Wood- pecker and the Peony—The Spring-wort and the Birds—Choughs and Olives—Herb of the Blessed Virgin Mary—The Eyebright and Birds—Plants named after Birds and Animals . CHAPTER XIII. THE DOCTRINE OF PLANT SIGNATURES. — Illustrations and Examples of the Signatures and Characterisms of Plants—The Diseases Cured by Herbs—General Rules of the System of Plant Signatures supposed to Reveal the Occult Powers and Virtues of Vegetables—Plants Identified with the Various Portions*of the Human Rods BS Old Herbals and Herbalists—Extraordinary Properties attributed to Herbs . - > CHAPTER XIV. PLANTS AND THE PLANETS.—When to Pluck Herbs—The Plants of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, the Sun, and the Moon—Sun Flowers—The Influence of the Moon on Plants—Times and Seasons to Sow and Plant—The Moon and Gardening Operations— The Moon-Tree—Plants of the Moon-Goddesses—The Man in the Moon CHAPTER XV. PLANT SYMBOLISM AND LANGUAGE.—Plant Emblems of the Ancients—The Science of Plant Symbolism—Floral Symbols of the Scriptures—The Passion Flower, or Flower of the Five Wounds—Medizval Plant Symbolism—Floral Emblems of Shakspeare— The Language of Flowers—Floral Boca Paley of the Greeks and Romans—A Dichines: of Flowers—Floral Divination . 2 ° : : : CHAPTER XVI. FUNERAL PLANTS.—The Ancient Death-Gods—The Elysian Fields—Death Trees— Funereal Trees—Aloe, Yew, Cypress, Bay, Arbor-Vitz, Walnut, Mountain Ash, Tamarisk— The Decorations of Tombs—Flowers at Funerals—Old English Burial Customs—Funeral Pyres—Embalming—Mummies— Plants as Death Portents . ° * ‘ 2 PART THE SECOND. AN ENCYCLOPADIA OF SIX HUNDRED PLANTS, ENGLISH AND FOREIGN, giving their Myths, Legends, Traditions, Folk-Lore, Symbolism, and History gi 105 116 136 154 164 176 189 205 IoidE of Sffudttrationy. —_1~> + —_—_. GATHERING THE SELAGO (drawn by Louis Absolon) . ; ° . Cover. THE GARDEN OF EDEN (Parkinson's Paradisus) . - - Frontispiece. YGGDRASILL, THE MUNDANE AsH (Finn Magnusen) . - : ; : 2 RELICS OF THE CRUCIFIXION ( Maundevile’s Travels) . , ao we 45 THE TREE OF JupAs Iscariot (Maundevile’s Travels) . ; ; ; - 49 THE BARNACLE TREE ( Aldrovandi Ornithologia) . i ‘ - a 118 THE Goosr TREE (Gerard’s Herbal), . . «© . « «HY THE BAROMETZ, OR VEGETABLE LAMB (Zahn) ; A . 121 THE LAMB TREE (Maundevile’s Travels) . : E : * - BOE DEAD SEA Fruit ( Maundevile’s Travels). A : - = : 125 THE STONE TREE (Gerarde’s Herbal) . A : é F - A - 126 ARBOR SECCO, OR THE WITHERED TREE ( Mauxdevile’s Travels) . - 131 THE MIRACULOUS TREE OF TIBERIAS ( Maundevile's Travels) . - 5 Ge FATHER GARNET’S STRAW (Afology of Eudemon_Joannes) : : - 135 Pious BIRDS AND OLIVEs ( Maundevile’s Travels) : : : - s LF4g THE PAssION FLOWER OF THE JESUITS (Parkinson's Paradisus) . ; 182 THE TREE OF DEATH { Maundevile’s Travels) .. . : c : « 100 Tuz GRANADILLA, OR PASSION FLOWER (Zahn) .. : ; - : 487 The head and tail pieces on pp. xiii., xxiv., I, 8, 20, 21, 26, 40, 64, 74, 116, 136, 164, 175, 200, 592, and 610, are reproductions from originals in ald herbals, &c, foes ay : ‘ge aes Sisk io Sys Pa 7 a % a na * 2 es * tnd 24 Patel Je : nod? ae 7 oe ~ — ——a tz . wy A = a od} * bf a * is _ 2 é re | eae? 5 a. oe i . ET Og oe i. Md Araceae ; ? —- » oo Pee, Cae ve Sent epeine ) id eee © ee : > © . ; eae Usa hh WOT Waty RRR Te tore S . L* < . . (wu ’ at var MM ‘Pe es at Gack J y - tt i { LLL . eae eae a) * ‘ \ iret 3 . ee WY ts a =i 2a . 2 . | eat a7) a 1 . ‘ i ark earccs wet) Vwaetes bt y sa2 tT ms vei -. ‘ - 3 a M F P Yee Mo Pree) ) WH ! ® si = : P : ¢ (peen} 4u L oll xs a4: sce . . . « 3 . - : phe pia He ALY joe ® cy ; , , - > Ay 5 ony Pe ay taf, | or , ar ; o Duk dae) ae ies d as 4 | ioex's3 s aruTn'y ahi mt a . ‘ &s » $s = ba~ ; ? 4 sy t ) i> . 5 7 | ‘ R ; i : Ai BTS ¥s P ‘ ‘ « i \ oo4' a, rs aes a s iow vay bs i 7 A ‘> me “9 Tre | o-! * -* . . . i c ‘ % =. > Veal ‘oe rw : ; i in Ee = % " 4 A - _ no a P yp : - > 7 a : « 4 athe iat pm 3 Pus i, thes icerO « > ST y> & an] ’ hk | ici 46 s ix ay 4 a by ’ “ 7 Dart the Firat. aE ” ey INTRODUCTION. ——_ 11 —_—_. HE analogy existing between the vegetable and animal worlds, and the resemblances between human and tree life, have been observed by man from the most remote periods of which we have any records. Primitive man, watching the marvellous ees changes in trees and plants, which accu- rately marked not only the seasons of the year, but even the periods of time in a day, could not fail to be struck with a feeling of awe at the mysterious invisible power which silently guided such wondrous and incomprehensible opera- tions. Hence it is not astonishing that the early inhabitants of the earth should have invested with supernatural attributes the tree, which in the gloom and chill of Winter stood gaunt, bare, and sterile, but in the early Spring hastened to greet the welcome warmth-giving Sun by investing itself with a brilliant canopy of verdure, and in the scorching heat of Summer afforded a re- freshing shade beneath its leafy boughs. So we find these men of old, who had learnt to reverence the mysteries of vegetation, forming conceptions of vast cosmogonic world- or cloud-trees over- shadowing the universe; mystically typifying creation and regene- ration, and yielding the divine ambrosia or food of immortality, the refreshing and life-inspiring rain, and the mystic fruit which imparted knowledge and wisdom to those who partook of it. So, bs J 2 SEL NL GARDE XIV. Dfant gore, wegenos, dnd lsyrics, again, we find these nebulous overspreading world-trees connected with the mysteries of death, and giving shelter to the souls of the departed in the solemn shade of their dense foliage. | Looking upon vegetation as symbolical of life and generation, man, in course of time, connected the origin of his species with these shadowy cloud-trees, and hence arose the belief that human- kind first sprang from Ash and Oak-trees, or derived their being from Holda, the cloud-goddess who combined in her person the form of a lovely woman and the trunk ofa mighty tree. In after years trees were almost universally regarded either as sentient beings or as constituting the abiding places of spirits whose existence was bound up in the lives of the trees they inhabited. Hence arose the conceptions of Hamadryads, Dryads, Sylvans, Tree-nymphs, Elves, Fairies, and other beneficent spirits who peopled forests and dwelt in individual trees—not only in the Old World, but in the dense woods of North America, where the Mik-amwes, like Puck, has from time immemorial frolicked by moonlight in the forest openings. Hence, also, sprang up the morbid notion of trees being haunted by demons, mischievous imps, ghosts, nats, and evil spirits, whom it was deemed by the ignorant and superstitious necessary to propitiate by sacrifices, offerings, and mysterious rites and dances. Remnants of this superstitious tree-worship are still extant in some European countries. The Ivminsul of the Germans and the Central Oak of the Druids were of the same family as the Ashevah of the Semitic nations. In England, this primeval superstition has its descendants in the village maypole bedizened with ribbons and flowers, and the Jack-in-the-Green with its attendant devotees and whirling dancers. The modern Christ- mas-tree, too, although but slightly known in Germany at the beginning of the present century, is evidently a remnant of the pagan tree-worship; and it is somewhat remarkable that a similar tree is common among the Burmese, who call it the Padaytha-bin. This Turanian Christmas-tree is made by the inhabitants of towns, who deck its Bamboo twigs with all sorts of presents, and pile its roots with blankets, cloth, earthenware, and other useful articles. The wealthier classes contribute sometimes a Ngway Padaytha, or silver Padaytha, the branches of which are hung with rupees and Anfroduction. XV. smaller silver coins wrapped in tinsel or coloured paper. These trees are first carried in procession, and afterwards given to monasteries on the occasion of certain festivals or the funerals of Buddhist monks. They represent the wishing-tree, which, according to Burmese mythology, grows in the Northern Island and heaven of the nats or spirits, where it bears on its fairy branches whatever may be wished for. The ancient conception of human trees can be traced in the superstitious endeavours of ignorant peasants to get rid of diseases by transferring them to vicarious trees, or rather to the spirits who are supposed to dwell in them; and it is the same idea that impels simple rustics to bury Elder-sticks and Peach-leaves to which they have imparted warts, &c. The recognised analogy between the life of plants and that of man, and the cherished superstition that trees were the homes of living and sentient spirits, undoubtedly influenced the poets of the ancients in forming their conceptions of heroes and heroines metamorphosed into trees and flowers; and traces of the old belief are to be found in the custom of planting a tree on the birth of an infant ; the tree being thought to symbolise human life in its destiny of growth, production of fruit, and multiplication of its species ; and, when fully grown, giving shade, shelter, and protection. This pleasant rite is still extant in our country as well as in Germany, France, Italy, and Russia; and from it has probably arisen a custom now becoming very general of planting a tree to comme- morate any special occasion. Nor is the belief confined to the Old World, for Mr. Leland has quite recently told us that he observed near the tent of a North American Indian two small evergreens, which were most carefully tended. On enquiry he found the reason to be that when a child is born, or is yet young, its parent chooses a shrub, which growing as the child grows, will, during the child’s absence, or even in after years, indicate by its appearance whether the human counterpart be ill or well, alive or dead. In one of the Quadi Indian stories it is by means of the sympathetic tree that the hero learns his brother’s death. In the middle ages, the old belief in trees possessing intelli- gence was utilised by the monks, who have embodied the conception XVi. ®fant lore, laegenos, dnd loyries. in many medizval legends, wherein trees are represented as bending their boughs and offering their fruits to the Virgin and her Divine Infant. So, again, during the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt, trees are said to have opened and concealed the fugitives from Herod’s brutal soldiery. Certain trees (notably the Aspen) are reputed to have been accursed and to have shuddered and trembled ever after on account of their connection with the tragedy of Calvary; while others are said to have undergone a similar doom because they were attainted by the suicide of the traitor Judas Iscariot. Seeing that the reverence and worship paid to trees by the ignorant and superstitious people was an institution impossible to uproot, the early Christian Church sought to turn it to account, and therefore consecrated old and venerated trees, built shrines beneath their shade, or placed on their trunks crucifixes and images of the Blessed Virgin. Legends connecting trees with holy personages, miracles, and sacred subjects were, in after years, freely disseminated; one of the most remarkable being the marvellous history of the Tree of Adam, in which it is sought to connect the Tree of Paradise with the Tree of Calvary. Evelyn summarises this misty tradition in the following sentence :—‘‘ Trees and woods have twice saved the whole world: first, by the Ark, then by the Cross; making full amends for the evil fruit of the tree in Paradise by that which was borne on the tree in Golgotha.” In course of time the flowers and plants which the ancients had dedicated to their pagan deities were transferred by the Christian Church to the shrines of the Virgin and sainted personages; this is especially noticeable in the plants formerly dedicated to Venus and Freyja, which, as being the choicest as well as the most popular, became, in honour of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady’s plants. Vast numbers of flowers were in course of time appropriated by the Church, and consecrated to her saints and martyrs—the selection being governed generally by the fact that the flower bloomed on or about the day on which the Chureh celebrated the saint’s feast. These appropriations enabled the Roman Catholics to compile a complete calendar of flowers for every day in the year, in which each flower is dedicated to a particular saint, Anfroduefion. XVIi. But if the most beautiful flowers and plants were taken under the protection of the Church, and dedicated to the memory of her holiest and most venerated members, so, also, certain trees, plants, and flowers—which, either on account of their noxious properties, or because of some legendary associations, were under a ban— became relegated to the service of the Devil and his minions. Hence we find a large group of plants associated with enchanters, sorcerers, wizards, and witches, many of which betray in their nomenclature their Satanic association, and are, even at the pre- sent day, regarded suspiciously as ill-omened and unlucky. These are the plants which, in the dark days of witchcraft and super- stition, were invested with mysterious and magical properties,—the herbs which were employed by hags and witches in their heathenish incantations, and from which they brewed their potions and hell- broths. Thus Ben Jonson, in his fragment, ‘The Sad Shepherd,’ makes one of his characters say, when speaking of a witch :— ** He knows her shifts and haunts, And all her wiles and turns. The venom’d plants Wherewith she kills ! where the sad Mandrake grows, Whose groans are dreadful! the dead-numming Nightshade ! The stupefying Hemlock ! Adder’s-tongue ! And Martagan !” The association of plants with magic, sorcery, and the black art dates from remote times. The blind Norse god Hédr slew Baldr with a twig of Mistletoe. In the battles recorded in the Vedas as being fought by the gods and the demons, the latter employ poisonous and magical herbs which the gods counteract with counter-poisons and health-giving plants. Hermes presented to Ulysses the magical Moly wherewith to nullify the effects of the potions and spells of the enchantress Circe, who was well acquainted with all sorts of magical herbs. The Druids professed to know the secrets of many magical plants which they gathered with mysterious and occult rites. The Vervain, Selago, Mistletoe, Oak, and Rowan were all said by these ancient priests and law- givers to be possessed of supernatural properties; and remnants of the old belief in their magical powers are still extant. In works on the subject of plant lore hitherto published in England, scarcely any reference has been made to the labours in XVIii. Dfant loore, leegenos, and loyries. the field of comparative mythology of Max Miller, Grimm, Kuhn, Mannhardt, De Gubernatis, and other eminent scholars, whose erudite and patient investigations have resulted in the accumulation of a vast amount of valuable information respecting the traditions and superstitions connected with the plant kingdom. Mr. Kelly’s interesting work on Indo-European Tradition, published some years ago, dealt, among other subjects, with that of plant lore, and drew attention to the analogy existing between the myths and folk-lore of India and Europe relating more especially to plants which were reputed to possess magical properties. Among such plants, peculiar interest attaches to a group which, according to Aryan tradition, sprang from lightning—the embodiment of fire, the great quickening agent: this group embraces the Hazel, the Thorn, the Hindu Sami, the Hindu Palasa, with its European congener the Rowan, and the Mistletoe: the two last-named plants were, as we have seen, employed in Druidic rites. These trees are considered of good omen and as protectives against sorcery and witchcraft: from all of them wishing-rods (called in German Wiinschelruthen) and divining-rods have been wont to be fashioned—magical wands with which, in some countries, cattle are still struck to render them prolific, hidden springs are indicated, and mineral wealth is discovered. Such a rod was thought to be the caduceus of the god Hermes, or Mercury, described by Homer as being a rod of prosperity and wealth. All these rods are cut with a forked end, a shape held to be symbolic of lightning and a rude effigy of the human form. It is interesting to note that in the Rigveda the human form is expressly attributed to the pieces of Asvattha wood used for kindling the sacred fire—a purpose fulfilled by the Thorn in the chark or instrument employed for producing fire by the Greeks. Another group of plants also connected with fire and lightning comprises the Mandrake (the root of which is forked like the human form), the Fern Poly- podium Filix mas (which has large pinnate leaves), the Sesame (called in India Thunderbolt-flower), the Spring-wort, and the Luck-flower. The Mandrake and Fern, lke King Solomon’s Baharas, are said to shine at night, and to leap about like a Will-o’- the-wisp: indeed, in Thuringia, the Fern is known as Jrrkvaut, or Antroduction. xix. Misleading Herb, and in Franche Comté this herb is spoken of as causing belated travellers to become light-headed or thunder-struck. The Mandrake-root and the Fern-seed have the magical property of granting the desires of their possessors, and in this respect re- semble the Sesame and Luck-flower, which at their owners’ request will disclose treasure-caves, open the sides of mountains, clefts of rocks, or strong doors, and in fact render useless all locks, bolts, and bars, at will. The Spring-wort, through the agency of a bird, removes obstacles by means of an explosion caused by the electricity or lightning of which this plant isan embodiment. Akin to these are plants known in our country as Lunary or Moonwort and Unshoe- the-Horse, and called by the Italians Sfervacavallo—plants which possess the property of unshoeing horses and opening locks. A Russian herb, the Rasrivtrvava, belongs to the same group: this plant fractures chains and breaks open locks—virtues also claimed for the Vervain (Eisenkvaut), the Primrose (Schiliisselblume), the Fern, and the Hazel. It should be noted of the Mistletoe (which is endowed by nature with branches regularly forked, and has been classified with the lightning-plants), that the Swedes call it ‘« Thunder-besom,” and attribute to it the same powers as to the Spring-wort. Like the Fly-Rowan (Flég-vénn) and the Asvattha, it is a parasite, and is thought to spring from seeds dropped by birds upon trees. Just as the Druids ascribed peculiar virtues to a Mistletoe produced by this means on an Oak, so do the Hindus especially esteem an Asvattha which has grown in like manner upon a Sami (Acacia Suma). It is satisfactory to find that, although the Devil has had certain plants allotted to him wherewith to work mischief and destruction through the agency of demons, sorcerers, and witches, there are yet a great number of plants whose special mission it is to thwart Satanic machinations, to protect their owners from the dire effects of witchcraft or the Evil Eye, and to guard them from the perils of thunder and lightning. In our own country, Houseleek and Stonecrop are thought to fulfil this latter function ; in Westphalia, the Donnerkvaut (Orpine) is a thunder protective; in the Tyrol, the Alpine Rose guards the house-roof from lightning ; and in the Netherlands, the St. John’s Wort, gathered before Bo Dfant lore, legenos, and lyrics. sunrise, is deemed a protection against thunderstorms. This last plant is especially hateful to evil spirits, and in days gone by was called Fuga demonum, dispeller of demons. In Russia, a plant, called the Certagon, or Devil-chaser, is used to exorcise Satan or his fiends if they torment an afflicted mourner; and in the same country the Prikvit is a herb whose peculiar province it is to destroy calumnies with which mischief-makers may seek to inter- fere with the consummation of lovers’ bliss. Other plants induce concord, love, and sympathy, and others again enable the owner to forget sorrow. Plants connected with dreams and visions have not hitherto received much notice; but, nevertheless, popular belief has attri- buted to some few—and notably the Elm, the Four-leaved Clover, and the Russian Son-tvava—the subtle power of procuring dreams of a prophetic nature. Numerous plants have been thought by the superstitious to portend certain results to the sleeper when forming the subject of his or her dreams. Many examples of this belief will be found scattered through these pages. The legends attached to flowers may be divided into four classes—the mythological, the ecclesiastical, the historical, and the poetical. For the first-named we are chiefly indebted to Ovid, and to the Jesuit René Rapin, whose Latin poem De Hortorum Cultura contains much curious plant lore current in his time. His legends, like those of Ovid, nearly all relate to the transformation by the gods of luckless nymphs and youths into flowers and trees, which have since borne their names. Most of them refer to the blossoms of bulbous plants, which appear in the early Spring; and, as a rule, white flowers are represented as having originated from tears, and pink or red flowers from blushes or blood. The ecclesiastical legends are principally due to the old Catholic monks, who, while tending their flowers in the quietude and seclusion of monastery gar- dens, doubtless came to associate them with the memory of some favourite saint or martyr, and so allowed their gentle fancy to weave a pious fiction wherewith to perpetuate the memory of the saint in the name of the flower. For many of the historical le- gends we are also indebted to monastic writers, and they mostly pertain to favourite sons and daughters of the Church. Amongst Anfroduction. XXi, what we have designated poetical legends must be included the numerous fairy tales in which flowers and plants play a not un- important part, as well as the stories which connect plants with the doings of Trolls, Elves, Witches, and Demons. Many such legends, both English and foreign, will be found introduced in the following pages. It has recently become the fashion to explain the origin of myths and legends by a theory which makes of them mere symbols of the phenomena appertaining to the solar system, or metaphors of the four seasons and the different periods in a day’s span. Thus we are told that, in the well-known story of the transforma- tion of Daphne into a Laurel-bush, to enable her to escape the importunities of Apollo (see p. 404), we ought not to conceive the idea of the handsome passionate god pursuing a coy nymph until in despair she calls on the water-gods to change her form, but that, on the contrary, we should regard the whole story as simply an alle- gory implying that ‘the dawn rushes and trembles through the sky, and fades away at the sudden appearance of the bright sun.” So, again, in the myth of Pan and Syrinx (p. 559), in which the Satyr pursues the maiden who is transformed into the Reed from which Pan fashioned his pipes, the meaning intended to be con- veyed is, we are told, that the blustering wind bends and breaks the swaying Rushes, through which it rustles and whistles. Prof. De Gubernatis, in his valuable work La Mythologie des Plantes, gives a number of clever explanations of old legends and myths, in ac- cordance with the ‘“‘ Solar” theory, which are certainly ingenious, if somewhat monotonous. Let us take, as an example, the German story of the Watcher of the Road, which appears at page 326. In this tale a lovely princess, abandoned for a rival by her attractive husband, pines away, and at last desiring to die if only she can be sure of going somewhere where she may always watch for him, is transformed into the wayside Endive or Succory. Here is the Professor’s explanation :—‘‘ Does not the fatal rival of the young princess, who cries herself to death on account of her dazzling husband's desertion, and who even in death desires still to gaze on him, symbolise the humid night, which every evening allures the sun to her arms, and thus keeps him from the love of his bride, who XXil. Pant lsore, leegenos, and lyrics. awakens every day with the sun, just as does the flower of the Succory?”’ These scientific elucidations of myths, however dex- terous and poetical they may be, do not appear to us applicable to plant legends, whose chief charm lies in their simplicity and appo- siteness; nor can we imagine why Aryan or other story-tellers should be deemed so destitute of inventive powers as to be obliged to limit all their tales to the description of celestial phenomena. In the Vedas, trees, flowers, and herbs are invoked to cause love, avert evil and danger, and neutralise spells and curses. The ancients must, therefore, have had an exalted idea of their nature and properties, and hence it is not surprising that they should have dedicated them to their deities, and that these deities should have employed them for supernatural purposes.’ Thus Indra con- quered Vritra and slew demons by means of the Soma; Hermes presented the all-potent Moly to Ulysses; and Medea taught Jason how to use certain enchanted herbs; just as, later in the world’s history, Druids exorcised evil spirits with Mistletoe and Vervain, and sorcerers and wise women used St. John’s Wort and other plants to ward off demons and thunderbolts. The ancients evi- dently regarded their gods and goddesses as very human, and therefore it would seem unnecessary and unjust so to alter their tales about them as to explain away their obvious meaning. Flowers are the companions of man throughout his life— his attendants to his last resting place. They are, as Mr. Ruskin Says, precious always ‘‘to the child and the girl, the peasant and the manufacturing operative, to the grisette and the nun, the lover and the monk.” Nature, in scattering them over the earth’s surface, would seem to have designed to cheer and refresh its inhabitants by their varied colouring and fragrance, and to elevate them by their wondrous beauty and delicacy; from them, as old Parkinson truly wrote, ‘“‘we may draw matter at all times, not onely to magnifie the Creator that hath given them such diversities of forms, sents, and colours, that the most cunning workman cannot imitate, . . . . but many good instructions also to our selves; that as many herbs and flowers, with their fragrant sweet smels do comfort and as it were revive the spirits, and perfume a whole house, even so such men as live vertuously, labouring to do good, Anfroduction. XXIll. and profit the Church, God, and the common wealth by their pains or pen, do as it were send forth a pleasing savour of sweet instructions.”” The poet Wordsworth reminds us that ** God made the flowers to beautify The earth, and cheer man’s careful mood ; And he is happiest who hath power To gather wisdom from a flower, And wake his heart in every hour To pleasant gratitude.” In these pages will be found many details as to the use of these beauteous gems of Nature, both by the ancient races of the world and by the people of our own generation; their adaptation to the Church’s ceremonial and to popular festivals; their use as portents, symbols, and emblems; and their employ- ment as an adornment of the graves of loved ones. Much more could have been written, had space permitted, regarding their value to the architect and the herald. The Acanthus, Lotus, Trefoil, Lily, Vine, Ivy, Pomegranate, Oak, Palm, Acacia, and many other plants have been reproduced as ornaments by the sculptor, and it is a matter of tradition that to the majestic aspect of an avenue of trees we owe the lengthy aisle and fretted vault of the Gothic order of architecture. In the field of heraldry it is noticeable that many nations, families, and individuals have, in addition to their heraldic badges, adopted plants as special symbols, the circumstances of their adoption forming the groundwork of a vast number of legends: a glance at the index will show that some of these are to be discovered in the present work. Many towns and villages owe their names to trees or plants; and not a few English families have taken their surnames from members of the vegetable kingdom. In Scotland, the name of Frazer is derived from the Strawberry-leaves ( fraises) borne on the family shield of arms, and the Gowans and Primroses also owe their names to plants. The Highland clans are all distinguished by the floral badge or Swieachantas which is worn in the bonnet. For the most part the plants adopted for these badges are evergreens ; and it is said that the deciduous Oak which was selected by the Stuarts was looked upon as a portent of evil to the royal house. The love of human kind for flowers would seem to be shared by many members of the feathered tribe. Poets have sung of the XXIV. ®Pant sore, legenos, and loyrics, passion of the Nightingale for the Rose and of the fondness of the Bird of Paradise for the dazzling blooms of the Tropics: the especial liking, however, of one of this race—the Amblyornis inor- nata—for flowers is worthy of record, inasmuch as this bird-gardener not only erects for itself a bower, but surrounds it with a mossy sward, on which it continually deposits fresh flowers and fruit of brilliant hue, so arranged as to form an elegant parterve. } We have reached our limit, and can only just notice the old traditions relating to the sympathies and antipathies of plants. The Jesuit Kircher describes the hatred existing between Hemlock and Rue, Reeds and Fern, and Cyclamen and Cabbages as so intense, that one of them cannot live on the same ground with the other. The Walnut, it is believed, dislikes the Oak, the Rowan the Juniper, the White-thorn the Black-thorn; and there is said to be a mutual aversion between Rosemary, Lavender, the Bay-tree, Thyme, and Marjoram. On the other hand, the Rose is reported to love the Onion and Garlic, and to put forth its sweetest blooms when in propinquity to those plants; anda bond of fellowship is fabled to exist between a Fig-tree and Rue. Lord Bacon, noticing these traditionary sympathies and antipathies, explains them as simply the outcome of the nature of the plants, and his philosophy is not difficult to be understood by intelligent observers, for, as St. Anthony truly said, the great book of Nature, which contains but three leaves—the Heavens, the Earth, and the Sea—is open for all men alike. Grats Bok 7. Oe OWorfd-Greeys of the Ancient. [omceeeecm| | is a proof of the solemnity with which, from the very earliest times, man has invested trees, and of the reverence with which he has ever regarded them, that they are found figuring prominently in the mythology of almost every nation; and despite the fact that in some instances these ancient myths reach us, after the lapse of ages, in distorted and grotesque forms, they would seem to be worthy of preservation, if only as curiosities in plant lore. In some cases the myth relates to a mystic cloud-tree which supplies the gods with immortal fruit ; in others to a tree which imparts to mankind wisdom and knowledge; in others to a tree which is the source and fountain of all life; and in others, again, to the actual descent of mankind from anthropological or parent trees. In one cosmogony—that of the Iranians—the first human pair are represented as having grown up as a single tree, the fingers or twigs of each one being folded over the other’s ears, till the time came when, ripe for separation, they became two sentient beings, and were infused by Ormuzd with distinct human souls. But besides these trees, which in some form or other benefit and populate the earth, there are to be found in ancient myths records of illimitable trees that existed in space whilst yet the elements of creation were chaotic, and whose branches over- shadowed the universe. One of the mythical accounts of the creation of the world represents a vast cosmogonic tree rearing its enormous bulk from the midst of an ocean before the formation of the earth had taken place; and this conception, it may be remarked, B 2 Dfant lore, laegenos, dnd loyries. is in consonance with a Vedic tradition that plants were created three ages before the gods. In’ India the idea of a primordial cosmogonic tree, vast as the world itself, and the generator thereof, is very prevalent ; and in the Scandinavian prose Edda we find the Skalds shadowing forth an all-pervading mundane Ash, called Ygegdrasill, beneath whose shade the gods assemble every day in council, and whose branches spread over the whole world, and even reach above heaven, whilst its roots penetrate to the infernal regions. This cloud-tree of the Norsemen is thought to be a symbol of universal nature. The accompanying illustration is taken from Finn Magnusen’s pictorial representation of the Yggdrasill myth, and depicts his conception of Oe Norde OWorfd_—-Tree. According to the Eddaic accounts, the Ash Yggdrasill is the greatest and best of all trees. One of its stems springs from the central primordial abyss—from the subterranean source of matter— runs up through the earth, which it supports, and issuing out of the celestial mountain in the world’s centre, called Asgard, spreads its branches over the entire universe. These wide-spread branches are the ethereal or celestial regions; their leaves, the clouds; their buds or fruits, the stars. Four harts run across the branches of the tree, and bite the buds: these are the four cardinal winds. Perched upon the top branches is an eagle, and between his eyes sits a hawk: the eagle symbolises the air, the hawk the wind-still ether. A squirrel runs up and down the Ash, and seeks to cause strife between the eagle and Nidhégg, a monster, which is con- stantly gnawing the roots: the squirrel signifies hail and other atmospherical phenomena; Nidhégg and the serpents that gnaw the roots of the mundane tree are the volcanic agencies which are constantly seeking to destroy earth’s foundations. Another stem springs in the warm south over the ethereal Urdar fountain, where the gods sit in judgment. In this fountain swim two swans, the progenitors of all that species: these swans are, by Finn Magnusen, supposed to typify the sun and moon. Near this fountain dwell three maidens, who fix the lifetime of all men, and are called Norns: every day they draw water from the spring, and with it sprinkle the Ash in order that its branches may not rot and wither away. ‘This water is so holy, that everything placed in the spring becomes as white as the film within an egg-shell. The dew that falls from the tree on the earth men call honey-dew, and it is the food of the bees. The third stem of Yggdrasill takes its rise in the cold and cheerless regions of the north (the land of the Frost Giants), over the source of the ocean, typified by a spring called Mimir’s Well, in which wisdom and wit lie hidden. Mimir, the owner of this spring, is full of wisdom because he drinks [TO FACE PAGE 2. aggdrasif?, tRe Mundane Gree. From Finn Magnusen’s ‘ Eddaleren.’ oan . . i : 77. b » ’ ~ > ” - Ge in A ORe OwWorfd_-Preer of the Ancienty. 3 of its waters. One day Odin came and begged a draught of water from the well, which he obtained, but was obliged to leave one of his eyes as a pledge for it. This myth Finn Magnusen thinks signifies the descent of the sun every evening into the sea (to learn wisdom from Mimir during the night); the mead quaffed by Mimir every morning being the ruddy dawn, ‘that, spreading over the sky, exhilarates all nature. ORe Hindu Oworfd-Gree. The Indian cosmogonic tree is the symbol of vegetation, of universal life, and of immortality. In the sacred Vedic writings it receives the special names of I/pa, Kalpadvuma, Kalpaka-tavu, and Kal- pavriksha, on the fruits of which latter tree the first men sustained and nourished life. In its quality of Tree of Paradise, it is called Pdryjata ; and as the ambrosial tree—the tree yielding immortal food—it is known as Amrita and Soma. This mystic world-tree of the Hindus, according to the Rigveda, is supernaturally the God Brahma himself; and all the gods are considered as branches of the divine parent stem—the elementary or fragmentary form of Brahma, the vast overspreading tree of the universe. In the Vedas this celestial tree is described as the Pippala (Peepul), and is alluded to as being in turns visited by two beauteous birds—the one feeding itself on the fruit (typifying probably the moon or twilight) ; the other simply hovering, with scintillating plumage, and singing melodiously (typifying perhaps the sun or daybreak). Under the name of I/pa (the Famboa, or Rose-apple) the cos- mogonic tree is described as growing in the midst of the lake Ara in Brahma’s world, beyond the river that never grows old, from whence are procured the waters of eternal youth. Brahma imparts to it his own perfume, and from it obtains the sap of vitality. To its branches the dead cling and climb, in order that they may enter into the regions of immortality. As the Kalpadruma, Kalpaka-taru, and Kalpavrtksha, the Indian sacred writings describe a cloud-tree, which, by its shadows, pro- duced day and night before the creation of sun and moon. This cosmogonic tree, which is of colossal proportions, grows in the midst of flowers and streamlets on a steep mountain. It fulfils all desires, imparts untold bliss, and, what in the eyes of Buddhists constitutes its chief sublimity, it gives knowledge and wisdom to humanity ; in a word it combines within its mystic branches all riches and all knowledge. As the Soma, the world-tree becomes in Indian mysticism a tree of Paradise, at once the king of all trees and vegetation, and the god Soma to be adored. It furnishes the divine ambrosia or essence of immortality, concealed sometimes in the clouds, some- times in the billows of the soft and silvery light that proceeds from the great-Soma, the great Indu, the moon. Hence this mystic B—2 4 Dfant lore, lwegenos, dnd loyrics. tree, from the foliage of which drops the life-giving Soma, is sometimes characterised as the Hindu Moon-Tree. Out of this cosmogonic tree the immortals shaped the heaven and the earth. It is the Tree of Intelligence, and grows in the third heaven, over which it spreads its mighty branches; beneath it Yama and the Pitris dwell, and quaff the immortalising Soma with the gods. At its foot grow plants of all healing virtue, incorporations of the Soma. ‘Two birds sit on its top, one of which eats Figs, whilst the other simply watches. Other birds press out the Soma juice from its branches. This ambrosial tree, besides dropping the precious Soma, bears fruit and seed of every kind known in the world. Oe OWorfd_-Gree of the uddfirts. The Sacred Tree of Buddha is in the complex theology of his followers represented under different guises: it 1s cosmogonic, it imparts wisdom, it produces the divine ambrosia or food of im- mortality, it yields the refreshing and life-inspiring rain, and it affords an abiding-place for the souls of the blessed. The supernatural and sacred Tree of Buddha, the cloud-tree, the Tree of Knowledge, the Tree of Wisdom, the Ambrosia-tree, is covered with divine flowers; it glows and sparkles with the brilliance of all manner of precious stones ; the root, the trunk, the branches, and the leaves are formed of gems of the most glorious description. It grows in soil pure and delightfully even, to which the rich verdure of grass imparts the tints of a peacock’s neck. It receives the homage of the gods; and the arm of Maya (the mother of Buddha) when she stretches it forth to grasp the bough which bends towards her, shines as the lightning illumines the sky. Beneath this sacred tree, the Tree of Knowledge, Buddha, at whose birth a flash of light pierced through all the world, sat down with the firm resolve not to rise until he had attained the knowledge which ‘‘ maketh free.” Then the Tempter, Mara, advanced with his demoniacal forces: encircling the Sacred Tree, hosts of demons assailed Buddha with fiery darts, amid the whirl of hurricanes, darkness, and the downpour of floods of water, to drive him from the Tree. Buddha, however, maintained his position unmoved ; and at length the demons were compelled to fly. Buddha had conquered, and in defeating the Tempter Mara, and obtaining possession of his Tree of Knowledge, he had also obtained pos- session of deliverance. Prof. De Gubernatis, in explaining this myth, characterises the tree as the cloud-tree: in the clouds the heavenly flame is stored, and it is guarded by the dark demons. In the Vedic hymns, the powers of light and darkness fight their great battle for the clouds, and the ambrosia which they contain ; this is the identical battle of Buddha with the hosts of Mara. In the cloud-battle the ambrosia (amrita) which is in the clouds is won; the enlightenment and deliverance which Buddha wins are ORe OQWorfd-Greer of the Ancient. 5 also called an ambrosia; and the kingdom of knowledge is the land of immortality. There is a tradition current in Thibet that the Tree of Buddha received the name of Tdrdyana, that is to say, The Way of Safety, because it grew by the side of the river that separates the world from heaven ; and that only by means of its overhanging branches could mankind pass from the earthly to the immortal bank. The material tree of Buddha is generally represented either under the form of the Asvattha (the Ficus religiosa), or of the Udumbara (the Ficus glomevata), which appeared at the birth of Buddha ; but in addition to these guises, we find it also associated with the Asoka (Fonesia Asoka), the Palasa (Butea frondosa), the Bhanuphala (Musa sapientum), and sometimes with the Palmyra Palm (Borassus flabelliformis). Under one of these trees the ascetic, Gautama Buddha, one momentous night, went through successively purer and purer stages of abstraction of consciousness, until the sense of omniscient illumination came over him, and he attained to the knowledge of the sources of mortal suffering. That night which Buddha passed under the Tree of Knowledge on the banks of the river Naivanjand, is the sacred night of the Buddhist world. There is a Peepul-tree (Ficus veligiosa) at Buddha Gaya which is regarded as being this particular tree: it is very much decayed, and must have been frequently renewed, as the present tree is standing on a terrace at least thirty feet above the level of the surrounding country. ORe Pranian OWorfd-Gree. The world-tree of the Iranians is the Haoma, which is thought to be the same as the Gaokerena of the Zendavesta. This Haoma, the sacred Vine of the Zoroastrians, produces the primal drink of immortality after which it is named. It is the first of all trees, planted in heaven by Ormuzd, in the fountain of life, near another tree called the ‘“‘ impassive”’ or “ inviolable,” which bears the seeds of every kind of vegetable life. Both these trees are situated in a lake called Vouru Kasha, and are guarded by ten fish, who keep a ceaseless watch upon a lizard sent by the evil power, Ahriman, to destroy the sacred Haoma. The “inviolable” tree is also known both as the eagle’s and the owl’s tree. Either one or the other of these birds (probably the eagle) sits perched on its top. The moment he rises from the tree, a thousand branches shoot forth; when he settles again he breaks a thousand branches, and causes their seed to fall. Another bird, that is his constant companion, picks up these seeds and carries them to where Tistar draws water, which he then rains down upon the earth with the seeds it contains. These two trees—the Haoma and the eagle’s or ‘inviolable ’’—would seem originally to have been one. The lizard sent by Ahriman to destroy the Haoma is known to the 6 Plant loore, lwegenos, dnd lyrics, Indians as a dragon, the spoiler of harvests, and the -ravisher of the Apas, or brides of the gods, Peris who navigate the celestial sea. Oe Addyrian Sacred Gree. In intimate connection with the worship of Assur, the supreme deity of the Assyrians, ‘‘ the God who created himself,” was the Sacred Tree, regarded by the Assyrian race as the personification of life and generation. This tree, which was considered coeval with Assur, the great First Source, was adored in conjunction with the god; for sculptures have been found representing figures kneeling in adoration before it, and bearing mystic offerings to hang upon its boughs. In these sculptured effigies of the Sacred Tree the simplest form consists of a pair of ram’s horns, surmounted by a capital composed of two pairs of rams’ horns, separated by horizontal bands, above which is a scroll, and then a flower resembling the Honeysuckle ornament of the Greeks. Sometimes this blossoms, and generally the stem also throws out a number of smaller blossoms, which are occasionally replaced by Fir-cones and Pomegranates. In the most elaborately-portrayed Sacred Trees there is, besides the stem and the blossoms, a network of branches, which forms a sort of arch, and surrounds the tree as it were with a frame. The Phcenicians, who were not idolaters, in the ordinary acceptation of the word—inasmuch as they did not worship images of their deities, and regarded the ever-burning fire on their altars as the sole emblem of the Supreme Being,—paid adoration to this Sacred Tree, effigies of which were set up in front of the temples, and had sacrifices offered to them. This mystic tree was known to the Jews as Asherah. At festive seasons the Phoenicians adorned it with boughs, flowers, and ribands, and regarded it as the central object of their worship. ORe Mother Gree of the Greeks, Romans, ano Deutons. The Greeks appear to have cherished a tradition that the first race of men sprang from a cosmogonic Ash. This cloud Ash became personified in their myth as a daughter of Oceanos, named Melia, who married the river-god Inachos, and gave birth to Phoroneus, in whom the Peloponnesian legend recognised the fire- bringer and the first man. According to Hesychius, however, Phoroneus was not the only mortal to whom the Mother Ash gave birth, for he tells us distinctly that the race of men was ‘the fruit of the Ash.” Hesiod also repeats the same fable in a somewhat different guise, when he relates how Jove created the third or brazen race of men out of Ash trees. Homer appears to have been acquainted with this tradition, for he makes Penelope say, when — ORe OWorfd_-Sreer of the Ancients. 7 addressing Ulysses: ‘Tell me thy family, from whence thou art ; for thou art not sprung from the olden tree, or from the rock.” The Ash was generally deemed by the Greeks an image of the clouds and the mother of men,—the prevalent idea being that the Meliai, or nymphs of the Ash, were a race of cloud goddesses, daughters BY naa gods, whose domain was originally the cloud sea. But besides the Ash, the Greeks would seem to have regarded the Oak as a tree from which the human race had sprung, and to have called Oak trees the first mothers. This belief was shared by the Romans. Thus Virgil speaks ‘*Of nymphs and fauns, and savage men, who took Their birth from trunks of trees and stubborn Oak.” In another passage the great Latin poet, speaking of the Zsculus, a species of Oak, sacred to Jupiter, gives to it attributes which remind us in a very striking manner of Yggdrasill, the cloud-tree of the Norsemen. “ Zsculus in primis, que quantum vortice ad auras Etherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit.”—Georg. ii. ‘* High as his topmost boughs to heaven ascend, So low his roots to hell’s dominion tend.” —Dryden. In the A©neid, Book IV., speaking of the Oak as Quercus, Virgil uses the same expression with regard to the roots of Jove’s tree descending to the infernal regions. Juvenal, also, in his sixth satire, alluding to the beginning of the world, speaks of the human race as formed of clay or born of the opening Oak, which thus becomes the mystical mother-tree of mankind, and, like a mother, sustained her offspring with food she herself created. Thus Ovid tells us that the simple food of the primal race consisted largely of «‘ Acorns dropping from the tree of Jove;” and we read in Homer and Hesiod that the Acorn was the common food of the Arcadians. The belief of the ancient Greeks and Romans that the progenitors of mankind were born of trees was also common to the Teutons. At the present day, in many parts of both North and South Germany, a hollow tree overhanging a pool is designated as the first abode of unborn infants, and little children are taught to believe that babies are fetched by the doctor from cavernous trees or ancient stumps. ‘Frau Holda’s tree” is a common name in Germany for old decayed boles ; and she herself, the cloud-goddess, is described in a Hessian legend as having in front the form of a a woman, and behind that of a hollow tree with rugged bark. But besides Frau Holda’s tree the ancient Germans knew a cosmogonic tree, assimilating to the Scandinavian Yggdrasill. The trunk of this Teutonic world-tree was called Jyminsul, a name implying the column of the universe, which supports everything. 8 Dfant lore, loegenos, and lyrics, A Byzantine legend, which is current in Russia, tells of a vast world-tree of iron, which in the beginning of all things spread its gigantic bulk throughout space. Its root is the power of God; its head sustains the three worlds,—heaven, with the ocean of air; the earth, with its seas of water; and hell, with its sulphurous fumes and glowing flames. Rabbinic traditions make the Mosaic Tree of Life, which stood in the centre of the Garden of Eden, a vast world-tree, resembling in many points the Scandinavian Ash Yggdrasill. A description of this world-tree of the Rabbins, however, need not appear in the present chapter, since it will be found on page 13. CELA CEE ll, Qe Greer of ®aradide ano the Gree of Adam. 1|}MONGST all peoples, and in all ages, there has lingered a belief possessing peculiar powers of fascination, that in some unknown region, remote and unexplored, there existed a gloriousand happy land ; a land of sunshine, luxuriance, and plenty, a land of stately trees and beauteous flowers,— a terrestrial Paradise. A tradition contained in the sacred books of the Parsis states that at the beginning of the world Ormuzd, the giver of all good, created the primal steer, which contained the germs of all the animals. Ahriman, the evil spirit, then created venomous animals which destroyed the steer: while dying, there sprang out of his right hip the first man, and out of his left hip the first man’s soul. From him arose a tree whence came the original human pair, namely Mdshya and Mashyéi who were placed in Heden, a delightful spot, where grew Hom (or Haoma), the Tree of Life, the fruit of which gave vigour and immortality. This Paradise was in Iran. The woman being persuaded by Ahriman, in the guise of a serpent, gave her husband fruit to eat, which was destructive. The Persians also imagined a Paradise on Mount Caucasus. The Arabians conceived an Elysium in the midst of the deserts of Aden. The pagan Scandinavians sang of the Holy City of Asgard, situated in the centre of the world. The Celts believed an earthly Paradise to exist in the enchanted Isle of Avalon—the Island of the Blest— “Where falls not hail or rain, or any snow, Nor even wind blows loudly ; but it lies Deep-meadow’d, happy, fair, with orchard lawn And bowery hollows.” The Greeks and Romans pictured to themselves the delightful gardens of the Hesperides, where grew the famous trees that IO Dfant gore, laegenos, and lsyries. produced Apples of gold; and in the early days of Christendom the poets of the West dreamt of a land in the East (the true Paradise of Adam and Eve, as they believed) in which dwelt in a Palm-tree the golden-breasted Phcenix,—the bird of the sun, which was thought to abide a hundred years in this Elysium of the Arabian deserts, and then to appear in the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, fall upon the blazing altar, and, pouring forth a melodious song from or through the orifices of its feathers (which thus formed a thousand organ-pipes), cremate itself, only to rise again from its smoking ashes, and fly back to its home in the Palm-tree of the earthly Paradise. The Russians tell of a terrestrial Paradise to be sought for on the island of Bujan, where grows the vast Oak tree, amidst whose majestic branches the sun nestles to sleep every evening, and from whose summit he rises every morning. The Hindu religion shadows forth an Elysium on Mount Meru, on the confines of Cashmere and Thibet. The garden of the great Indian god Indra is a spot of unparalleled beauty. Here are to be found an umbrageous grove or wood, where the gods delight to take their ease; cooling fountains and rivulets; an en- chanting flower-garden, luminous flowers, immortalising fruits, and brilliantly-plumed birds, whose melody charms the gods them- selves. In this Paradise are fine trees, which were the first things that appeared- above the surface of the troubled waters at the beginning of the creation; from these trees drop the immortalising ambrosia. The principal tree is the Parijdta, the flower of which preserves its perfume all the year round, combines in its petals every odour and every flavour, presents to each his favorite colour and most-esteemed perfume, and procures happiness for those who ask it. But beyond this, it is a token of virtue, losing its freshness in the hands of the wicked, but preserving it with the just and honourable. This wondrous flower will also serve as a torch by night, and will emit the most enchanting sounds, producing the sweetest and most varied melody; it assuages hunger and thirst, cures diseases, and remedies the ravages of old age. The Paradise of Mahomet is situated in the seventh heaven. In the centre of it stands the marvellous tree called Tooba,* which is so large that a man mounted on the fleetest horse could not ride round its branches in one hundred years. This tree not only affords the most grateful shade over the whole extent of the Mussulman Paradise; but its boughs are laden with delicious fruits of a size and taste unknown to mortals, and moreover bend themselves at the wish of the inhabitants of this abode of bliss, to enable them to partake of these delicacies without any trouble. The Koran often speaks of the rivers of Paradise as adding greatly * The name of ‘‘ Zoba.” applied to this tree, originated in a misunderstanding of the words 7o0da lahum, ‘‘it is well with them,” or ‘‘ blessedness awaits them,” in Koran xiii., 28. Some commentators took 7ooda for the name of a tree. ORe Greer of Paradire ayo the Gree of Adam. 11 to its delights. All these rivers take their rise from the tree Tooba ; some flow with water, some with milk, some with honey, and others even with wine, the juice of the grape not being for- bidden to the blessed. We have seen how the most ancient races conceived and cherished the notion of a Paradise of surpassing beauty, situate in remote and unknown regions, both celestial and terrestrial. It is not, therefore, surprising that the Paradise of the Hebrew race— the Mosaic Eden—should have been pictured as a luxuriant garden, stocked with lovely flowers and odorous herbs, and shaded by majestic trees of every description. We are told, in the second chapter of Genesis, that at the beginning of the world ‘the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden,” and that out of this country of Eden a river went out “to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.” These “heads” or rivers are further on, in the Biblical narrative, named respectively Pison, Gihon, Hid- dekel, and Euphrates. Many have been the speculations as to the exact site, geographical features, &c., of Eden, and the Divinely- planted Paradise in its midst, and the subject has been one which has ever been fruitful of controversy and conjecture. Sir John Maundevile has recorded that the Garden of Eden, or Paradise, was enclosed by a wall. This old Eastern traveller tells us that although, in the course of his wanderings, he had never actually seen the land of Eden, yet wise men had discoursed to him con- cerning it. He says: ‘‘ Paradise Terrestre, as wise men say, is the highest place of earth—that is, in all the world ; and it is so high, that it toucheth nigh to the circle of the moon. For it is so high that the flood of Noah might never come to it, albeit it did cover all the earth of the world, all about, and aboven and beneathen, save Paradise alone. And this Paradise is enclosed all about with a wall, and men wist not whereof it is; for the walls be covered all over with moss, as it seemeth. And it seemeth not that the wallis stone of nature. And that wall stretcheth from the South to the North, and it hath not but one entry, that is closed with fire burning, so that no man that is mortal ne dare not enter. And in the highest place of Paradise, exactly in the middle, is a well that casts out the four streams which run by divers lands, of which the first is called Pison, or Ganges, that runs throughout India. And the other is called Nile, or Gyson, which goes through Ethiopia, and after through Egypt. And the other is called Tigris, which runs by Assyria, and by Armenia the Great. And the other is called Euphrates, which runs through Media, Armenia, and Persia. And men there beyond say that all the sweet waters of the world, above and beneath, take their beginning from the well of Paradise, and out of the well all waters come and go.” Eden (a Hebrew word, signifying ‘‘ Pleasure ”’), it is generally conceded, was the most beauteous and luxuriant portion of the 12 Dfant lore, egenyos, and loyrics. world ; and the Garden of Eden, the Paradise of Adamand Eve, was the choicest and most exquisite portion of Eden. As regards the situation of this terrestrial Paradise, the Biblical narrative dis- tinctly states that it was in the East, but various have been the speculations as to the precise locality. Moses, in writing of Eden, probably contemplated the country watered by the Tigris and Euphrates—the land of the mighty city of Babylon. Many traditions confirm this view: not only were there a district called Eden, and a town called Paradisus, in Syria, a neighbouring country to Mesopotamia, but in Mesopotamia itself there is a certain region which, as late as the year 1552, was called Eden. Some would localise the Eden of Scripture near Mount Lebanon, in Syria; others between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, to the west of Babylon ; others, again, in the delightful plains of Armenia, or in the highlands of Armenia, where the Tigris and Euphrates have their rise. An opinion very generally held is, that Eden was placed at the junction of several rivers, on a site which is now swallowed up by the Persian Gulf, and that it never existed after the deluge, which effaced this Paradise from the face of a polluted earth. Another theory places Eden in a vast central portion of the globe, comprising a large piece of Asia and a portion of Africa, the four rivers being the Ganges, the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the Nile. Dr. Wild, of Toronto, is of opinion that the Garden of Paradise embraced what we now call Syria. The land that God gave to Abraham and his seed for ever—the Land of Promise, the Holy Land—is the very territory that constituted the Garden of Paradise. ‘‘ Before the flood,” says the reverend gentleman, ‘‘there was in connection with this garden, to the east of it, a gate and a flaming sword, guarding this gate, and a way to the Tree of Life. On that very spot I believe the Great Pyramid of Egypt to be built, to mark where the face of God shone forth to man before the Flood ; and the Flood, by changing the land surface through the chang- ing of the ocean bed, changed the centre somewhat, and threw it further south. It is the very centre of the earth now where the Pyramid stands, . . . . and marks the place where the gate of Eden was before the Flood.” * * Besides the localities already mentioned, Paradise has been located on Mount Ararat ; in Persia ; in Ethiopia; in the land now covered by the Caspian Sea; in a plain on the summit of Mount Taurus; in Sumatra; in the Canaries; and in the Island of Ceylon, where there is a mountain called the Peak of Adam, underneath which, according to native tradition, lie buried the remains of the first man, and whereon is shown the gigantic impress of his foot. Goropius Becanus places Paradise near the river Acesines, on the confines of India. Tertullian, Bonaventura, and Durandus affirm that it was under the Equinoctial, while another authority contends that it was situated beneath the North Pole. Virgil places’ the happy land of the Hyperboreans under the North Pole, and the Arctic Regions were long associated with ideas of enchantment and beauty, chiefly because of the mystery that has always enveloped these remote and unexplored regions. Peter Comestor and Moses Barcephas set Paradise in a region separated from our habitable zone by a long tract of land and sea, and elevated so that it reaches to the sphere of the moon, . Oe Drees of Paradire ajo the Gree of Adam. 13 ORe Pree of Wife. Whatever may have been the site of the land of Eden or Pleasure, Moses, in describing Paradise as its garden (much as we speak of Kent as the Garden of England), doubtless wished to convey the idea of a sanctuary of delight and primal loveliness ; indeed, he tells us that ‘out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” This Paradise was in the middle of Eden, and in the middle of Paradise was planted the Tree of Life, and, close by, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Into this garden the Lord put the man whom He had formed, ‘to dress and to keep it,” in other words to till, plant, and sow. In the very centre of Paradise, in the midst of the land of Eden, grew the Tree of Life. Now, what was this tree? Various have been the conjectures with regard to its nature. The tradi- tions of the Rabbins make the Tree of Life a supernatural tree, resembling the world- or cloud-trees of the Scandinavians and Hindus, and bearing a striking resemblance to the Tooba of the Mahomedan Paradise. They describe the Tree of Life as being of enormous bulk, towering far above all others, and so vast in its girth, that no man, even if he lived so long, could travel roundit in less than five hundred years. From beneath the colossal base of this stupen- dous tree gushed all the waters of the earth, by whose instrumentality nature was everywhere refreshed and invigorated. Regarding these Rabbinic traditions as purely mythical, certain commentators have regarded the Tree of Life as typical only of that life and the continuance of it which our first parents derived from God. Others think that it was called the Tree of Life because it was a memorial, pledge, and seal of the eternal life which, had man continued in obedience, would have been his reward in the Paradise above. Others, again, believe that the fruit of it had a certain vital influence to cherish and maintain man in immortal health and vigour till he should have been translated from the earthly to the heavenly Paradise. Dr. Wild considers that the Tree of Life stood on Mount Moriah, the very spot selected, in after years, by Abraham, whereon to offer his son Isaac, the type, and the mount to which Christ was led out to be sacrificed. As Eden occupied the centre of the world, and the Tree of Life was planted in the middle of Eden, that spot marked the very centre of the world, and it was necessary that He who was the life of mankind should die in the centre of the world, and act fromthecentre. Hence, the Tree of Life, destroyed at the flood, on account of man’s wickedness, was replaced on the same spot, centuries after, by the Cross,—converted by the Redeemer into a second and everlasting Tree of Life. Adam was told he might eat freely of every tree in the garden, excepting only the Tree of Knowledge; we may, therefore, suppose 14 ®fant lore, lwegeros, dnd lyrics, that he would be sure to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life, which, from its prominent position ‘‘in the midst of the garden,” would naturally attract his attention. Like the sacred Soma- tree of the Hindus, the Tree of Life probably yielded heavenly ambrosia, and supplied to Adam food that invigorated and refreshed him with its immortal sustenance. So long as he remained in obedience, he was privileged to partake of this glorious food; but when, yielding to Eve’s solicitations, he disobeyed the Divine command, and partook of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, he found it had given to him the knowledge of evil—something of which he had hitherto been in happy ignorance. He had sinned ; he was no longer fit to taste the immortal ambrosia of the Tree of Life; he was, therefore, driven forth from Eden, and lest he should be tempted once again to return and partake of the glorious fruit of the immortalising tree, God ‘placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life.” Henceforth the immortal food was lost to man: he could no longer partake of that mystic fruit which bestowed life and health. Dr. Wild is of opinion that the Tree of Knowledge stood on Mount Zion, the spot afterwards selected by the Almighty for the erection of the Temple ; because, through the Shechinah, men could there obtain knowledge of good and evil. Some have claimed that the Banana, the Musa pavadisiaca, was the Tree of Life, and that another species of the tree, the Musa sapientum, was the Tree of Knowledge; others consider that the Indian sacred Fig-tree, the Ficus religiosa, the Hindu world-tree, was the Tree of Life which grew in the middle of Eden; and the Bible itself contains internal evidence supporting this idea. In Gen. ui. 8, we read that Adam and Eve, conscious of having sinned, ‘“ hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.” Dr. Wright, however, in his Commentary, remarks that, in the original, the word rendered ‘‘trees”’ is singular—‘‘in the midst of the tree of the garden ”— consequently, we may infer that Adam and Eve, frightened by the knowledge of their sin, sought the shelter of the Tree of Life—the tree in the centre of the garden; the tree which, if it were the Ficus veligiosa, would, by its gigantic stature, and the grove-like nature of its growth, afford them agreeable shelter, and prove a favourite retreat. Beneath the shade of this stupendous Fig-tree, the erring pair reflected upon their lost innocence; and in their conscious shame, plucked the ample foliage of the tree, and made themselves girdles of Fig-leaves. Here they remained hidden - beneath the network of boughs which drooped almost to the earth, and thus formed a natural thicket within which they sought to hide themselves from an angry God. “A pillared shade High over-arched, with echoing walks between.”— Aft/ton. Oe Prees of Paradire ayo the Gree of Adam. 15. ORe Pree of Rnowfedge of Good. ano Evif, The Tree of Knowledge, in the opinion of some commentators, was so called, not because of any supernatural power it possessed of inspiring those who might eat of it with universal knowledge, as the serpent afterwards suggested, but because by Adam and Eve abstaining from or eating of it after it was prohibited, God would see whether they would prove good or evil in their state of probation. The tradition generally accepted as to the fruit which the serpent tempted Eve to eat, fixes it as the Apple, but there is no evidence in the Bible that the Tree of Knowledge was an Apple- tree, unless the remark, ‘I raised thee up under the Apple-tree,” to be found in Canticles viil., 5, be held to apply to our first parents. Eve is stated to have plucked the forbidden fruit because she saw that it was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and that the tree which bore it was ‘to be desired to make one wise.” According to an Indian legend, it was the fruit of the Banana tree (Musa paradisiaca or M. sapientum) that proved so fatal to Adam and Eve. We read in Gerarde’s ‘ Herbal,’ that ‘“‘the Grecians and Christians which inhabit Syria, and the Jewes also, suppose it to be that tree of whose fruit Adam did taste.” Gerarde himself calls it “* Adam’s Apple-tree,” and remarks of the fruit, that “if it be cut according to the length oblique, transverse, or any other way whatsoever, may be seen the shape and forme of a crosse, with a man fastened thereto. My selfe have seene the fruit, and cut it in pieces, which was brought me from Aleppo, in pickle; the crosse, I might perceive, as the forme of a spred-egle in the root of Ferne, but the man I leave to be sought for by those which have better eies and judgement than my selfe.” Sir John Mandeville gives a similar account of the cross in the Plantain or ‘* Apple of Paradise.” In a work by Léon, called ‘ Africa,’ it is stated that the Banana is in that country generally identified with the Treeof Adam. ‘ The Mahometan priests say that this fruit is that which God forbade Adam and Eve to eat; for immediately they eat they perceived their nakedness, and to cover themselves employed the leaves of this tree, which are more suitable tor the purpose than any other.” To this day the Indian Djainas are by their laws forbidden to eat either Bananas or Figs. Vincenzo, a Roman missionary of the seventeenth century, after stating that the Banana fruit in Pheenicia bears the effigy of the Crucifixion, tells us that the Christians of those parts would not on any account cut it with a knife, but always broke it with their hands. This Banana, he adds, grows near Damascus, and they call it there ‘‘ Adam’s Fig Tree.” In the Canaries, at the present time, Banana fruit is never cut across with a knife, because it then exhibits a representation of the Crucifixion. In the island of Ceylon there is a legend that Adam once had a fruit garden in the vicinity of the torrent of Seetagunga, on the way to the Peak. Pridham, in his history of the island, tells us 16 Dfant loore, egenos, and lyric. that from the circumstance that various fruits have been occasionally carried down the stream, both the Moormen and Singalese believe that this garden still exists, although now inaccessible, and that its explorer would never return. Tradition, however, affirms that in the centre of this Ceylon Paradise grows a large Banana-tree, the fruit of which when cut transversely exhibits the figure of a man crucified, and that from the huge leaves of this tree Adam and Eve made themselves coverings. Certain commentators are of opinion that the Tree of Know- ledge was a Fig-tree—the Ficus Indica, the Banyan, one of the sacred trees of the Hindus, under the pillared shade of which the god Vishnu was fabled to have been born. In this case the Fig- tree is a tree of ill-omen—a tree watched originally by Satan in the form of a serpent, and whose fruit gave the knowledge of evil. After having tempted and caused Adam to fall by means of its fruit, its leaves were gathered to cover nakedness and shame. Again, the Fig was the tree which the demons selected as their refuge, if one may judge from the faunt ficavit, whom St. Jerome recognised in certain monsters mentioned by the prophets. The Fig was the only tree accursed by Christ whilst on earth; and the wild Fig, according to tradition, was the tree upon which the traitor Judas hanged himself, and from that time has always been regarded as under a bane. The Citron is held by many to have been the forbidden fruit. Gerarde tells us that this tree was originally called Pomum Assyrium, but that it was known among the Italian people as Pomum Adamzt ; and, writes the old herbalist, ‘‘ that came by the opinion of the common rude people, who thinke it to be the same Apple which Adam did eate of in Paradise, when he transgressed God’s commandment; whereupon also the prints of the biting appeare therein as they say; but others say that this is not the Apple, but that which the Arabians do call Musa or Mosa, whereof Avicen maketh mention: for divers of the Jewes take this for that through which by eating Adam offended.” The Pomegranate, Orange, Corn, and Grapes have all been identified as the ‘forbidden fruit;” but upon what grounds it is difficult to surmise. After their disobedience, Adam and Eve were driven out of Paradise, and, according to Arabian tradition, Adam took with him three things—an ear of Wheat, which is the chief of all kinds of food ; Dates, which are the chief of fruits; and the Myrtle, which is the chief of sweet-scented flowers. Maimonides mentions a legend, cherished by the Nabatheans, that Adam, when he reached the district about Babylon, had come from India, carrying with him a golden tree in blossom, a leaf that no fire would burn, two leaves, each of which would cover a man, and an enormous leaf plucked from a tree beneath whose branches ten thousand men could find shelter. ORe Greer of Paradire ayo the Pree of Adam. 17 ORe Pree of Adam. There is a legend handed down both by Hebrews and Greeks, that when Adam had attained the ripe age of 900 years, he over- taxed his strength in uprooting an enormous bush, and that falling very sick, and feeling the approach of death, he sent his son Seth to the angel who guarded Paradise, and particularly the way to the Tree of Life, to ask of him some of its ambrosia, or oil of mercy, that he might anoint his limbs therewith, and so regain good health. Seth approached the Tree of Knowledge, of the fruit of which Adam and Eve had once partaken. A youth, radiant as the sun, was seated on its summit, and, addressing Seth, told him that He was the Son of God, that He would one day come down to earth, to deliver it from sin, and that He would then give the oil of mercy to Adam. The angel who was guarding the Tree of Life then handed to Seth three small seeds, charging him to place them in his father’s mouth, when he should bury him near Mount Tabor, in the valley of Hebron. Seth obeyed the angel’s behests. The three seeds took root, and in a short time appeared above the ground, in the form of three rods. One of these saplings was a branch of Olive, the second a Cedar, the third a Cypress. The three rods did not leave the mouth of Adam, nor was their existence known until the time of Moses, who received from God the order to cut them. Moses obeyed, and with these three rods, which exhaled a perfume of the Promised Land, performed many miracles, cured the sick, drew water from a rock, &c. After the death of Moses, the three rods remained unheeded in the Valley of Hebron until the time of King David, who, warned by the Holy Ghost, sought and found them there. Hence they were taken by the King to Jerusalem, where all the leprous, the dumb, the blind, the paralysed, and other sick people presented themselves before the King, beseeching him to give them the salvation of the Cross. King David thereupon touched them with the three rods, and their infirmities instantly vanished. After this the King placed the three rods in a cistern, but to his astonishment upon going the next day for them, he discovered they had all three firmly taken root, that the roots had become inextricably interlaced, and that the three rods were in fact reunited in one stem which had shot up therefrom, and had become a Cedar sapling,— the tree that was eventually to furnish the wood of the Cross. This reunion of the three rods was typical of the Trinity. The young Cedar was subsequently placed in the Temple, but we hear nothing more of it for thirty years, when Solomon, wishing to complete the Temple, obtained large supplies of Cedars of Lebanon, and as being well adapted for his purpose cut down the Cedar of the Temple. The trunk of this tree, lying with the other timber, was seen by a woman, who sat down on it, and inspired with the Cc 18 Dfant gore, leegenos, dnd Tsyries. spirit of prophecy cried: ‘‘ Behold! the Lord predicts the virtues of the Sacred Cross.” The Jews thereupon attacked the woman, and having stoned her, they plunged the sacred wood of the Temple into the piscina probatica, of which the water acquired from that moment healing qualities, and which was afterwards called the Pool of Bethesda. In the hope of profaning it the Jews afterwards em- ployed the sacred wood in the construction of the bridge of Siloam, over which everybody unheedingly passed, excepting only the Queen of Sheba, who, prostrating herself, paid homage to it and prophetically cried that of this wood would one day be made the Cross of the Redeemer. Thus, although Adam by eating the fruit of the Tree of Know- ledge, came to know that which was evil, and could no longer be per- mitted to partake of the fruit or essence of the Tree of Life, yet, from its seeds, placed in his mouth after death, sprang the tree which produced the Cross of Christ, by means of which he and his race could attain to eternal life. According to Prof. Mussafia,* an authority quoted by De Gubernatis, the origin of this legend of Seth’s visit to Paradise is to be found in the apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus, where it is stated that the Angel Michael refused to give the oil of mercy to Seth, and told him that Christ would one day visit the earth to anoint all believers, and to conduct Adam to the Tree of Mercy. Some of the legends collected by the Professor are very curious. An Austrian legend records that the Angel Michael gave to Eve and her son Seth a spray with three leaves, plucked from the Tree of Knowledge, with directions to plant it on the grave of Adam. ‘The spray took root and became a tree, which Solomon placed as an ornament in the Temple of Jerusalem, and which was cast into the piscina probatica, where it lay until the day of Christ’s condemnation, when it was taken out and fashioned into the Cross on which He suffered. A German legend narrates that Eve went with Seth to Paradise, where she encountered the serpent; but the Angel Michael gave her a branch of Olive, which, planted over the grave of Adam, grew rapidly. After the death of Eve, Seth returned to Paradise, and there met the Angel, who had in his hands a branch to which was suspended the half of the Apple which had been bitten by his mother Eve. The Angel gave this to Seth, at the same time recommending him to take as great care of it as of the Olive planted on Adam’s grave, because these two trees would one day become the means of the redemption of mankind. Seth scrupulously watched over the precious branch, and at the hour of his death bequeathed it to the best of men. Thus it came into the hands of Noah, who took it into the Ark with him. After the Deluge, Noah sent forth the dove as a messenger, and it brought * Treatise on the Legend of the Sacred Wood. Vienna, 1870. ORe Tree of Adam. 19 to him a branch of the Olive planted on the tomb of Adam. Noah religiously guarded the two precious branches which were destined to be instrumental in redeeming the human race by furnishing the wood of the Cross. A second German legend states that Adam, when at the point of death, sent Seth to Paradise to gather there for him some of the forbidden fruit (probably this is a mistake for ‘‘some of the fruit of the Tree of Life”). Seth hesitated, saying as an excuse that he did not know the way. Adam directed him to follow a tract of country entirely bare of vegetation. Arrived safely at Paradise, Seth persuaded the angel to give him, not the Apple, but simply the core of the Apple tasted by Eve. On Seth returning home, he found his father dead; so extracting from the Apple-core three pips, he placed them in Adam’s mouth. From them sprang three plants that Solomon cut down in order to form a cross—the self- same cross afterwards borne by our Saviour, and on which He was crucified—and a rod of justice, which, split in the middle, eventually served to hold the superscription written by Pilate, and placed at the head of the Cross. A legend, current in the Greek Church, claims the Olive as the Tree of Adam: this, perhaps, is not suprising considering in what high esteem the Greeks have always held the Olive. The legend tells how Seth, going to seek the oil of mercy in Paradise, in consequence of his father’s illness, was told by the angel that the time had not arrived. The angel then presented him with three branches—the Olive, Cedar, and Cypress: these Seth was ordered to plant over Adam’s grave, and the promise was given him that when they produced oil, Adam should rise restored to health. Seth, following these instructions, plaited the three branches together and planted them over the grave of his father, where they soon became united as one tree. After a time this tree was transplanted, in the first place to Mount Lebanon, and after- wards to the outskirts of Jerusalem, and it is there to this day in the Greek Monastery, having been cut down and the timber placed beneath the altar. From this circumstance the Monastery was called, in Hebrew, the Mother of the Cross. This same wood was revealed to Solomon by the Queen of Sheba, and Solomon therefore ordered it to be used in the foundation of a tower; but the tower having been rent in twain by an earthquake which occurred at our Saviour’s birth, the wood was cast into a pool called the probatica piscina, to which it imparted wonderful healing qualities.* * Sir John Maundevile, who visited Jerusalem about the middle of the fourteenth century, states that to the north of the Temple stood the Church of St. Anne, ‘ oure Ladyes modre: and there was our Lady conceyved. And before that chirche is a fret tree, that began to growe the same nyght. . . . And in that chirche is a welle, in manere of a cisterne, that is clept Prodatica Piscina, that hath 5 entreez. Into that welle aungeles were wont to come from Hevene, and bathen hem with inne : and what man that first bathed him aftre the mevynge of the watre, was made hool of what maner sykenes that he hadde.” c—2 20 fant loore, laegenos, dnd loyriecs. There is another somewhat similar Greek legend, in which Abraham takes the place of Adam, and the Pine supersedes the Olive. According to this version, a shepherd met Abraham on the banks of the Jordan, and confessed to him a sin he had committed. Abraham listened, and counselled the erring shepherd to plant three stakes, and to water them carefully until they should bud. After forty days the three stakes had taken the form of a Cypress, a Cedar, and a Pine, having different roots and branches, but one indivisible trunk. This tree grew until the time of Solomon, who wished to make use of it in the construction of the Temple. After several abortive attempts, it was at length made into a seat for visitors to the Temple. The Sibyl Erythraa (the Queen of Sheba) refused to sit upon it, and exclaimed: ‘Thrice blessed is this wood, on which shall perish Christ, the King and God.” Then Solomon had the wood mounted on a pedestal and adorned with thirty rings or crowns of silver. These thirty rings became the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Judas, the betrayer, and the wood was eventually used for the Saviour’s Cross. l) EZ tii a tbe wip. me > z, > Ooh) WD WD Ve ies RELL: CHAPTER III. SacrecL Greer fe Pfanty of the Ancients. LL the nations of antiquity entertained for certain treesand plants a special reverence, which inmany cases degenerated into a superstitious worship. The myths of all countries contain allusions to sacred or supernatural plants. The Veda mentions the heavenly tree which the lightning strikes down ; the mythology of the Finns speaks of the celestial Oak which the sun-dwarf uproots ; Yama, the Vedic god of death, sits drinking with companies of the blessed, under a leafy tree, just as in the northern Saga Hel’s place is at the foot of the Ash Yggdrasill. In the eyes of the ancient Persians the tree, by its changes in Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, appeared as ‘the emblem of human existence, whilst at the same time, by the con- tinuity of its life, it was reverently regarded as a symbol of immortality. Hence it came to pass that in Persia trees of unusual qualities were in course of time looked upon as being the abode of holy and even celestial spirits. Such trees became sacred, and were addressed in prayer by the reverential Parsis, though they eschewed the worship of idols, and honoured the sun and moon simply as symbols. Ormuzd, the good spirit, is set forth as giving this command :—‘‘ Go, O Zoroaster! to the living trees, and let thy mouth speak before them these words: I pray to the pure trees, the creatures of Ormuzd.” Of all trees, however, the Cypress, with its pyramidal top pointing to the sky, was to the Parsis the most venerated: hence they planted it before their temples and palaces as symbolic of the celestial fire. The Oak, the strongest of all trees, has been revered as the emblem of the Supreme Being by almost all the nations of heathen- dom, by the Jewish Patriarchs, and by the children of Israel, who eventually came to esteem the tree sacred, and offered sacrifices beneath its boughs. Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Teutons, and Celts, all considered the Oak as sacred, and the Druids taught the people of Britain to regard this tree with peculiar reverence and 22 Dfant Wore, laegenos, and lyrics, respect. It is frequently mentioned by the Roman poets as the tree of Jove, to whom it was dedicated ; and near to Chaonia, a mountainous part of Epirus, was a forest of Oaks, called the Chaonian or Dodonzan Forest, where oracles were given, as some say, by the trees themselves. The world-tree of Romowe, the old centre of the Prussians, was an Oak, and it was reverenced as a tree of great sanctity. The Indians adored the tree Asoka, consecrated to Vishnu; and the Banyan, in the belief that Vishnu was born amongst its branches.* The Soma-lata (Sarcostemma aphylla), or sacred plant yielding the immortal fluid offered to the gods on the altars of the Brahmans, is regarded with extreme reverence. The name Amrita, or Immortal Tree, is given to the Euphorbia, Panicum Dactylon, Cocculus cordifolius, Pinus Deodara, Emblica officinalis, Terminalia citrina, Piper longum, and many others. The Holy Basil (Ocimum sanctum) is looked upon asa sacred plant. The Deodar is the Devaddyu or tree-god of the Shastras, alluded to in Vedic hymns as the symbol of majesty and power. To Indra, the supreme god of the Vedic Olympus, are dedi- cated the Tevminalia Arjuna (the Tree of Indra), the Methonica superba (the Flower of Indra), a species of Pumpkin called Indva-vavuniha (appertaining to Indra and Varuna), the Vitex Negundo (the drink of Indra), the Abrus precatorius, and Hemp (the food of Indra). To Brahma are sacred the Butea frondosa, the Ficus glomerata, the Mulberry (the seed of Brahma), the Clevodendvon Siphonanthus, the Hemionitis cordifolia (leaf of Brahma), the Saccharum Munga (with which is formed the sacred girdle of the Brahmans), and the Poa cynosuroides, or Kusa Grass, a species of Vervain, employed in Hindu sacrificial rites, and held in such sanctity as to be acknow- ledged as a god. The Peepul or Bo-tree (Ficus veligiosa) is held sacred by Buddhists as the Holy Tree and the Tree of Knowledge. The Burmese Buddhists surround their Pagodas and religious houses with trees, for which they entertain a high regard. The first holy men dwelt under the shade of forest trees, and from that circumstance, in the Burmese cultus, every Budh is specially con- nected with some tree—as Shin Gautama with the Banyan, under which he attained his full dignity,and the Shorea vobusta, under which * In the rites appertaining to the great sacrifice in honour of the god Vishnu at the end of March, the following plants were employed, and consequently acquired a sacred character in the eyes of the Indians :—Sesamum seed, leaves of the Asvattha, Mango leaves, flowers of the Sami, Kunda flowers, the Lotus flower, Oleander flowers, Nagakesara flowers, powdered Tulasi leaves, powdered Bel leaves, leaves of the Kunda, Barley meal, meal of the Nivara grain (a wild paddy), powder of Sati leaves, Turmeric powder, meal of the Syamaka grain, powdered Ginger, powdered Priyangu seeds, Rice meal, powder of Bel leaves, powder of the leaves of the Amblic Myrobalan, and Kangni seed meal.— Ax /imperial Assemblage at Delhi Three Thousand Years Ago. Sacred. Greer ano Pfanty of the Ancient, 23 he was born and died—and, as we are told, the last Budh of this world cycle, Areemadehya, will receive his Buddhaship under the Mesua fervea. The Burman also regards the Eugenia as a plant of peculiar sanctity—a protective from all harm. The Jamboa, or Rose Apple, is held in much reverence in Thibet, where it is looked upon as the representative of the mystical Amrita, the tree which in Paradise produces the amrita or ambrosia of the gods. The Cedar has always been regarded by the Jews as a sacred tree; and to this day the Maronites, Greeks, and Armenians go up to the Cedars of Lebanon, at the Feast of the Transfiguration, and celebrate Mass at their feet. To the ancient inhabitants of Northern Europe the Elm and the Ash were objects of especial veneration. Many sacred trees or pillars, formed of the living trunks of trees, have been found in Germany, called Iyminseule, one of which was destroyed by Charlemagne in 772, in Westphalia. The Mountain Ash, or Rowan Tree, was, in olden times, an object of great veneration in Britain; and in Evelyn’s day was reputed of such sanctity in Wales, that there was not a churchyard that did not contain one. The colossal Baobab (Adansonia) is worshipped as a divinity by the negroes of Senegambia. The Nipa or Susa Palm (Nifa fruticans) is the sacred tree of Borneo. The gigantic Dragon Tree (Dvacena Draco) of Orotava was for centuries the object of deep reverence to the aborigines of the Canary Isles. The Zamang of Guayra, an enormous Mimosa, has from time imme- morial been held sacred in the province of Caracas. The Moriche Palm (Mauritia flexuosa) is considered a deity by the Tamancas, a tribe of Oronoco Indians, and is held sacred by the aboriginal Mexicans. The Nelumbo, or Sacred Bean (Nelumbium speciosum), was the Lotus adored by the Ancient Egyptians, who also paid divine honours to the Onion, Garlic, Acacia, Laurel, Peach-tree, Lentils of various sorts, and the Heliotrope. Wormwood was dedicated to Isis, and Antivyhinum (supposed to be the ancient Cynocephalia, or Dog’s Head) to Osiris. The sacred Lotus of the East, the flower of the ** Old Hindu mythologies, wherein The Lotus, attribute of Ganga—embleming The world’s great reproductive power—was held In veneration,” was the Nelumbium speciosum. This mystic flower is a native of Northern Africa, India, China, Japan, Persia, and Asiatic Russia, and in all these countries has, for centuries, maintained its sacred character. It is the Lien-wha of the Chinese, and, according to their theology, enters into the beverage of immortality. 24 Dfant loore, laegenos, dnd lsyrics, Henna (Lawsonia alba), the flower of Paradise, is dedicated to Mahomet, who characterised it as the ‘‘ chief of the flowers of this world and the next.” The Pomegranate-tree was highly reverenced both by the Persians and the Jews. The fruit was embroidered on the hem of Aaron’s sacred robe, and adorned the robes of Persia’s ancient Priest-Kings. Pine-cones were regarded by the Assyrians as sacred symbols, and as such were used in the decoration of their temples. In Teutonic and Scandinavian mythology the Rose is sacred to Hulda, the Flax to Bertha, the Spignel to Baldr, and the Hair Moss (Polytvichum commune) is dedicated to Thor’s wife, Sif. Of the divinities after whom the days of the week were named, the Sun has his special flower, the Moon her Daisy, Tyr (Tuesday) the Tys-fiola or March Violet and the Mezereon ; Woden ( Wednesday ) the Geranium sylvaticum (Odin’s Favour) and the Monkshood (Odin’s Helm); Thor (Thursday) the Monkshood (Thor’s Hat) and the Burdock (Thor’s Mantle) ; Frigg (fviday) and Freyja, who is often confounded with her, had many plants dedicated to them, which have since been transferred to Venus and the Virgin Mary, and are not now recognised by the name of either of the Scandinavian goddesses. In the North of Europe, however, the Supercilium Veneris is still known as Freyja’s Hair, and the perfumed Orchis Gymnadenia conopsea as Frigg’s Grass. Szeterne or Setere (Saturday), the supposed name of an Anglo-Saxon god, is probably but a mere adaptation of the Roman Saturnus. It may, perhaps, be apposite to quote (for what it may be worth) Verstegan’s statement that the Saxons represented ‘Seater’ as carrying a pail of water in which were flowers and fruits, whereby ‘‘ was declared that with kindly raine he would nourish the earth to bring foorth such fruites and flowers.” In the Grecian and Roman mythology we find numerous trees and flowers dedicated to the principal divinities. Thus, the Alder was dedicated to Neptune. Apple Pry a4 » Wenus. Ash . ie i) ONLATS; Bay 7 Pe a. spolle: Beech - § 55 Jupiter Ammon. Cornel Cherry ,, 43 a, “pollo. Cypress 33 es umd luto: Dittany i a », Juno, Diana, and Luna. Dog-grass kis be a oars. Fir ee a », Cybele and Neptune. Heliotrope ne ps », Phoebus Apollo. Horsetail & a by beOBLOL DE Iris " 3 ot aguna: Ivy de Bs * owBacchus: Laurel ae x a) “Apollo, Sacred Orees ano Pfanty of the Ancienty, 25 / % Lily was dedicated to Juno. Maidenhair ,, oe ES luto and Proserpine. Myrtle - “a », Wenus and Mars. Narcissus Me a », Ceres, Pluto, and Proserpine. Oak a j- papiter: Olive oi a3 » Minerva. Palm Pa es », Mercury. Pine re - », Neptune and Pan. Pink Ae oe a. )upiters Pomegranate ,, t3 aoe pune. Poplar FP a » Hercules. Poppy de = », Ceres, Diana, and Somnus. Rhamnus a “ pif amass Rocket s a », Priapus. Rose Fr a +) LOVES. Vine S + ~) Jeacehnus. Willow - a ss. » Soeres. To the Furies was consecrated the Juniper; the Fates wore wreaths of the Narcissus, and the Muses Bay-leaves. The Grecian Centaurs, half men, half horses, like their Indian brethren the Gandharvas, understood the properties of herbs, and cultivated them; but, as a rule, they never willingly divulged to mankind their knowledge of the secrets of the vegetable world. Nevertheless, the Centaur Chiron instructed A%sculapius, Achilles, fEneas, and other heroes in the polite arts. Chiron had a panacea of his own, which is named after him Chivonia Centaurium, or Gentiana Centaurium; and, as a vulnerary, the Ampelos Chironia of Pliny, or Tamus communis. In India, on account of the shape of its leaves, the Ricinus communis is called Gandharvahasta (having the hands of a Gandharva). CHAPTER TV; Sfora? Geremonies, OWreatfy, ano Garfandy. PLnne ttn?) HE application of flowers and plants to ceremonial ‘ 24 purposes is of the highest antiquity. From the earliest periods, man, after he had discovered ‘‘What drops the Myrrh and what the balmy Reed,” offered up on primitive altars, as incense to the Deity, the choicest and most fragrant woods, the Gi ‘J aromatic gums from trees, and the subtle essences he obtained from flowers. In the odorous but intoxicating fumes which slowly ascended, in wreaths heavy with fragrance, from the altar, the pious ancients saw the mystic agency by which their prayers would be wafted from earth to the abodes of the gods ; and so, says Mr. Rimmel, “the altars of Zoroaster and of Confucius, the temples of Memphis, and those of Jerusalem, all smoked alike with incense and sweet-scented woods.’ Nor was the admiration and use of vegetable productions confined to the inhabitants of the old world alone, for the Mexicans, according to the Abbé Clavigero, have, from time immemorial, studied the cultivation of flowers and odoriferous plants, which they employed in the worship of their gods. But the use of flowers and odorous shrubs was not long con- fined by the ancients to their sacred rites; they soon began to consider them as essential to their domestic life. Thus, the Egyptians, though they offered the finest fruit and the finest flowers to the gods, and employed perfumes at all their sacred festivals, as well as at their daily oblations, were lavish in the use of flowers at their private entertainments, and in all circumstances of their every-day life. At a reception given by an Egyptian noble, it was customary, after the ceremony of anointing, for each guest to be presented with a Lotus-flower when entering the saloon, and this flower the guest continued to hold in his hand. Servants brought necklaces of flowers composed chiefly of the Lotus; a garland was put round the head, anda single Lotus-bud, or a full-blown flower was so PforaP Geremoniey. 27 attached as to hang over the forehead. Many of them, made up into wreaths and devices, were suspended upon stands placed in the room, garlands of Crocus and Saffron encircled the wine cups, and over and under the tables were strewn various flowers. Diodorus informs us that when the Egyptians approached the place of divine worship, they held the flower of the Agrostis in their hand, inti- mating that man proceeded from a well-watered land, and that he required a moist rather than a dry aliment ; and it is not improbable that the reason of the great preference given to the Lotus on these occasions was derived from the same notion. This fondness of the ancients for flowers was carried to such an extent as to become almost a vice. When Antony supped with Cleopatra, the luxurious Queen of Egypt, the floors of the apart- ments were usually covered with fragrant flowers. When Sarda- napalus, the last of the Assyrian monarchs, was driven to dire extremity by the rapid approach of the conqueror, he chose the death of an Eastern voluptuary: causing a pile of fragrant woods to be lighted, and placing himself on it with his wives and treasures, he soon became insensible, and was suffocated by the aromatic smoke. When Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian king, held high festival at Daphne, in one of the processions which took place, boys bore Frankincense, Myrrh, and Saffron on golden dishes, two hundred women sprinkled everyone with perfumes out of golden watering-pots, and all who entered the gymnasium to witness the games were anointed with some perfume contained in fifteen gold dishes, holding Saffron, Amaracus, Lilies, Cinnamon, Spikenard, Fenugreek, &c.) When the. Roman Emperor Nero sat at banquet in his golden palace, a shower of flowers and perfumes fell upon him; but Heliogabalus turned these floral luxuries into veritable curses, for it was one of the pleasures of this inhuman being to smother his courtiers with flowers. Both Greeks and Romans caried the delicate refinements of the taste for flowers and perfumes to the greatest excess in their costly entertainments; and it is the opinion of Baccius that at their desserts the number of their flowers far exceeded that of their fruits. The odour of flowers was deemed potent to arouse the fainting appetite; and their presence was rightly thought to enhance the enjoyment of the guests at their banqueting boards :— ** The ground is swept, and the triclinium clear, The hands are purified, the goblets, too, Well rinsed ; each guest upon his forehead bears A wreath’d flow’ry crown ; from slender vase A willing youth presents to each in turn A sweet and costly perfume ; while the bowl, Emblem of joy and social mirth, stands by, Filled to the brim; and then pours out wine Of most delicious flavour, breathing round Fragrance of flowers, and honey newly made, So grateful to the sense, that none refuse ; While odoriferous fumes fill all the room,” —Xenophanes. 28 Dfant lgore, lsegenos, and loyrics, In all places where festivals, games, or solemn ceremonials were held, and whenever public rejoicings and gaiety were deemed desirable, flowers were utilised with unsparing hands. ‘Set before your doors The images of all your sleeping fathers, With Laurels crowned; with Laurels wreath your posts, And strew with flowers the pavement ; let the priest Do present sacrifice; pour out the wine, And call the gods to join with you in gladness.”—Dryden, In the triumphal processions of Rome the streets were strewed with flowers, and from the windows, roofs of houses, and scaffolds, the people cast showers of garlands and flowers upon the crowds below and upon the conquerors proudly marching in procession through the city. Macaulay says— ‘On ride they to the Forum, While Laurel-boughs and flowers, From house-tops and from windows, Fell on their crests in showers.” In the processions of the Corybantes, the goddess Cybele, the protectress of cities, was pelted with white Roses. In the annual festivals of the Terminalia, the peasants were all crowned with garlands of flowers; and at the festival held by the gardeners in honour of Vertumnus on August 23rd, wreaths of budding flowers and the first-fruits of their gardens were offered by members of the craft. In the sacrifices of both Greeks and Romans, it was customary to place in the hands of victims some sort of floral decoration, and the presiding priests also appeared crowned with flowers. ‘‘ Thus the gay victim with fresh garlands crowned, Pleased with the sacred pipe’s enlivening sound. Through gazing crowds in solemn state proceeds, And dressed in fatal pomp, magnificently bleeds.” —Phillips. The place erected for offerings was called by the Romans ara, an altar. It was decorated with leaves and grass, adorned with flowers, and bound with woollen fillets: on the occasion of a ‘‘ triumph ” these altars smoked with perfumed incense. The Greeks had a Nymph of Flowers whom they called Chloris, and the Romans the goddess Flora, who, among the Sabines and the Phoceans, had been worshipped long before the foundation of the Eternal City. As early as the time of Romulus the Latins instituted a festival in honour of Flora, which was intended asa public expression of joy at the appearance of the welcome blossoms which were everywhere regarded as the harbingers of fruits. Five hundred and thirteen years after the foundation of Rome the Floralia, or annual floral games, were established; and after the sibyllic books had been consulted, it was finally ordained that the festival should be kept every 20th day of April, that is four days Bfora? Geremonieys. 29 before the calends of May—the day on which, in Asia Minor, the festival of the flowers commences. In Italy, France, and Germany, the festival of the flowers, or the festival of spring, begins about the same date—+.e., towards the end of April—and terminates on the feast of St. John. The festival of the Floralia was introduced into Britain by the Romans ; and for centuries all ranks of people went out a-Maying early on the first of the month. The juvenile part of both sexes, in the north, were wont to rise a little after midnight, and walk to some neighbouring wood, accompanied with music and the blowing of horns, ** To get sweet Setywall [red Valerian], The Honeysuckle, the Harlock, The Lily and the Lady-smock, To deck their summer hall.”’ They also gathered branches from the trees, and adorned them with nosegays and crowns of flowers, returning with their booty homewards, about the rising of the sun, forthwith to decorate their doors and windows with the flowery spoil. The after-part of the day, says an ancient chronicler, was ‘chiefly spent in dancing round a tall pole, which is called a May-pole ; which, being placed in a convenient part of the village, stands there, as it were, consecrated to the goddess of flowers, without the least violation offered it in the whole circle of the year.” ** Your May-pole deck with flowery coronal ; Sprinkle the flowery coronal with wine ; And in the nimble-footed galliard, all, Shepherd and shepherdess, lively join, Hither from village sweet and hamlet fair, From bordering cot and distant glen repair: Let youth indulge its sport, to old bequeath its care.” Old John Stowe tells us that on May-day, in the morning, ‘‘every man, except impediment, would walk into the sweet meadows and green woods, there to rejoice their spirits with the beauty and savour of sweet flowers, and with the harmony of birds praising God in their kind.” In the days of Henry VIII. it was the custom for all classes to observe the May-day festival, and we are told that the king himself rode a-Maying from Greenwich to Shooter’s Hill, with his Queen Katherine, accompanied by many lords and ladies. Chaucer relates how on May-day ‘* Went forth all the Court both most and least ; To fetch the floures fresh, and branch and blome, And namely Hawthorn brought both page and grome ; And then rejoysen in their great delite, Eke each at other threw the floures bright. The Primrose, Violette, and the Golde, With garlands partly blue and white.” The young maidens repaired at daybreak to the meadows and hill-sides, for the purpose of gathering the precious May-dew, where- 30 Dlant laore, laegenos, dnd lsyries. with to make themselves fair for the remainder of the year. This old custom is still extant in the north of England and in some districts of Scotland. Robert Fergusson has told how the Scotch lassies swarmed at daybreak on Arthur’s Seat: “On May-day in a fairy ring, We’ve seen them round St. Anthon’s spring Frae grass the caller dew-draps wring, To wet their ein, And water clear as crystal spring. To synd them clean.” In Ross-shire the lassies pluck sprigs of Ivy, with the May- dew on them, that have not been touched by steel. It was deemed important that flowers for May garlands and posies should be plucked before the sun rose on May-day morning ; and if perchance, Cuckoo-buds were included in the composition of a wreath, it was destroyed directly the discovery was made, and removed immediately from a posie. In the May-day sports on the village green, it was customary to choose as May Queen either the best dancer or the prettiest girl, who, at sundown was crowned with a floral chaplet— ‘« See where she sits upon the grassie greene, A seemly sight ! Yclad in scarlet, like a mayden queene, And ermines white. Upon her head a crimson coronet, With Daffodils and Damask Roses set : Bay-leaves betweene, And Primroses greene Embellished the sweete Violet.—Sfenser. The coronation of the rustic queen concluded the out-door festivities of May-day, although her majesty’s duties would not appear to have been fulfilled until she reached her home. “Then all the rest in sorrow, And she in sweet content, Gave over till the morrow, And homeward straight they went ; But she of all the rest Was hindered by the way, e For every youth that met her Must kiss the Queen of May !” At Horncastle, in Lincolnshire, there existed, till the beginning of the present century, a ceremony which evidently derived its origin from the Roman Floralia. On the morning of May-day, a train of youths collected themselves at a place still known as the May-bank. From thence, with wands enwreathed with Cowslips they walked in procession to the may-pole, situated at the west end of the town, and adorned on that morning with every variety of wild flowers. Here, with loud shouts, they struck together their wands, and, scattering around the Cowslips, testified their thankful- ness for the bounteous promise of spring. fora? Geremonieys. 31 Aubrey (MS., 1686), tells us that in his day ‘‘ at Woodstock in Oxon they every May-eve goe into the parke, and fetch away a number of Haw-thorne-trees, which they set before their dores.” In Huntingdonshire, fifty years ago, the village swains were accustomed, at sunrise, to place a branch of May in blossom before the door of anyone they wished to honour. In Tuscany the expres- sion, Appiccare il maio ad una porta, has passed into a proverb, and means to lay siege to a maiden’s heart and make love to her. In the vicinity of Valenciennes, branches of Birch or Hornbeam are placed by rural swains at the doors of their sweethearts ; thorny branches at the portals of prudes; and Elder boughs at the doors of flirts. In the villages of Provence, on May-day, they select a May Queen. Crowned witha wreath, and adorned with garlands of Roses, she is carried through the streets, mounted on a plat- form, her companions soliciting and receiving the offerings of the towns-people. In olden times it was customary even among the French nobility to present May to friends and neighbours, or as it was called, esmayer. Sometimes this presenting of May was regarded as achallenge. The custom of planting a May-tree in French towns subsisted until the 17th century: in 1610, one was planted in the court of the Louvre. In some parts of Spain the name of Maia is given to the May Queen (selected generally as being the handsomest lass of the village), who, decorated with garlands of flowers, leads the dances in which the young people spend the day. The villagers in other provinces declare their love by planting, during the preceding night, a large bough or a sapling, decked with flowers, before the doors of their sweethearts. In Greece, bunches of flowers are suspended over the doors of most houses ; and in the rural districts, the peasants bedeck themselves with flowers, and carry garlands and posies of wild flowers. In some parts of Italy, in the May-day rejoicings, a May-tree or a branch in blossom and adorned with fruit and ribbands, plays a conspicuous part: this is called the Maggio, and is probably a reminiscence of the old Grecian Evresione. Of the flowers specially dedicated to May, first and foremost isthe Hawthorn blossom. In some parts of England the Convallaria is known as May Lily. The Germans call it Mazi blume, a name they also apply to the Hepatica and Kingcup. In Devon and Cornwall the Lilac is known as May-flower, and much virtue is thought to be attached to a spray of the narrow-leaf Elm gathered on May morning. ' In Asia Minor the annual festival of flowers used to commence on the 28th of April, when the houses and tables were covered with flowers, and every one going into the streets wore a floral crown. In Germany, France, and Italy, the féte of the flowers, or the féte of spring, commences also towards the end of April, and terminates at Midsummer. Athenians, on an early day in spring, every year crowned with flowers all children who had reached their 32 Dfant lore, loegenos, and lyrics, third year, and in this way the parents testified their joy that the little ones had passed the age rendered critical by the maladies incident toinfants. The Roman Catholic priesthood, always alert at appropri- ating popular pagan customs, and adapting them to the service of their church, have perpetuated this old practice. The little children crowned with flowers and habited as angels, who to this day accompany the procession of the Corpus Domini at the beginning of June, are taught to scatter flowers in the road, to symbolise their own spring-time and the spring-time of nature. On this day, along the entire route of the procession at Rome, the ground is thickly strewn with Bay and other fragrant leaves. In the worship of the Madonna, flowers play an important réle, and Roman altars are still piled up with fragrant blossoms, and still smoke with perfumed incense. After the feast of Whitsuntide, the young Russian maidens repair to the banks of the Neva, and fling in its waters wreaths of flowers, which are tokens of affection to absent friends. In the West of Germany and the greater part of France the ceremony is observed of bringing home on the last harvest wain a tree or bough decorated with flowers and gay ribbons, which is graciously received by the master and planted on or near the house, to remain there till the next harvest brings its successor. Some rite of this sort, Mr. Ralston says, seems to have prevailed all over the North of Europe. ‘So, in the autumnal harvest thanksgiving feast at Athens, it was customary to carry in sacred procession an Olive- branch wrapped in wool, called Eivesione, to the temple of Apollo, and there to leave it ; and in addition to this a similar bough was solemnly placed beside the house door of every Athenian who was engaged in fruit culture or agriculture, there to remain until replaced by a similar successor twelve months later.” OWett-dfowering. From the earliest days of the Christian era our Lord’s ascension into heaven has been commemorated by various ceremonies, one of which was the perambulation of parish boundaries. At Penkridge, in Staffordshire, as well asat Wolverhampton, long after the Reforma- tion, the inhabitants, during the time of processioning, used toadorn their wells with boughs and flowers; and this ancient custom is still practised every year at Tissington, in Derbyshire, where it is known as ‘“ well-flowering.” There are five wells so decorated, and the mode of dressing or adorning them is this :—the flowers are inserted in moist clay and put upon boards cut in various forms, surrounded with boughs of Laurel and White Thorn, so as to give the appearance of water issuing from small grottoes. The flowers are arranged in various patterns, to give the effect of mosaic work, and are inscribed with texts of Scripture and suitable mottoes. After church, the congregation walk in procession to the wells and decorate them with these boards, as well as with @foral Geremonied. 33 garlands of flowers, boughs, &c. Flowers were cast into the wells, and from their manner of falling, lads and lasses divined as to the progress of their love affairs. “ Bring flowers ! bring flowers! to the crystal well, That springs ’neath the Willows in yonder dell. And we'll scatter them over the charmed well, And learn our fate from its mystic spell.” ‘** And she whose flower most tranquilly Glides down the stream our Queen shall be, In a crown we'll wreath Wild flowers that breathe ; And the maiden by whom this wreath shall be worn Shall wear it again on her bridal morn.” —Jferritt. Before the Reformation the Celtic population of Scotland, the Hebrides, Ireland, Wales, and Cornwall were in the habit of naming wells and springs after different saints and martyrs. Though forbidden by the canons of St. Anselm, many pilgrimages continued to be made to them, and the custom was long retained of throwing nosegays into springs and fountains, and chaplets into wells. Sir Walter Scott tells us that ‘‘in Perthshire there are several wells dedicated to St. Fillan, which are still places of pilgrimage and offerings, even among Protestants.”’ ** Thence to St. Fillan’s blessed well Whose spring can frenzied dreams dispel, And the crazed brain restore.” Into some of these Highland wells flowers are cast, and occasionally pins, while the surrounding bushes are hung with rags and shreds, in imitation of the old heathen practice. The ceremony of sprinkling rivers with flowers was probably of similar origin. Milton and Dryden both allude to this custom being in vogue as regards the Severn, and this floral rite is described in ‘ The Fleece’ as follows :— ** With light fantastic toe the nymphs Thither assembled, thither every swain ; And o’er the dimpled stream a thousand flowers, Pale Lilies, Roses, Violets, and Pinks, Mix’d with the greens of Burnet, Mint, and Thyme, And Trefoil, sprinkled with their sportive arms. Such custom holds along th’ irriguous vales, From Wreken’s brow to rocky Dolvoryn, Sabrina’s early haunt.” Bridaf eforaP Geremonies. In all countries flowers have from time immemorial been chosen as the happy accompaniment of bridal ceremonies. Among the ancients it was customary to crown newly-married persons with a chaplet of red and white Roses. On arriving at the house of her husband, the Roman bride found woollen fillets round -tke D 34 fant ore, loegenoys, dna loyricy. door-posts, which were adorned with evergreens and blossoms, and anointed with the fat of wolves to avert enchantment. In M. Barthélemi’s ‘ Travels of Young Anacharsis’ the author, describing a marriage ceremony in the Island of Delos, says that the inhabitants of the island assembled at daybreak, crowned with flowers; flowers were strewn in the path of the bride and bridegrodm; and the house was garlanded with them. Singers and dancers appeared crowned with Oak, Myrtles, and Hawthorn. The bride and bridegroom were crowned with Poppies, and upon their approach to the temple, a priest received them at the entrance, and presented to each a branch of Ivy—a symbol of the tie which was to unite them for ever.* At Indian nuptials, the wedding wreath, the vavamald, united bride and bridegroom. At the marriage feasts of the Persians, a little tree is introduced, the branches of which are laden with fruit: the guests endeavour to pluck these without the bridegroom perceiving them; if successful, the latter has to make them a present ; if, however, a guest fails, he has to give the bridegroom a hundred times the value of the object he sought to remove from tiie tree. In Germany, among the inhabitants of Oldenburg, there exists a curious wedding custom. When the bridegroom quits his father’s roof to settle in some other town or village, he has his bed linen embroidered at the corners with flowers surmounted by a tree, on whose branches are perched cock birds: on each side of the tree are embroidered the bridegroom’s initials. In many European countries it is customary to plant before the house of a newly-married couple, one or two trees, as a symbol of the good luck wished them by their friends. Bfora? Gamer ano sedfivaty, Floral games have for many years been held at Toulouse, Barcelona, Tortosi, and other places; but the former are the most famed, both on account of their antiquity and the value of the prizes distributed during the fétes. The ancient city of Toulouse had formerly a great reputation for literature, which had, however, been allowed to decline until the visit of Charles IV. and his bride determined the capitouls or chief magistrates to make an effort to restore its prestige as the centre of Provengal song. Troubadours there were who, banded together in a society, met in the garden of the Augustine monks to recite their songs, s¢vventes, and ballads ; and in order to foster the latent taste for poetry, the capitouls invited the poets of the Langue d’oc, to compete for a golden Violet to be awarded to the author of the best poem produced on * © Voyage du SYeune Anacharsis en Gréce, vers le milien du quatriéme sitcle avant Vere vulgaire.’ @forak Geremonies. 35 May 4th, 1324. The competition created the greatest excitement, and great numbers of people met to hear the judges’ decision: they awarded the golden Violet to Arnaud Vidal for his poem in honour of the Virgin. In 1355, three prizes were offered—a golden Violet for the best song; an Eglantine (Spanish Jasmine), for the best stvvente, or finest pastoral; and a Flor-de-gang (yellow Acacia) for the best ballad. In later years four prizes were competed for, viz.,an Amaranth, a Violet, a Pansy, and a Lily. In 1540, Clemence Isaure, a poetess, bequeathed the bulk of her fortune to the civic authorities to be expended in prizes for poetic merits, and in fétes to be held on the 1st and 3rd of May. She was interred in the church of La Daurade, on the high altar of which are preserved the golden flowers presented to the successful competitors at the Floral Games. The ceremonies of the fétes thus revived by Clemence Isaure commenced with the strewing of her tomb with Roses, followed by mass, a sermon, and alms-giving. In 1694, the Feux Flovaux were merged into the Academy of Belles Lettres, which gives prizes, but almost exclusively to French poets. The festival, interrupted by the Revolution, was once more revived in 1806, and is still held annually in the Hotel-de-Ville, Toulouse. St. Medard, Bishop of Noyon, in France, instituted in the sixth century a festival at Salency, his birth-place, for adjudging a most interesting prize offered by piety to virtue. This prize consists of a simple crown of Roses bestowed on the girl who is acknowledged by all her competitors to be the most amiable, modest, and dutiful. The founder of this festival had the pleasure of crowning his own sister as the first Rosteve of Salency. This simple institution still survives, and the crown of Roses continues to be awarded to the most virtuous of the maidens of the obscure French village. A similar prize is awarded in the East of London by an active member of the Roman Catholic Church—the ceremony of crowning the Rose Queen being performed annually in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. In the middle ages the Queen of Flowers contributed to a singular popular festival at Treviso, in Italy. In the middle of the city the inhabitants erected a mock castle of upholstery. The most distinguished unmarried females of the place defended the fortress, which was attacked by the youth of the other sex. The missiles with which both parties fought consisted of Roses, Lilies, Narcissi, Violets, Apples, and Nuts, which were hurled at each other by the combatants. Volleys of Rose-water and other perfumes were also discharged by means of syringes. This entertainment attracted thousands of spectators from far and near, and the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa himself accounted it a most pleasing diversion. The custom of pelting with Roses is still common in Persia, where it is practised during the whole season that these flowers are D—2 36 Dfant lore, egenos, dnd layrics. blooming. A company of young men repair to the places of public entertainment to amuse the guests with music, singing, and dancing, and in their way through the streets they pelt the passengers whom they meet with Roses, and generally receive a small gratuity in return. Striking features of the Japanese festival on New Year’s Day are the decorations erected in front of nearly every door, of which Mr. Dixon tells us the principal objects are, on the right a Pinus densiflora, on the left a P. Thunbergius, both standing upright: the former is supposed to be of the female and the latter of the male sex, and both symbolise a robust age that has withstood the storms and trials of life. Immediately behind each of the Pines is a Bamboo, the straight stem of which, with the knots marking its growth, indicates hale life and fulness of years. A straw rope of about six feet in length connects the Bamboos seven or more feet from the ground, thus completing the triumphal arch. In the centre of the rope (which is there to ward off evil spirits) is a group in which figures a scarlet lobster, the bent back of which symbolises old age: this is embedded in branches of the Melia Faponica, the older leaves of which still remain after the young ones have burst forth. So may the parents continue to flourish while children and grandchildren spring forth! Another plant in the central group is the Polypodium dicotomon, a Fern which is regarded as a symbol of conjugal life, because the fronds spring in pairs from the stem. There are also bunches of seaweed, which have local significance, and a lucky bag, filled with roasted Chesnuts, the seeds of the Torveya nucifera, and the dried fruit of the Kakv. Garfanor, GARapfety, ayo OWreathy. All the nations of antiquity—Indians, Chinese, Medes, Persians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans— were accustomed to deck themselves, their altars, and their dwellings with flowers, and to weave chaplets and garlands of leaves and blossoms. In the Vedic Vishnupurana, the sage Durvasas (one of the names of Siva, the destroyer), receives-:of the goddess Sri (the Indian Venus) a garland of flowers gathered from the trees of heaven. Proceeding on his way, he meets the god Indra, seated on an elephant, and to pay him homage he places on his brow the garland, to which the bees fly in order to suck the ambrosia. The Persians were fond of wearing on their heads crowns made of Myrrh and a sweet-smelling plant called Labyzus. Antiochus Epiphanes, the Syrian king, once held some games at Daphne, to which thousands of guests were invited, who, after being richly feasted, were sent away with crowns of Myrrh and Frankincense. osephus, in his history of the Jews, has recorded the use of crowns in the time of Moses, and on certain occasions the mitre of the High Priest was adorned with a chaplet of Henbane (Hyoscyamus Bora’ Geremoniey. 37 niger). Wreaths and chaplets were in common use among the Egyptians at a very early period; and although the Lotus was principally preferred in their formation, many other flowers and leaves were employed—as of the Chrysanthemum, Acinos, Acacia, Strychnos, Persoluta, Anemone, Convolvulus, Olive, Myrtle, Amaracus, Xeranthemum, Bay-tree, and others. Plutarch says that when Agesilaus visited Egypt, he was so delighted with the chaplets of Papyrus sent him by the King, that he took some home when he returned to Sparta. In India, Greece, and Rome, the sacrificial priests were crowned, and their victims were decorated with garlands of flowers. In ancient Greece and Rome the manufacture of garlands and chaplets became quite an art, so great was the estimation in which these adornments were held by these highly-civilised nations. With them the composition of a garland possessed a deep significance, and warriors, statesmen, and poets alike coveted these simple insignia at the hands of their countrymen. Pliny tells us that the Sicyonians were considered to surpass all other people in the art of arranging the colours of garlands and imparting to them the most agreeable mixture of perfumes. They derived this taste from Glycera, a woman so skilled in the art of arranging chaplets and garlands that she won the affection of Pausias, a celebrated painter, who delighted in copying the wreaths of flowers so deftly arranged by his mistress. Some of these pictures were still in existence when Pliny wrote, four hundred and fifty years after they were painted. Cato, in his treatise on gardens, directs specially that they should be planted with such flowers as are adapted for chaplets and wreaths. Pliny states that Mnestheus and Callimachus, two renowned Greek physicians, compiled several books on the virtues of chaplets, pointing out those hurtful to the brain, as well as those which had a beneficial influence on the wearer; for both Greeks and Romans had found, by experience, that certain plants and flowers facilitated the functions of the brain, and assisted materially to neutralise the inebriating qualities of wine. Thus, as Horace tells . us, the floral chaplets worn by guests at feasts were tied with the’ bark of the Linden to prevent intoxication. **T tell thee, boy, that I detest The grandeur of a Persian feast; Nor for me the binder’s rind Shall no flow’ry chaplet bind. Then search not where the curious Rose, Beyond his season loitering grows ; But beneath the mantling Vine, While I quaff the flowing wine, The Myrtle’s wreath shall crown our brows, While you shall wait and I carouse.” Besides the guests at feasts, the attendants were decorated with wreaths, and the wine-cups and apartments adorned with flowers. From an anecdote related by Pliny we learn that it was a frequent 38 Ofant lore, egeos, and lyrics. custom, common to both Greeks and Romans, to mix the flowers of their chaplets in their wine, when they pledged the healths of their friends. Cleopatra, to ridicule the mistrust of Antony, who would never eat or drink at her table without causing his taster to test every viand, lest any should be poisoned, commanded a chaplet of flowers to be prepared for the Roman General, the edges of which were dipped in the most deadly poison, whilst that which was woven for her own brow was, as usual, mixed with aromatic spices. At the banquet Antony received his coronet of flowers, and when they had become cheerful through the aid of Bacchus, Cleopatra pledged him in wine, and taking off the wreath from her head, and rubbing the blossoms into her goblet, drank off the contents. Antony was following her example, but just as he had raised the fatal cup to his lips, the Queen seized his arm, exclaiming, ‘‘Cure your jealous fears, and learn that I should not have to seek the means of your destruction, could I live without you.” She then ordered a prisoner to be brought before them, who, on drinking the wine from Antony’s goblet, instantly expired in their presence. The Romans wore garlands at sacred rites, games and festivals, on journeys and in war. When an army was freed from a blockade its deliverer was presented with a crown composed of the Grass growing on the spot. In modern heraldry, this crown of Grass is called the Crown Obsidional, and appertains to the general who has held a fortress against a besieging army and ultimately relieved it from the assailants. To him who had saved the life of a Roman soldier was given a chaplet of Oak-leaves: this is the modern heraldic civic crown bestowed on a brave soldier who has saved the life of a comrade or has rescued him after having been taken prisoner by the enemy. The glories of all grand deeds were signalized by the crown of Laurel among both Greeks and Romans. This is the heraldic Crown Triumphant, adjudged in our own times to a general who has achieved a signal victory. The Romans were not allowed by law to appear in festal garlands on ordinary occasions. Hence Cesar valued most highly the privilege accorded him by the Senate of wearing a Laurel crown, because it screened his baldness, which, both by the Romans and Jews, was considered a deformity. This crown was generally composed of the Alexandrian Laurel (Ruscus Hypoglossum)—the Laurel usually depicted on busts and coins. The victors at the athletic games were adjudged crowns differing in their composition according to the place in which they had won their honours. Thus, crowns of Olive were given at the Olympic games. Beech, Laurel, or Palm nf per of ibh ivy ee Pythian re Parsley 35 so Bye See Nemeanyiim Pine ie gs Isthmian’ It is not too much to say that Greeks and Romans employed arlands, wreaths, and festoons of flowers on every possible Boral Geremonied. 39 occasion; they adorned with them the sacrificial victims, the statue of the god to whom sacrifice was offered, and the priest who per- formed the rite. They placed chaplets on the brows of the dead, and strewed their graves with floral wreaths, whilst at their funeral feasts the parents of the departed one encircled their heads with floral crowns. They threw them to the successful actors on the stage. They hung with garlands the gates of their cities on days of rejoicing. They employed floral wreaths at their nuptials. Nearly all the plants composing these wreaths had a symbolical meaning, and they were varied according to the seasons and the circumstances of the wearer. The Hawthorn adorned Grecian brides; but the bridal wreath of the Romans was usually com- posed of Verbena, plucked by the bride herself. Holly wreaths were sent as tokens of good wishes. Chaplets of Parsley and Rue were worn to keep off evil spirits. But the employment of garlands has by no means been con- fined to the ancients. At the present day the inhabitants of India make constant use of them. The Brahmin women, who burn themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands, deck their persons with chaplets and garlands, and present wreaths to the young women who attend them at this terrible sacrifice. The young Indian girls adorn themselves with garlands during the festival of Kamadeva, the god of love, which takes place during the last days of spring. In the nuptial ceremonies of India, the garland of flowers is still a feature which possesses a recognised symbolic value. In Northern India garlands of the African Marigold are placed on the trident emblem of Mahadeva, and both male and female worshippers wear chaplets composed of the same sacred flower on his festivals. The Moo-le-hua, a fragrant Jasmine, is employed in China and other Eastern countries in forming wreaths for the decoration of ladies’ hair, and an Olive crown is still the reward of literary merit in China. The Japanese of both sexes are fond of wearing wreaths of fragrant blossoms. The Italians have artificers called Festaroli, whose especial office it is to manufacture garlands and festoons of flowers and other decorations for feasts. The maidens of Greece, Germany, and Roumania still bear wreaths of flowers in certain processions which have long been customary in the spring of the year. The Swiss peasants are fond of making garlands, for rural festivities, of the Globe-flower (Tvollius Euvropeus), which grows freely on all the chain of the Alps. In Germany a wreath of Vervain is presented to the newly-married, and in place of the wreath of Orange- blossoms which decorates the brow of the bride in England, France, and America, a chaplet of Myrtle is worn. The blossom of the Bizarade or bitter Orange is most prized for wreaths and favours when the fresh flowers can be procured. A nL) LIN ees — Sana) Y > 4 “A " » >) f. Pr, MKS or hy feat) > =< . ied CHARTER’ V. ®fanty of the Ghristian @fureh. 7JFTER Rome Pagan became Rome Christian, the priests of the Church of Christ recognised the importance of utilising the connexion which existed between plants and the old pagan worship, and bringing the floral world into active co-operation with the Christian Church by the }i| institution of a floral symbolism which should be L ===4} associated not only with the names of saints, but also with the Festivals of the Church. But it was more especially upon the Virgin Mary that the early Church bestowed their floral symbolism. Mr. Hepworth Dixon, writing of those quiet days of the Virgin’s life, passed purely and tenderly among the flowers of Nazareth, says—‘‘ Hearing that the best years of her youth and womanhood were spent, before she yet knew grief, on this sunny hill and side slope, her feet being for ever among the Daisies, Poppies, and Anemones, which grow everywhere about, we have made her the patroness of all our flowers. The Virgin is our Rose of Sharon—our Lily of the Valley. The poetry no less than the piety of Europe has inscribed to her the whole bloom and colouring of the fields and hedges.” The choicest flowers were wrested from the classic Juno, Venus, and Diana, and from the Scandinavian Bertha and Freyja, and bestowed upon the Madonna, whilst floral offerings of every sort were laid upon her shrines. Her husband, Joseph, has allotted to him a white Campanula, which in Bologna is known as the little Staff of St. Joseph. In Tuscany the name of St. Joseph’s staff is given to the Oleander: a legend recounts that the good Joseph possessed originally only an ordinary staff, but that when the angel announced to him that he was destined to be the husband of the Virgin Mary, he became so radiant with joy, that his very staff flowered in his hand. Before our Saviour’s birth, the Virgin Mary, strongly desiring to refresh herself with some luscious cherries that were hanging in ®fantd of the Wirgin Many. 41 clusters upon the branch of a tree, asked Joseph to gather some for her. He hesitated, and mockingly said—‘ Let the father of thy child present them to you.” Instantly the branch of the Cherry- tree inclined itself to the Virgin’s hand, and she plucked from it the refreshing fruit. On this account the Cherry has always been dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The Strawberry, also, is specially set apart to the Virgin’s use; and in the Isle of Harris a species of Beans, called Molluka Beans, are called, after her, the Virgin Mary’s Nuts. At Bethlehem, the manger in which the Infant Jesus was laid after His birth was filled with Our Ldady’s Bedstraw (Galium verum ). Some few drops of the Virgin’s milk fell upon a Thistle, which from that time has had its leaves spotted with white, and is known as Our Lady’s Thistle (Cavduus Marianus). In Germany the Poly- podium vulgare, which grows in clefts of rocks, is believed to have sprung from the milk of the Virgin (in ancient times from Freyja’s milk). The Pulmonaria is also known as Unsey Frauen Mulch (Our Lady’s Milk). When, after the birth of Jesus, His parents fled into Egypt, traditions record that in order that the Virgin might conceal herself and the infant Saviour from the assassins sent out by Herod, various trees opened, or stretched their branches and enlarged their leaves. As the Juniper is dedicated to the Virgin, the Italians consider that it was a tree of that species which thus saved the mother and child, and the Juniper is supposed to possess the power of driving away evil spirits and of destroying magical spells. The Palm, the Willow, and the Rosemary have severally been named as having afforded their shelter to the fugitives. On the other hand, the Lupine, according to a tradition still current among the Bolognese, received the maledictions of the Virgin Mary because, during the flight, certain plants of this species, by the noise they made, drew the attention of the soldiers of Herod to the spot where the harassed travellers had halted. During the flight into Egypt a legend relates that certain precious bushes sprang up by the fountain where the Virgin washed the swaddling clothes of her Divine babe. These bushes were produced by the drops of water which fell from the clothes, and from which germinated a number of little plants, each yielding precious balm... Wherever the Holy Family rested in their flight sprang up the Rosa Hierosolymitana—the Rosa Maria, or Rose of the Virgin. Near the cityof On there was shown for many centuries the sacred Fig-tree under which the Holy Family rested. They also, according to Bavarian tradition, rested under a Hazel. fants of the Pirgin Mary. In Tuscany there grows on walls a rootless little pellitory (Parietaria), with tiny pale-pink flowers and small leaves. They 42 fant gore, laegenos, dnd loyries. gather it on the morning of the Feast of the Ascension, and suspend it on the walls of bed-rooms till the day of the Nativity of the Virgin (8th September), from which it derives its name—the Herb of the Madonna. It generally opens its flowers after it has been gathered, retaining sufficient sap to make it do so. This opening of a cut flower is regarded by the peasantry as a token of the special blessing of the Virgin. Should the flower not open, it is taken as an omen of the Divine displeasure. In the province of Bellune, in Italy, the Matricaria Parthenium is called the Herb of the Blessed Mary: this flower was formerly consecrated to Minerva. In Denmark, Norway, and Iceland, they give the name of Mariengras (Herb of Mary) to different Ferns, and in those coun- tries Mary often replaces the goddess Freyja, the Venus of the North, in the names of flowers. No doubt the monks of old delighted in bestowing upon the Virgin Mary the floral attributes of Venus, Freyja, Isis, and other goddesses of the heathen ; but, nevertheless, it is not long since that a Catholic writer complained that at the Reformation “‘the very names of plants were changed in order to divert men’s minds from the least recollection of ancient Christian piety;” and a Protestant writer of the last century, bewailing the ruthless action of the Puritans in giving to the “‘ Queen of Beauty ” flowers named after the ‘‘ Queen of Heaven,” says: ‘Botany, which in ancient times was full of the Blessed Virgin Mary, . . . . is now as full of the heathen Venus.” Amongst the titles of honour given to the Virgin in the ‘Ballad of Commendation of Our Lady,’ in the old editions of Chaucer, we find: ‘ Benigne braunchlet of the Pine tree.” In England “Lady” in the names of plants generally has allusion to Our Lady, Notre Dame, the Virgin Mary. Our Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris) is the Mariu Stakkr of Iceland, which insures repose when placed beneath the pillow. Scandix Pecten was Our Lady’s Comb, but in Puritan times was changed into Venus’ Comb. The Cardamine pratensis is Our Lady’s Smock; Neottia spiralis, Our Lady’s Tresses; Avmeria vulgaris, Our Lady’s Cushion; Anthyllis vulnevaria, Our Lady’s Fingers; Campanula hybrida, OurLady’s Look- ing-glass ; Cypripedium Calceolus, Our Lady’s Slipper; the Cowslip, Our Lady’s Bunch of Keys; Black Briony, Our Lady’s Seal (a name which has been transferred from Solomon’s Seal, of which the ‘Grete Herbal’ states, ‘‘ It is al one herbe, Solomon’s Seale and Our Lady’s Seale”). Quaking Grass, Briza media, is Our Ladys Hair; Maidenhair Fern, the Virgin’s Hair; Mary-golds (Calendula officinalis) and Mary-buds (Caltha palustris) are both named after the Virgin Mary. The Campanula and the Digitalis are in France the Gloves of Mary; the Nardus Celtica is by the Germans called Marienblumen ; the White-flowered Wormwood is Unser Frauen Rauch (Smoke of Our Lady); Mentha spicata is in French, Menthe de Notre Dame—in German, Unser Frauen Miintz ; the Costus hortensis, the Eupatorium, the Matricaria, the Gallitrichum sativum, the Tanacetum, the Pants of Our Saviour. 43 o Persicaria, and a Parietavia are all, according to Bauhin, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The name of Our Lady’s Tears, or Laymes de Sainte Marie, has been given to the Lily of the Valley, as well as to the Lithospermon of Dioscorides, the Satyvium maculatum, and the Satyrium basilicum majus. The Narcissus Italicus is the Lily of Mary. The Toad Flax isin France Linde Notve Dame, in Germany, Unser Frauen Flachs. The Dead-Nettle is Main de Sainte Marie. Besides the Alchemilla, the Leontopodium, the Drosera, and the Sanicula major are called on the Continent Our Lady’s Mantle. Woodroof, Thyme, Groundsel, and St. John’s Wort form the bed of Mary. In Piedmont they give the name of the Herb of the Blessed Mary to a certain plant that the birds are reputed to carry to their young ones which have been stolen and imprisoned in cages, in order that it shall cause their death and thus deliver them from their slavery. The Snowdrop is the Fair Maid of February, as being sacred to the Purification of the Virgin (February 2nd), when her image was removed from the altar and Snowdrops strewed in its place. To the Madonna, in her capacity of Queen of Heaven, were dedicated the Almond, the White Iris, the White Lily, and the Narcissus, all appropriate to the Annunciation (March 25th). The Lily and White and Red Roses were assigned to the Visitation of Our Lady (July 2nd): these flowers are typical of the love and purity of the Virgin Mother. To the Feast of the Assumption (August 15th) is assigned the Virgin’s Bower (Clematis Flammula),; to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin (September 8th) the Amellus (A ster Amellus); and to the Conception (December 8th) the Arbor Vitz. St. Dominick instituted the ‘“‘ Devotion of the Rosary ” of the Virgin Mary—a series of prayers, to mark the repetition of which a chaplet of beads is employed, which consists of fifteen large and one hundred and fifty small beads; the former representing the number of Pater Nosters, the latter the number of Ave Mavias. As these beads were formerly made of Rose-leaves tightly pressed into round moulds, where real Roses were not strung together, this chaplet was called a Rosary, and was blessed by the Pope or some other holy person before being so used. Valeriana sativa is in France called Herbe de Marie Magdaleine, in Germany Marien Magdalenen Kraut; the Pomegranate is the Pommier de Marie Magdaleine and Marien Magdalenen Apfel. Oe PfantS of Our Saviouz. We have seen that at the birth of Christ, the infant Jesus was laid on a manger containing Galium verum, at Bethlehem, a place commemorated by the Ovmithogalum umbellatum, or Star of Beth- lehem, the flowers of which resemble the pictures of the star that indicated the birth of Jesus. Whilst lying in the manger, a spray of the rose-coloured Sainfoin, says a French legend, was found 44 Ofant loore, loegenos, dnd loyries, among the dried grass and herbs which served for His bed. Suddenly the Sainfoin began to expand its delicate blossoms, and to the astonishment of Mary, formed a wreath around the head of the holy babe. In commemoration of the infant Saviour having laid on a manger, it is customary, in some parts of Italy, to deck mangers at Christmas time with Moss, Sow-Thistle, Cypress, and prickly Holly: boughs of Juniper are also used for Christmas decorations, because tradition affirms that the Virgin and Child found safety amongst its branches when pursued by Herod’s mer- cenaries. The Juniper is also believed to have furnished the wood of the Cross on which Jesus was crucified. At Christmas, according to an ancient pious tradition, all the plants rejoice. In commemoration of the birth of our Saviour, in countries nearer His birthplace than England, the Apple, Cherry, Carnation, Balm, Rose of Jericho, and Rose of Mariastem (in Alsatia), burst forth into blossom at Christmas, whilst in our own land the day is celebrated by the blossoming of the Glastonbury Thorn, sprung from St. Joseph’s staff, and the flowering of the Christmas Rose, or Christ’s Herb, known in France as la Rose de Noel, and in Germany as Christwurzel. On Good Friday, in remembrance of the Passion of our Lord, all the trees, says the legend, shudder and tremble. The Swedes and Scotch have a tradition that Christ was scourged with a rod of the dwarf Birch, which was once a noble tree, but has ever since remained stunted and lowly. It is called Lang Fredags ris, or Good Friday rod. There is another legend extant, which states that the rod with which Christ was scourged was cut from a Willow, and that the trees of its species have drooped their branches to the earth in grief and shame from that time, and have, consequently, borne the name of Weeping Willows. @Re Grown of PRorns. Sir J. Maundevile, who visited the Holy Land in the fourteenth century, has recorded that he had many times seen the identical crown of Thorns worn by Jesus Christ, one half of which was at Constantinople and the other half at Paris, where it was religiously preserved in a vessel of crystal in the King’s Chapel. This crown Maundevile says was of ‘ Jonkes of the see, that is to sey, Rushes of the see, that prykken als scharpely as Thornes;” he further adds that he had been presented with one of the precious thorns, which had fallen off into the vessel, and that it resembled a White Thorn. The old traveller gives the following circumstantial account of our Lord’s trial and condemnation, from which it would appear that Jesus was first crowned with White Thorn, then with Eglantine, and finally with Rushes of the sea. He writes :—‘ In that nyghte that He was taken, He was ylad into a gardyn; and there He was first examyned righte scharply; ®fant of the Grucifixion. 45 and there the Jewes scorned Him, and maden Him a croune of the braunches of Albespyne, that is White Thorn, that grew in the same gardyn, and setten it on His heved, so faste and so sore, that the blood ran doun be many places of His visage, and of His necke, and of His schuldres. And therefore hathe the White Thorn many vertues; for he that berethe a braunche on him thereoffe, no thondre, ne no maner of tempest may dere him ; ne in the hows that it is inne may non evylle gost entre ne come unto the place that itisinne. And in that same gardyn Seynt Petre denyed oure Lord thryes. Aftreward was oure Lord lad forthe before the bischoppes and the maystres of the lawe, in to another gardyn of Anne; and there also He was examyned, repreved, and scorned, and crouned eft with a White Thorn, that men clepethe Barbarynes, that grew in that gardyn; and that hathe also manye vertues. And afterward He was lad into a gardyn of Cayphas, and there He was crouned with Eglentier. And aftre He was lad in to the chambre of Pylate, and there He was examynd and crouned. And the Jewes setten Hym in a chayere and cladde Hym in a mantelle; and there made thei the croune of Jonkes of the see ; and there thei kneled to Hym, and skorned Hym, seyenge: ‘ Heyl, King of the Jewes!’” Relics of the Crucifirion. From Maundevile’s Travels. The illustration represents the Crown of Thorns, worn by our Saviour, his coat without seams, called tunica inconsutilis; the 46 Dfant loore, laegenos, and layriey. sponge; the reed by means of which the Jews gave our Lord vinegar and gall; and one of the nails wherewith He was fastened to the Cross. All these relics Maundevile tells us he saw at Con- stantinople. Of what particular plant was composed the crown of Thorns which the Roman soldiers plaited and placed on the Saviour’s head, has long been a matter of dispute. Gerarde says it was the Paliurus aculeatus, a sharp-spined shrub, which he calls Christ’s Thorn; and the old herbalist quotes Bellonius, who had travelled in the Holy Land, and who stated that this shrubby Thorn was common in Judea, and that it was ‘“‘ The Thorne wherewith they crowned our Saviour Christ.” The melancholy distinction has, however, been variously conferred on the Buckthorns, Rhamnus Spina Christi and R. Paliurus; the Boxthorn, the Barberry, the Bramble, the Rose-briar, the Wild Hyssop, the Acanthus, or Brank-ursine, the Sfartium villosum, the Holly (called in Germany, Chyristdorn), the Acacia, or Nabkha of the Arabians, a thorny plant, very suitable for the purpose, since its flexible twigs could be twisted into a chaplet, and its small but pointed thorns would cause terrible wounds; and, in France, the Hawthorn—the épine noble. The West Indian negroes state that Christ’s crown was composed of a branch of the Cashew-tree, and that in consequence one of the golden petals of its blossom became black and blood- stained. The Reed Mace (Typha latifolia) is generally represented as the reed placed, in mockery, by the soldiers in the Saviour’s right hand. @ORe OQWood of the Gross. According to the legend connected with the Tree of Adam, the wood of the Cross on which our Lord was crucified was Cedar— a beam hewn from a tree which incorporated in itself the essence of the Cedar, the Cypress, and the Olive (the vegetable emblems of the Holy Trinity. Curzon, in his ‘ Monasteries of the Levant,’ gives a tradition that the Cedar was cut down by Solomon, and buried on the spot afterwards called the Pool of Bethesda; that about the time of the Passion of our Blessed Lord the wood floated, and was used by the Jews for the upright posts of the Cross. Another legend makes the Cross of four kinds of wood representing the four quarters of the globe, or all mankind: it is not, however, agreed what those four kinds of wood were, or their respective places in the Cross. Some say they were the Palm, the Cedar, the Olive, and the Cypress ; hence the line— ** Tigna crucis Palma, Cedrus, Cupressus, Oliva.” In place of the Palm or the Olive, some claim the mournful honour for the Pine and the Box; whilst there are others who aver it was made entirely of Oak. Another account states the wood to have Pfantd of the Grucifixion. 47 been the Aspen, and since that fatal day its leaves have never ceased trembling with horror. ** Far off in Highland wilds ’tis said That of this tree the Cross was made.” In some parts of England it is believed that the Elder was the unfortunate tree ; and woodmen will look carefully into the faggots before using them for fuel, in case any of this wood should be bound up in them. The gipsies entertain the notion that the Cross was made of Ash; the Welsh that the Mountain Ash furnished the wood. Inthe West of England there is a curious tradition that the Cross was made of Mistletoe, which, until the time of our Saviour’s death, had been a goodly forest tree, but was condemned henceforth to become a mere parasite. Sir John Maundevile asserts that the Cross was made of Palm, Cedar, Cypress, and Olive, and he gives the following curious account of its manufacture :—‘‘ For that pece that wente upright fro the erthe to the heved was of Cypresse; and the pece that wente overthwart to the wiche his honds weren nayled was of Palme; and the stock that stode within the erthe, in the whiche was made the morteys, was of Cedre ; and the table aboven his heved, that was a fote and an half long, on the whiche the title was written, in Ebreu, Grece, and Latyn, that was of Olyve. And the Jewes maden the Cros of theise 4 manere of trees: for thei trowed that oure Lord Jesu Crist scholde han honged on the Cros als longe as the Cros myghten laste. And therfore made thei the foot of the Cros of Cedre: for Cedre may not in erthe ne in watre rote. And therfore thei wolde that it scholde have lasted longe. For thei trowed that the body of Crist scholde have stonken; therfore thei made that pece that went from the erthe upward, of Cypres: for it is welle smellynge, so that the smelle of His body scholde not greve men that wenten forby. And the overthwart pece was of Palme: for in the Olde Testament it was ordyned that whan on overcomen, He scholde be crowned with Palme. And the table of the tytle the: maden of Olyve ; for Olyve betokenethe pes. And the storye of Noe wytnessethe whan that the culver broughte the braunche of Olyve, that betokend pes made betwene God and man. And so trowed the Jewes for to have pes whan Crist was ded: for thei seyd that He made discord and strif amonges hem.” ®fants of tRe Grucifixion. In Brittany the Vervain is known as the Herb of the Cross. John White, writing in 1624, says of it— ‘* Hallow’d be thou Vervain, as thou growest in the ground, For in the Mount of Calvary thou first was found. Thou healedst our Saviour Jesus Christ And staunchedst His bleeding wound. In the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I take thee from the ground.” 48 Ofant laore, legenos, dnd layries, a In the Flax-fields of Flanders, there grows a plant called the Roodselken, the red spots on the leaves of which betoken the blood which fell on it from the Cross, and which neither rain nor snow has since been able to wash off. In Cheshire a similar legend is attached to the Ovchis maculata, which is there called Gethsemane. ‘* Those deep unwrought marks, The villager will tell thee, Are the flower’s portion from the atoning blood On Calvary shed. Beneath the Cross it grew.” In Palestine there exists a notion that the red Anemone grew at the foot of the Cross, and hence the flower bears the name of the ‘‘ Blood-drops of Christ.”” The Wood Sorrel is introduced in their paintings of the Crucifixion by the early Italian painters, perhaps as symbolizing the Trinity with its triple leaf. Whilst wearily bearing His Cross on the way to Calvary, our Lord passed by the door of St. Veronica, who, with womanly compassion, wiped with her kerchief the drops of agony from His brow. The Redeemer’s features remained miraculously impressed on the linen, and from that time the flowers of the wayside Speed- well have ever borne a representation of the precious relic. In Brittany it 1s said that whilst Christ was bearing His Cross a little robin took from His mocking crown one of the thorns, steeped in His blood, which dyed the robin’s breast ; henceforth the robin has always been the friend of man. ‘Bearing His cross, while Christ passed forth forlorn, His God-like forehead by the mock crown torn, A little bird took from that crown one thorn, To soothe the dear Redeemer’s throbbing head, That bird did what she could; His blood, ’tis said, Down dropping, dyed her bosom red.” —% H. Abrahall. The early Spanish settlers of South America saw in the Flor de las cinco llagas, the Flower of the Five Wounds, or Passion Flower, a marvellous floral emblem of the mysteries of Christ’s Passion, and the Jesuits eagerly adopted it as likely to prove useful in winning souls to their faith. An old legend, probably of monkish origin, recounts the emotions of plants on the death of the Saviour of mankind. The Pine of Damascus said :—As a sign of mourning, from this day my foliage will remain sombre, and I will dwell in solitary places. The Willow of Babylon.—My branches shall henceforth incline towards the waters of the Euphrates, and there shed the tears of the East. The Vine of Sorrento.—My grapes shall be black, and the wine that shall flow from my side shall be called Lacryma Chvistt. The Cypress of Carmel.—I will be the guest of the tombs, and the testimony of grief. ORe Gree of judas. 49 The Yew.—I will be the guardian of graveyards. No bee shall pillage with impunity my poisoned flowers. No bird shall rest on my branches ; for my exhalations shall give forth death. The Iris of Susa.—Henceforth I will wear perpetual mourning, in covering with a violet veil my golden chalice. The Day Lily.—I will shut every evening my sweet-smelling corolla, and will only re-open it in the morning with the tears of the night. ‘ In the midst of these lamentations of the flowers the Poplar alone held himself upright, cold, and arrogant as a free-thinker. As a punishment for this pride, from that day forth, at the least breath of wind it trembles in all its limbs. MRevolutionists have, therefore, made it the Tree of Liberty. @be Gree of audas Adcariot, In connection with the Crucifixion of our Lord many trees have had the ill-luck of bearing the name of the traitor Judas—the disciple who, after he had sold his Master, in sheer remorse and despair went and hanged himself on a tree. The Tree of Judas. From Maundevile’s Travets. The Fig, the Tamarisk, the Wild Carob, the Aspen, the Elder, and the Dog Rose have each in their turn been mentioned as the tree on which the suicide was committed. As regards the Fig, popular tradition affirms that the tree, after Judas had hung himself on it, never again bore fruit; that the Fig was the identical Fig-tree cursed by our Lord; and that all the wild Fig-trees sprang from this accursed tree. According to a Sicilian tradition, however, Judas did not hang himself on a Fig but on a Tamarisk-tree called Vruca (ITamarix Africana): this Vruca is now only a shrub, although E 50 Dfant gore, egenos, dnd loyriey. formerly it was a noble tree; at the time of Judas’ suicide it was cursed by God, and thenceforth became a shrub, ill-looking, misshapen, and useless. In England, according to Gerarde, the wild Carob is the Judas-tree (Cercis Siliquastrum): this Arbor Fude was in olden times known as the wild or foolish Cod. By many, however, the Elder has been supposed to be the fatal tree: thus we read in Piers Plowman’s ‘ Vision’ :— *¢ Judas he japed With Jewen silver, And sithen on an Eller Hanged hymselve.” Sir John Maundevile, from whose work the foregoing illustration has been copied, corroborates this view ; for he tells us that in his day there stood in the vicinity of Mount Sion “the tree of Eldre, that Judas henge him self upon, for despeyr.” A Russian proverb runs :—‘ There is an accursed tree which trembles without even a breath of wind,” in allusion to the Aspen (Populus tremula); and in the Ukraine they say that the leaves of this tree have quivered and shaken since the day that Judas hung himself on it. ORe Pfanty of Sf. John. Popular tradition associates St. John the Baptist with numerous marvels of the plant world. St. John was supposed to have been born at midnight; and on the eve of his anniversary, precisely at twelve o’clock, the Fern blooms and seeds, and this wondrous seed, gathered at that moment, renders the possessor invisible: thus, in Shakspeare’s Henry IV., Gadshill says: ‘‘ We have the receipt of Fern-seed, we walk invisible.” The Fairies, commanded by their queen, and the demons, commanded by Satan, engage in fierce combats at this mysterious time, for the possession of the invisible seed. In Russia, on St. John’s Eve, they seek the flower of the Papovot (Aspidium Filix mas), which flowers only at the precise moment of midnight, and will enable the lucky gatherer, who has watched it flower, to realise all his desires, to discover hidden treasures, and to recover cattle stolen or strayed. In the Ukraine it is thought that the gatherer of the Fern-flower will be endowed with supreme wisdom. The Russian peasants also gather, on the night of the Vigil of St. John, the Tirlic, or Gentiana Amarella, a plant much sought after by witches, and only to be gathered by those who have been fortunate enough first to have found the Plakun (Lythrum Salicania), which must be gathered on the morning of St. John, without using a knife or other instrument in uprooting it. This herb the Russians hold to be very potent against witches, bad spirits, and the evil eye. A cross cut from the root of the Plakun, and worn on the ~~ ORe Pfanty of Sl. gofin. 51 person, causes the wearer to be feared as much as fire. Another herb which should be gathered on St. John’s Eve is the Hievacium Pilosella, called in Germany Fohannisblut (blood of St. John): it brings good-luck, but must be uprooted with a gold coin. In many countries, before the break of day on St. John’s morn- ing, the dew which has fallen on vegetation is gathered with great care. This dew is justly renowned, for it purifies all the noxious plants and imparts to certain others a fabulous power. By some it is treasured because it is believed to preserve the eyes from all harm during the succeeding year. In Venetia the dew is reputed to renew the roots of the hair on the baldest of heads. It is collected in a small phial, and a herb called Basilica is placed in it. In Normandy and the Pyrenees it is used as a wash to purify the skin; in Brittany it is thought that, thus used, it will drive away fever; and in Italy, Roumania, Sweden, and Iceland it is believed to soften and beautify the complexion. In Egypt the nucta or miraculous drop falls before sunrise on St. John’s Day, and is supposed to have the effect of stopping the plague. In Sicily they gather the Hypericum perforatum, or Herb of St. John, and put it in oil, which is by this means transformed into a balm infallible for the cure of wounds. In Spain garlands of flowers are plucked in the early morn of St. John’s Day, before the dew has been dried by the sun, and a favourite wether is decked with them, the village lasses singing— **Come forth, come forth, my maidens, we’ll gather Myrtle boughs, And we shall learn from the dews of the Fern if our lads will keep their vows: If cae wether be still, as we dance on the hill, and the dew hangs sweet on the owers, Then we'll iss off the dew, for our lovers are true, and the Baptist’s blessing is ours.” The populace of Madrid were long accustomed, on St. John’s Eve, to wander about the fields in search of Vervain, from a super- stitious notion that this plant possesses preternatural powers when gathered at twelve o'clock on St. John’s Eve. In some parts of Russia the country people heat their baths on the Eve of St. John and place in them the herb Kunalnitza (Ranunculus) ; in other parts they place herbs, gathered on the same anniversary, upon the roofs of houses and stables, as a safeguard against evil spirits. The French peasantry rub the udders of their cows with similar herbs, to ensure plenty of milk, and place them over the doorways of cattle sheds and stables. On the Eve of St. John, Lilies, Orpine, Fennel, and every variety of Hypericum are hung over doors and windows. Garlands of Vervain and Flax are also suspended inside houses; but the true St. John’s garland is composed of seven elements, namely white Lilies, green Birch, Fennel, Hypericum, Wormwood, and the legs of game birds: these are believed to have immense power: E—2 52 Ofank wore, begenos, dnd lyrics. against evil spirits. After daybreak on St. John’s Day it is dangerous to pluck herbs; the gatherer running the risk of being afflicted with cancer. According to Bauhin, the following plants are consecrated to St. John :—First and specially the Hypericum, or perforated St. John’s Wort, the fuga demonum, or devil’s flight, so named from the virtue ascribed to it of frightening away evil spirits, and acting as a charm against witchcraft, enchantment, storms, and thunder. It is also called Tutsan, or All-heal, from its virtues in curing all kinds of wounds; and Sanguts hominis, because of the blood-red juice of its flowers. The leaves of the common St. John’s Wort are marked with blood-like spots, which alway appear on the 29th of August, the day on which the Baptist was beheaded. The “Flower of St. John” is the Chrysanthemum (Corn Marigold), or, according to others, the Buphthalmus (Ox-Eye) or the Anacyclus. Grapes of St. John are Currants. The Belt or Girdle of St. John is Wormwood. The Herbs of St. John comprise also Mentha savracenica or Costus hor- tensis ; Gallithricum sativum or Centrum galli or Ovminum sylvestre; in Picardy Abvotanum (a species of Southernwood) ; and, according to others, the Andvosemon (Tutsan), the Scrophularia, and the Crassula mayor. ‘The scarlet Lychnis Covonaria is said to be hghted up on his day, and was formerly called Candelabrum ingens. A species of nut is named after the Saint. The Carob is St. John’s Mead, so called because it 1s supposed to have supplied him with food in the wilderness, and to be the ‘locusts’? mentioned in the Scriptures. The festival of St. John would seem to be a favourite time with maidens to practice divination in their love affairs. On the eve of St. John, English girls set up two plants of Orpine on a trencher, one for themselves and the other for their lover; and they estimate the lover’s fidelity by his plant living and turning to theirs, or otherwise. They also gather a Moss-rose so soon as the dew begins to fall, and, taking it indoors, carefully keep it till New Year’s Eve, when, if the blossom is faded, it is a sign of the lover’s insincerity, but if it still retains its common colour, he is true. On this night, also, Hemp-seed is sown with certain mystic ceremonies. In Brittany, on the Saint’s Vigil, young men wearing bunches of green Wheat-ears, and lasses decked with Flax-blossoms, assemble round one of the old pillar-stones and dance round it, placing their wreath upon it. If it remains fresh for some time after, the lover is to be trusted, but should it wither within a day or two, so will the love prove but transient. In Sweden, on St. John’s Eve, young maidens arrange a bouquet composed of nine different flowers, among which the Hypericum, or St. John’s Wort, or the Ox-eye Daisy, St. John’s Flower, must be conspicuous. The flowers must be gathered from nine different places, and the posy be placed beneath the Bowers of tte Bainty. 53 maiden’s pillow. Then he who she sees in her dreams will be sure soon to arrive.* “ The village maids mysterious tales relate Of bright Midsummer’s sleepless nights ; the Fern That time sheds secret seeds ; and they prepare Untold-of rites, predictive of their fate : Virgins in silent expectation watch Exact at twelve’s propitious hour, to view The future lover o’er the threshold pass ; Th’ inviting door wide spread, and every charm Performed, while fond hope flutters in the breast, And credulous fancy, painting his known form, Kindles concordant to their ardent wish.” —JBid/ake, Bowers of the Saints. In the dark ages the Catholic monks, who cultivated with assiduity all sorts of herbs and flowers in their monastic gardens, came in time to associate them with traditions of the Church, and to look upon them as emblems of particular saints. Aware, also, of the innate love of humanity for flowers, they selected the most popular as symbols of the Church festivals, and in time every flower became connected with some saint of the Calendar, either from blowing about the time of the saint’s day, or from being connected with him in some old legend. St. Benedict’s herbs are the Avens, the Hemlock, and the Valerian, which were assigned to him as being antidotes; a legend of the saint relating that upon his blessing a cup of poisoned wine, which a monk had presented to him to destroy him, the glass was shivered to pieces. To St. Gerard was dedicated the Agopodium Podagraria, because it was customary to invoke the saint against the gout, for which this plant was esteemed a remedy. St. Christopher has given his name to the Baneberry (Acta spicata), the Osmund Fern (Osmunda vegalis), the Fleabane (Pulicaria dysen- tevica), and, according to old herbalists, to several other plants, including Betonica officinalis, Vicia Cracca and Sepium, Gnaphalium germanicum, Spirea ulmaria, two species of Wolf’s Bane, &c. St. George has numerous plants named after or dedicated to him. In England his flower is the Harebell, but abroad the Peony is generally called after him. His name is also bestowed on the Lilium convallium. The Herb of St. George is the Valeriana sativa; his root, Dentaria major; his Violet, Leucotum luteum ; his fruit, Cucumis agrestis. In Asia Minor the tree of St. George is the Carob. The Evyngium was dedicated to St. Francis under the name of St. Francis’s Thorn. Bunium flexuosum, is St. Anthony’s nut—a pig-nut, because he is the patron of pigs; and Senecio Facobea is St. James’s Wort (the saint of horses and colts)—used * For further details of the rites of St. John’s Eve, see Part II., under the heads ** Fern,” ‘‘ Hemp,” and ‘f Moss-RosE.” 54 Dfant loore, leegenos, dnd layries. in veterinary practice. The Cowslip is dedicated to St. Peter, as Herb Peter of the old herbals, from some resemblance which it has to his emblem—a bunch of keys. As the patron of fishermen, Crithmum maritimum, which grows on sea-cliffs, was dedicated to this saint, and called in Italian San Pietro, in French Saint Pierre, and in English Samphire. Most of these saintly names were, however, given to the plants because their day of flowering is connected with the festival of the saint. Hence Hypericum quadvangulare is the St. Peter’s Wort of the modern floras, from its flowering on the 29th of June. The Daisy, as Herb Margaret, is popularly supposed to be dedicated to ‘‘ Margaret that was so meek and mild;” probably from its blossoming about her day, the 22nd of February: in reality, however, the flower derived its name from St. Margaret of Cortona. SBarbarvea vulgaris, growing in the winter, is St. Barbara’s Cress, her day being the fourth of December, old style; and Centaurea solstitialis derives its Latin specific, and its popular name, St. Barnaby’s Thistle, from its flourishing on the longest day, the 11th of June, old style, which is now the 22nd. Nzigella damascena, whose persistent styles spread out like the spokes of a wheel, is named Katharine’s flower, after St. Katharine, who suffered martyrdom on a wheel. The Cranesbill is called Herb Robert, in honour of St. Robert, Abbot of Molesme and founder of the Cistercian Order. The Speedwell is St. Paul’s Betony. Archangel is a name given to one umbelliferous and three labiate plants. An angel is said to have revealed the virtues of the plants in a dream. The umbelliferous plant, it has been supposed, has been named Angelica Archangelica, from its being in blossom on the 8th of May, old style, the Archangel St. Michael’s Day. Flowering on the féte day of such a powerful angel, the plant was supposed to be particularly useful as a preservative of men and women from evil spirits and witches, and of cattle from elfshot. Roses are the special flowers of martyrs, and, according to a tradition, they sprang from the ashes of a saintly maiden of Bethlehem who perished at the stake. Avens (Geum urbanum) the Herba benedicta, or Blessed Herb, is a plant so blessed that no venomous beast will approach within scent of it; and, according to the author of the Ortus sanitatis, ‘where the root is in a house, the devil can do nothing, and flies from it, wherefore it is blessed above all other herbs.” The common Snowdrops are called Fair Maids of February. This name also, like the Saints’ names, arises from an ecclesiastical coincidence: their white flowers blossom about the second of February, when maidens, dressed in white, walked in procession at the Feast of the Purification. The name of Canterbury Bells was given to the Campanula, in honour of St. Thomas of England, and in allusion probably to the horse-bells of the pilgrims to his shrine. Saxifraga umbrosa is both St. Patrick’s cabbage and St. Anne’s needlework; Polygonum Ffowerd of the Dainty. 55 Persicaria is the Virgin’s Pinch; Polytrichum commune, St. Winifred’s Hair; Myrrhis odorata, Sweet Cicely; Oviganum vulgare, Sweet Margery ; Oscinium Basilicum, Sweet Basil. Angelica sylvestris, the Root of the Holy Ghost; Hedge Hyssop, Cranesbill, and St. John’s Wort are all surnamed Grace of God; the Pansy, having three colours on one flower, is called Herb Trinity; the four- leaved Clover is an emblem of the Cross, and all cruciform flowers are deemed of good omen, having been marked with the sign of the Cross. The Hemp Agrimony is the Holy Rope, after the rope with which Christ was bound; and the Hollyhock is the Holy Hock (an old word for Mallow). The feeling which inspired this identification of flowers and herbs with holy personages and festivals is gracefully expressed by a Franciscan in the following passage :—‘‘ Mindful of the Festivals which our Church prescribes, I have sought to make these objects of floral nature the timepieces of my religious calendar, and the mementos of the hastening period of my mortality. Thus I can light the taper to our Virgin Mother on the blowing of the white Snowdrop, which opens its flower at the time of Candlemas; the Lady’s Smock and the Daffodil remind me of the Annunciation ; the blue Harebell, of the Festival of St. George; the Ranunculus, of the Invention of the Cross ; the Scarlet Lychnis, of St. John the Baptist’s day ; the white Lily, of the Visitation of our Lady ; and the Virgin’s Bower, of the Assumption; and Michaelmas, Martin- mas, Holy Rood, and Christmas have all their appropriate decorations.” In later times we find the Church’s Calendar of English flowers embodied in the following lines :— ‘* The Snowdrop, in purest white arraie, First rears her hedde on Candlemass daie: While the Crocus hastens to the shrine Of Primrose lone on S. Valentine. Then comes the Daffodil beside Our Ladye’s Smock at our Ladye tide, Aboute S. George, when blue is worn, The blue Harebells the fields adorn ; Against the daie of the Holie Cross, The Crowfoot gilds the flowrie grasse. When S. Barnabie bright smiles night and daie, Poor Ragged Robbin blooms in the hay. The scarlet Lychnis, the garden’s pride, Flames at S. John the Baptist’s tide ; From Visitation to S. Swithen’s showers, The Lillie white reigns queen of the floures And Poppies a sanguine mantle spread, For the blood of the dragon S. Margaret shed, Then under the wanton Rose agen, That blushes for penitent Magdalen, Till Lammas Daie, called August’s Wheel, When the long Corn smells of Cammomile. When Marie left us here belowe, The Virgin’s Bower is full in blowe ; And yet anon the full Sunflower blew, And became a starre for S. Bartholomew. 56 DPant lgore, loegenos, and loyrics. The Passion-flower long has blowed, To betoken us signs of the holie rood: The Michaelmass Dasie among dede weeds, Blooms for S. Michael’s valorous deeds, And seems the last of the floures that stood, Till the feste of S. Simon and S. Jude ; Save Mushrooms and the Fungus race, That grow till All Hallowtide takes place. Soon the evergreen Laurel alone is green, When Catherine crownes all learned menne ; Then Ivy and Holly berries are seen, And Yule clog and wassail come round agen.” Anthol. Bor. é¢ Aus. The Roman Catholics have compiled a complete list of flowers, one for every day in the year, in which each flower has been dedicated to a particular saint, usually for no_ better reason than because it bloomed about the date of the saint’s feast day. This Saints’ Floral Directory is to be found im extenso in Hone’s ‘ Every-day Book.’ In the Anglican church the principal Festivals or Red Letter Days have each their appropriate flowers assigned them, as will be seen from the following table :— DATE. SAINT. APPROPRIATE FLOWER. Nov. 30. S. Andrew. S. Andrew’s Cross—Ascyrum Crux Andree. Dec. 21. S. Thomas. Sparrow Wort—E£rica passerina. 25. Christmas. Holly—“lex bacciflora. 26. S. Stephen. Purple Heath—L7rica purpurea. 27. S. John Evan. Flame Heath—Z7ica flammea. 28. Innocents. Bloody Heath—Z7ica cruenta. Jan. 1. Circumcision, Laurustine— Viburnume tinus. 6. Epiphany. Screw Moss—7ortula rigida. 25: eee ee Winter Hellebore—elleborus hyemalis. BoB) ee GE Snowdrop—Galanthus nivalis. 24. S. Matthias. Great Fern—Osmunda regalis. poo: ee Marigold—Calendula officinalis. Apr. 25. S. Mark. Clarimond Tulip—Zulipa precox. Tulip—7ulipa Gesneri, dedicated to S. Philip. May 1. S. Philip and Red Campion— Lychnzs dioica rubra. S. James. Red Bachelor's Buttons—Lychnis dioica plena, dedi- cated to S. James. June 11. S. Barnabas. Midsummer Daisy—Chrysanthemum leucanthemum. 24. S. John Baptist S. John’s Wort—AHyfericum pulchrum. 20'S eter Yellow Rattle—Rhinanthus Gall. July 25. S. James Herb Christopher—Acéea spicata. Aug. 24. S. Bartholomew Sunflower—/Helanthus annuus. Sept.21. S. Matthew Ciliated Passion-flower.—Passiflora ciliata. 29. S. Michael. Michaelmas Daisy—Aster 7radescanti. Oct. 18. S. Luke. Floccose Agaric—Agaricus floccosus. ee ( Late Chrysanthemum—C%rysanthemum serotinum. 28. S. Simon and ; Scattered Starwort—Aster passiflorus, dedicated to Side. 007s) june. Noy. 1. All Saints, Amaranth. Bowers of the GRurek’s cesdtivafy. 57 In old church calendars Christmas Eve is marked ‘ Templa exornantuy ’”—Churches are decked. Herrick, in the time of Charles I., thus combines a number of these old customs connected with the decoration of churches— ** Down with Rosemary and Bays, Down with the Mistletoe, Instead of Holly now upraise The greener Box for show. The Holly hitherto did sway ; Let Box now domineer, Until the dancing Easter Day Or Easter’s Eve appear. Then youthful Box, which now hath grace Your houses to renew, Grown old, surrender must his place Unto the crisped Yew. When Yew is out, then Birch comes in, And many flowers beside, Both of a fresh and fragrant kin, To honour Whitsuntide. Green Rushes then, and sweetest Bents, With cooler Oaken boughs, Come in for comely ornaments To re-adorn the house. Thus times do shift ; each thing his turn does hold, New things succeed as former things grow old.” Bfowerd of the GAureh’S gedfivafs, In the services of the Church every season has its appropriate floral symbol. In olden times on Feast days places of worship were significantly strewed with bitter herbs. On the Feast of Dedication (the first Sunday in October) the Church was decked with boughs and strewn with sweet Rushes; for this purpose Funcus aromaticus (now known as Acorus Calamus) was used. ** The Dedication of the Church is yerely had in minde, With worship passing Catholicke, and in a wondrous kinde. From out the steeple hie is hanged a crosse and banner fayre, The pavement of the temple strowde with hearbes of pleasant ayre ; The pulpets and the aulters all that in the Church are seene, And every pewe and pillar great are deckt with boughs of greene.” LT. Naogeorgus, trans. by Barnabe Googe, 1570. It was customary to strew Rushes on the Church floor on all high days. Newton, in his ‘ Herbal to the Bible’ (1587), speaks of ‘‘ Sedge and Rushes, with which many in the country do use in Summer time to strewe their parlors and Churches, as well for coolness and for pleasant smell.” Cardinal Wolsey in the pride of his pomp had the strewings of his great hall at Hampton Court renewed every day. Till lately the floor of Norwich Cathedral was strewn with Acorvus Calamus on festal days, and when the Acorus was 58 Dfant laore, laegenos, dnd layries, scarce, the leaves of the yellow Iris were used. At the church of St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, Rushes are strewn every Whitsuntide. The parish of Middleton-Cheney, Northamptonshire, has a bene- faction to provide hay for strewing the Church in summer, the rector providing straw in the winter. In Prussia Holcus odovatus is considered Holy Grass, and is used for strewing purposes. The Rush-bearings which are still held in Westmoreland, and were until quite recently general in Cheshire, would appear to be a relic of the custom of the Dedication Feast. At these Rush-bearings young men and women carry garlands in procession through the village to the Church, which they enter and decorate with their floral tributes. Besides giving the Church a fresh strewing every feast day, it was in olden times customary to deck it with boughs and flowers ; and as the flowers used at festivals were originally selected because they happened to be in bloom then, so in time they came to be asso- ciated therewith. On Pato Sunpay, it was customary for the congregation to carry Palm branches in procession, and deposit them on the altar of the Church to be blessed, after which they were again distributed to the people. Various substitutes for the Eastern Palm were used in England, but the most popular was the Sallow, because its lithe green wands, full of sap, and covered with golden catkins, were at that season of the year the things most full of life and blossom. Yew branches were also employed for Palm, and some Churches were decked with boughs of Box. White Broom and white flowers of all descriptions are applicable to the great festival of EasTER, as well as purple Pasque flowers and golden Daffodils. The peasants of Bavaria weave garlands of the fragrant Coltsfoot (Nardosmia fragrans) on Easter Day, and cast them into the fire. In RoGation WEEx processions perambulated the parishes with the Holy Cross and Litanies, to mark the boundaries and to invoke the blessing of God on the crops: on this occasion maidens made themselves garlands and nosegays of the Rogation-flower, Polygala vulgaris, called also the Cross-, Gang-, and Procession-flower. On Ascension Day it is customary in Switzerland to suspend wreaths of Edelweiss over porches and windows,—this flower of the Alps being, like the Amaranth, considered an emblem of immortality, and peculiarly appropriate to the festival. May Day, in olden times, was the anniversary of all others which was associated with floral ceremonies. In the early morn all ranks of people went out a-Maying, returning laden with Haw- thorn blossoms and May flowers, to decorate churches and houses. Shakspeare notices how, in his day, every one was astir betimes :— **°?Tis as much improbable, Unless we swept them from the door with cannons, To scatter ’em, as ’tis to make ’em sleep On May-day morning.” afowerr of the GRureh’s Pedfivafy. 59 It being also the festival of SS. Puitie anp James, the feast partook somewhat of a religious character. The people not only turned the streets into leafy avenues, and their door-ways into green arbours, and set up a May-pole decked with ribands and garlands, and an arbour besides for Maid Marian to sit in, to witness the sports, but the floral decorations extended likewise into the Church. We learn from Aubrey that the young maids of every parish carried about garlands of flowers, which they afterwards hung up in their Churches ; and Spenser sings how, at sunrise— ** Youth’s folke now flocken in everywhere To gather May-buskets and smelling Brere ; And home they hasten the postes to dight And all the Kirke pillours ere day light With Hawthorn buds and sweete Eglantine, And girlonds of Roses, and Soppes-in-wine.’’ The beautiful milk-white Hawthorn blossom is essentially the flower of the season, but in some parts of England the Lily of the Valley is considered as ‘‘ The Lily of the May.” In Cornwall and Devon Lilac is esteemed the May-flower, and special virtues are attached to sprays of Ivy plucked at day-break with the dew on ;them. In Germany the Kingcup, Lily of the Valley, and Hepatica are severally called Maz-blume. WHITSUNTIDE flowers in England are Lilies of the Valley and Guelder Roses, but according to Chaucer (‘ Romaunt of the Rose’) Love bids his pupil— ‘* Have hatte of floures fresh as May, Chapelett of Roses of Whit-Sunday, For sich array ne costeth but lite.” The Germans call Broom Pentecost-bloom, and the Peony the Pentecost Rose. The Italians call Whitsunday Pasqua Rosata, Roses being then in flower. To Trinity Sunpay belong the Herb-Trinity or Pansy and the Trefoil. On St. Barnapas Day, as on St. Paut’s Day, the churches were decked with Box, Woodruff, Lavender, and Roses, and the officiating Priests wore garlands of Roses on their heads. On Royat Oak Day (May 2oth), in celebration of the restora- tion of King Charles II., and to commemorate his concealment in an aged Oak at Boscobel, gilded Oak-leaves and Apples are worn, and Oak-branches are hung over doorways and windows. From this incident in the life of Charles I1., the Oak derives its title of Royal. ‘* Blest Charles then to an Oak his safety owes ; The Royal Oak, which now in song shall live, Until it reach to Heaven with its boughs; Boughs that for loyalty shall garlands give.” On Corpus Curisti Day it was formerly the custom in unreformed England to strew the streets through which the pro- cession passed with flowers, and to decorate the church with Rose and other garlands. In North Walesa relic of these ceremonies 60 Dfant wore, laegenos, and loyries. lingered till lately in the practice of strewing herbs and flowers at the doors of houses on the Corpus Christi Eve. In Roman Catholic countries flowers are strewed along the streets in this festival, and the route of the procession at Rome is covered with Bay and other fragrant leaves. On the Vigil of St. JoHN THE Baptist, Stowe tells us that in his time every man’s door was shadowed with green Birch, long Fennel, St. John’s Wort, Orpine, white Lilies, and such like, garnished upon with garlands of beautiful flowers, and also lamps of glass, with oil burning in them all night. Birch is the special tree, as the yellow St. John’s Wort (Hypericum) is the special flower, of St. John. In the life of Bishop Horne we read that in the Court of Magdalen, Oxford, a sermon used to be preached on this day from the stone pulpit in the corner, and ‘the quadrangle was furnished round with a large fence of green boughs, that the meeting might more nearly resemble that of John Baptist in the wilderness.” On Att Saints’ or ALL Hattows’ Day, Roman Catholics are wont to visit the graves of departed relatives or friends, and place on them wreaths of Ivy, Moss, and red Berries. On the Eve of this day, Hallowe’en (October 31st), many superstitious customs are still practised. In the North young people dive for Apples, and for divining purposes fling Nuts into the fire ; hence the vulgar name of Nut-crack Night. In Scotland young women determine the figure and size of their future husbands by paying a visit to the Kail or Cabbage garden, and ‘ pu’ing the Kailstock” blindfold. They also on this night throw Hazel Nuts in the fire, named for two lovers, judging according as they burn quickly together, or start apart, the course of their love. At Curistas tide Holly (the “ holy tree’’), Rosemary, Laurel, Bay, Arbor Vite, and Ivy are hung up in churches, and are suitable also for the decoration of houses, with the important addition of Mistletoe (which, on account of its Druidic connection, is interdicted in places of worship). Ivy should only be placed in outer passages or doorways. At Christmas, which St. Gregory termed the “ festival of all festivals,’ the evergreens with which the’ churches are ornamented are a fitting emblem of that time when, as God says by the prophet Isaiah, “I will plant in the wilderness the Cedar, the Shittah tree and the Myrtle, and the Oil tree; I will set in the desert the Fir tree and the Pine, and the Box tree together (xli., 19). The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the Fir tree, the Pine tree, and the Box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary ; and I will make the place of my feet glorious”’ (Ix., 13). Godpe? Gako ayo Memorial Trees, There exist in different parts of England several ancient trees, notably Oaks, which are traditionally said to have been called Gobpef Gaky. 61 Gospel trees in consequence of its having been the practice in times long past to read under a tree which grew upon a boundary- line a portion of the Gospel on the annual perambulation of the bounds of the parish on Ascension Day. In Herrick’s poem of the ‘ Hesperides’ occur these lines in allusion to this practice :— ** Dearest, bury me Under that holy Oak or Gospel tree, Where, though thou see’st not, thou mayest think upon Me when thou yearly go’st in procession.” Many of these old trees were doubtless Druidical, and under their ‘leafy tabernacles” the pioneers of Christianity had probably preached and expounded the Scriptures.to a pagan race. The heathen practice of worshipping the gods in woods and trees continued for many centuries, till the introduction of Christianity ; and the first missionaries sought to adopt every means to elevate the Christian worship to higher authority than that of paganism by acting on the senses of the heathen. St. Augustine, Evelyn tells us, held a kind of council under an Oak in the West of England, concerning the right celebration of Easter and the state of the Anglican church; ‘“ where also it is reported he did a great miracle.” On Lord Bolton’s estate in the New Forest stands a noble group of twelve Oaks known as the Twelve Apostles: there is another group of Oaks extant known as the Four Evangelists. Beneath the venerable Yews at Fountain Abbey, Yorkshire, the founders of the Abbey held their council in 1132. “Cross Oaks” were so called from their having been planted at the junction of cross roads, and these trees were formerly resorted to by aguish patients, for the purpose of transferring to them their malady. Venerable and noble trees have in all ages and in all countries been ever regarded with special reverence. From the very earliest times such trees have been consecrated to holy uses. Thus, the Gomerites, or descendants of Noah, were, if tradition be true, accustomed to offer prayers and oblations beneath trees; and, following the example of his ancestors, the Patriarch Abraham pitched his tents beneath the Terebinth Oaks of Mamre, erected an altar to the Lord, and performed there sacred and priestly rites. Beneath an Oak, too, the Patriarch entertained the Deity Himself. This tree of Abraham remained till the reign of Constantine the Great, who founded a venerable chapel under it, and there Christians, Jews, and Arabs held solemn anniversary meetings, believing that from the days of Noah the spot shaded by the tree had been a consecrated place. Dean Stanley tells us that ‘‘on the heights of Ephraim, on the central thoroughfare of Palestine, near the Sanctuary of Bethel, stood two famous trees, both in after times called by the same name. One was the Oak-tree or Terebinth of Deborah, under which was buried, with many tears, the nurse of Jacob 62 Pfant Isore, laegenor, dnd layries, (Gen. xxxv. 8). The other was a solitary Palm, known in after times as the Palm-tree of Deborah. Under this Palm, as Saul afterwards under the Pomegranate-tree of Migron, as St. Louis under the Oak-tree of Vincennes, dwelt that mother in Israel, Deborah, the wife of Lapidoth, to whom the sons of Israel came to receive her wise answers.” Since the time when Solomon cut the Cedars of Lebanon for the purpose of employing them in the erection of the Temple of the Lord, this renowned forest has been greatly shorn of its glories; but a grove of nearly four hundred trees still exists. Twelve of the most valuable of these trees bear the titles of ‘“‘ The Friends of Solomon,” or “The Twelve Apostles.” Every year the Maronites, Greeks, and Armenians go up to the Cedars, at the Feast of the Transfiguration, and celebrate mass on a homely stone altar erected at their feet. In Evelyn’s time there existed, near the tomb of Cyrus, an extraordinary Cypress, which was said to exude drops of blood every Friday. This tree, according to Pietro della Valla, was adorned with many lamps, and fitted for an oratory, and was for ages resorted to by pious pilgrims. Thevenot and other Eastern travellers mention a tree which for centuries had been regarded with peculiar reverence. ‘ At Matharee,” says Thevenot, ‘is a large garden surrounded by walls, in which are various trees, and among others, a large Sycamore, or Pharaoh’s Fig, very old, which bears fruit every year. They say that the Virgin passing that way with her son Jesus, and being pursued by a number of people, the Fig-tree opened to receive her ; she entered, and it closed her in, until the people had passed by, when it re-opened, and that it remained open ever after to the year 1656, when the part of the trunk that had separated itself was broken away.” Near Kennety Church, in the King’s County, Ireland, is an Ash, the trunk of which is nearly 22 feet round, and 17 feet high, before the branches break out, which are of enormous bulk. When a funeral of the lower class passes by, they lay the body down a few minutes, say a prayer, and then throw a stone to increase the heap which has been accumulating round the roots. The Breton nobles were long accustomed to offer up a prayer beneath the branches of a venerable Yew which grew in the cloister of Vreton, in Brittany. The tree was regarded with much veneration, as it was said to have originally sprung from the staff of St. Martin. In England, the Glastonbury Thorn was long the object of pious reverence. ‘This tree was supposed to have sprung from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea, to whom the original conversion of this country is attributed in monkish legends. The story runs that when Joseph of Arimathea came to convert the heathen nations he selected Glastonbury as the site for the first Christian Memoria? Oreey. 63 Church, and whilst preaching there on Christmas-day, he struck his staff into the ground, which immediately burst into bud and bloom; eventually it grew into a Thorn-bush, which regularly blossomed every Christmas-day, and became known throughout Christendom as the Glastonbury Thorn. **The winter Thorn, which Blossoms at Christmas, mindful of our Lord.” Like the Thorn of Glastonbury, an Oak, in the New Forest, called the Cadenham Oak, produced its buds always on Christmas Day ; and was, consequently, regarded by the country people as a tree of peculiar sanctity. Another miraculous tree is referred to in Collinson’s ‘ History of Somerset.’ The author, speaking of the Glastonbury Thorn, says that there grew also in the Abbey churchyard, on the north side of St. Joseph’s Chapel, a miraculous Walnut-tree, which never budded forth before the Feast of St. Barnabas (that is, the 11th of June), and on that very day shot forth leaves, and flourished lke its usual species. It is strange to say how much this tree was sought after by the cre- dulous; and though not an uncommon Walnut, Queen Anne, King James, and many of the nobility of the realm, even when the times of monkish superstition had ceased, gave large sums of money for small cuttings from the original. CHAPTER VI. panty of the dairies ano Iaiadey. ENTURIES before Milton wrote that ‘ Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep,” our Saxon ancestors, whilst yet they inhabited the forests of Germany, believed in the existence of a diminutive race of beings—the ‘missing link” between men and spirits—to whom they attri- : buted extraordinary actions, far exceeding the capabilities of human art. Moreover, we have it on the authority of the father of English poetry that long, long ago, in those wondrous times when giants and dwarfs still deigned to live in the same countries as ordinary human beings, **Tn the olde dayes of King Artour, Of which the Bretons speken gret honour, All was this land fulfilled of faerie; The Elf-quene and hire joly compaynie Danced full oft in many a grene mede. This was the old opinion as I rede.” The old Welsh bards were accustomed to sing their belief that King Arthur was not dead, but conveyed away by the fairies into some charmed spot where he should remain awhile, and then return again to reign with undiminished power. These wondrous inhabitants of Elf-land—these Fays, Fairies, Elves, Little Folk, Pixies, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Dwarfs, Pigmies, Gnomes, and Trolls are all more or less associated with the plant kingdom. They make their habitations in the leafy branches of trees, or dwell in the greater seclusion of their hollow trunks; they dally and gambol among opening buds and nodding blossoms; they hide among blushing Roses and fragrant shrubs; they dance amid the Butter- cups, Daisies, and Meadow-Sweet of the grassy meads; and, as Shakspeare says, they ‘“‘ use flowers for their charactery.” Grimm tells us that in Germany the Elves are fond of inhabiting Oak trees, the holes in the trunks of which are deemed by the people to be utilised by the Fairies as means of entry and Dfants of the Pairied. 65 exit. A similar belief is entertained by the Hindus, who consider holes in trees as doors by which the inhabiting spirit passes in and out. German elves are also fond of frequenting Elder-trees. The Esthonians believe that during a thunder-storm, and in order to escape from the lightning, the timorous Elves burrow several feet beneath the roots of the trees they inhabit. Asa rule these forest Elves are good-natured: if they are not offended, not only will they abstain from harming men, but they will even do them a good turn, and teach them some of the mysteries of nature, of which they possess the secret. The Elves were in former days thought to practise works of mercy in the woods, and a certain sympathetic affinity with trees became thus propagated in the popular faith. The country-folk were careful not to offend the trees that were inhabited by Fairies, and they never sought to surprise the Elfin people in their myste- rious retreats, for they dreaded the power of these invisible creatures to cause ill-luck or some unfortunate malady to fall on those against whom they hada spite. Even deaths were sometimes laid at their door. A German legend relates that as a peasant woman one day tried to uproot the stump of an old tree in a Fir forest, she became so feeble that at last she could scarcely manage to walk. Suddenly, while endeavouring to crawl to her home, a mysterious-looking man appeared in the path before the poor woman, and upon hearing what was the matter with her, he at once remarked that she had wounded an Elf. If the Elf got well, so would she; but if the Elf should unfortunately perish, she would also assuredly die. The stump of the old Fir-tree was the abode of an Elf, and in endeavouring to uproot it, the woman had unintentionally injured the little creature. The words of the mysterious personage proved too true. The peasant languished for some time, but drooped and died on the same day as the wounded Elf. To this day, in the vast forests of Germany and Russia, instead of uprooting old Firs, the foresters, remembering the Elfish superstition, always chop them down above the roots. In the Indian legend of Savitri, the youthful Satyavant, while felling a tree, perspires inordinately, is overcome with weakness, sinks exhausted, and dies. He had mortally wounded the Elf of the tree. Since the days of Alsop it has become a saying that Death has a weakness for woodmen. In our own land, Oaks have always been deemed the favourite abodes of Elves, and wayfarers, upon approaching groves reputed to be haunted by them, used to think it judicious to turn their coats for good luck. Thus Bishop Corbet, in his Iter Boreale, writes :— ** William found A means for our deliverance: ‘ Turn your cloakes,’ Quoth he, ‘for Pucke is busy in these Oakes ; If ever we at Bosworth will be found, Then turn your cloakes, for this is Fairy ground.’ ” 66 Dfant laocre, leegenos, and loyries. It was believed that the Fairy folk made their homes in the recesses of forests or secluded groves, whence they issued after sunset to gambol in the fields; often startling with their sudden appearance the tired herdsman trudging homeward to his cot, or the goodwife returning from her expedition to market. Thus we read of “Fairy Elves whose midnight revels by a forest side or fountain some belated peasant sees.” ‘* Would you the Fairy regions see, Hence to the greenwoods run with me ; From mortals safe the livelong night, There countless feats the Fays delight.”—Ze/tly. In the Isle of Man the Fairies or Elves used to be seen hopping from trees and skipping from bough to bough, whilst wending their way to the Fairy midnight haunts. In such esteem were they held by the country folk of Devon and Cornwall, that to ensure their friendship and good offices, the Fairies, or Pixies, used formerly to have a certain share of the fruit crop set apart for their special consumption. Hans Christian Andersen tells of a certain Rose Elf who was instrumental in punishing the murderer of a beautiful young maiden to whom he was attached. The Rose, in olden times, was reputed to be under the especial protection of Elves, Fairies, and Dwarfs, whose sovereign, Laurin, carefully guarded the Rose- garden. “Four portals to the garden lead. and when the gates are closed, No living wight dare touch a Rose, ’gainst his strict command opposed. Whoe’er would break the golden gates, or cut the silken thread, Or who would dare to waste the flowers down beneath his tread, Soon for his pride would leave to pledge a foot and hand ; Thus Laurin, King of Dwarfs, rules within his land.” A curious family of the Elfin tribe were the Moss- or Wood- Folk, who dwelt in the forests of Southern Germany. ‘Their stature was small, and their form weird and uncouth, bearing a strange resemblance to certain trees, with which they flourished and decayed. Describing a Moss-woman, the author of ‘ The Fairy Family’ says :— ** © A Moss-woman !’ the hay-makers cry, And over the fields in terror they fly. She is loosely clad from neck to foot In a mantle of Moss from the Maple’s root, And like Lichen grey on its stem that grows Is the hair that over her mantle flows. Her skin, like the Maple-rind, is hard, Brown and ridgy, and furrowed and scarred; And each feature flat, like the bark we see, Where a bough has been lopped from the bole of a tree, When the newer bark has crept healingly round, And laps o’er the edge of the open wound; Her knotty, root-like feet are bare, And her height is an ell from heel to hair.” ®)fants of the dairies. 67 The Moss- or Wood-Folk also lived in some parts of Scan- dinavia. Thus, we are told that, in the churchyard of Store Hedding, in Zealand, there are the remains of an Oak wood which were trees by day and warriors by night. The Black Dwarfs were a race of Scandinavian Elves, inhabiting coast-hills and caves; the favourite place of their feasts and carousings, however, was under the spreading branches of the Elder-tree, the strong perfume of its large moon-like clusters of flowers being very grateful to them. As has been before pointed out, an unexplained connection of a mysterious character has always existed between this tree and the denizens of Fairy-land. The Still-Folk of Central Germany were another tribe of the Fairy Kingdom: they inhabited the interior of hills, in which they had their spacious halls and strong rooms filled with gold, silver, and precious stones—the entrance to which was only obtained by mortals by means of the Luck-flower, or the Key-flower (Schliissel- blume). They held communication with the outer world, like the Trolls of Scandinavia, through certain springs or wells, which possessed great virtues: not only did they give extraordinary growth and fruitfulness to all trees and shrubs that grew near them, whose roots could drink of their waters, or whose leaves be sprinkled with the dews condensed from their vapours, but for certain human diseases they formed a sovereign remedy. In Monmouthshire, in years gone by, there existed a good Fairy, or Procca, who was wont to appear to Welshmen in the guise of a handful of loose dried grass, rolling and gambolling before the wind. Sairy Revefs. The English Fays and Fairies, the Pixies of Devon— ‘* Fantastic Elves, that leap The slender Hare-cup, climb the Cowslip bells, And seize the wild bee as she lies asleep,” according to the old pastoral poets, were wont to bestir them- selves soon after sunset—a time of indistinctness and gloomy grandeur, when the moonbeams gleam fitfully through the wind- stirred branches of their sylvan retreats, and when sighs and murmurings are indistinctly heard around, which whisper to the listener of unseen beings. But it is at midnight that the whole Fairy kingdom is alive: then it is that the faint music of the blue Harebell is heard ringing out the call to the Elfin meet : **?Tis the hour of Fairy ban and spell, The wood-tick has kept the minutes well, He has counted them all with click and stroke, Deep on the heart of the forest Oak; And he has awakened the sentry Elve, That sleeps with him in the haunted tree, To bid him ring the hour of twelve, And call the Fays to their revelry. 68 Dfant laore, lsegenos, and layrics. “ They come from the beds of the Lichen green, They creep from the Mullein’s velvet screen, Some on the backs of beetles fly From the silver tops of moon-touched trees, Where they swing in their cobweb hammocks high, And rocked about in the evening breeze ; ‘ . Some from the hum-bird’s downy nest, Had driven him out by Elfin power, And pillowed on plumes of his rainbow crest, Had slumbered there till the charmed hour 5 Some had lain in a scarp of the rock, By glittering ising-stars inlaid, And some had opened the ‘ Four-o’-Clock,’ And stolen within its purple shade ; And now they throng the moonlight glade, Above, below,—on every side, Their little minim forms arrayed, In the tricksy pomp of Fairy pride.” —Dr. Drake's ‘ Culprit Fay.’ Like the Witches, Fairies dearly love to ride to the trysting- place on an aerial steed. A straw, a blade of Grass, a Fern, a Rush, or a Cabbage-stalk, alike serve the purpose of the little people. Mounted on such simple steeds, each joyous Elf sings— ‘* Now I go, now I fly, Malkin, my sweet spirit, and I. O what a dainty pleasure ’tis To ride in the air, When the morn shines fair, And sing and dance, and toy and kiss !”’ Arrived at the spot selected for the Fairy revels—mayhap, ‘©qa bank whereon the wild Thyme blows, where Oxlips and the nodding Violet grows ’—the gay throng wend their way to a grassy link or neighbouring pasture, and there the merry Elves trip and pace the dewy green sward with their printless feet, causing those dark green circles that are known to mortals as “ Fairy Rings.” The Fays that haunt the moonlight dell, The Elves that sleep in the Cowslip’s bell, The tricksy Sprites that come and go, Swifter than a gleam of light ; Where the murmuring waters flow, And the zephyrs of the night, Bending to the flowers that grow, Basking in the silver sheen, With their voices soft and low, Sing about the rings of green Which the Fairies’ twinkling feet, In their nightly revels, beat. Old William Browne depicts a Fairy trysting-place as being in proximity to one of their sylvan haunts, and moreover gives us an insight into the proceedings of the Fays and their queen at one of their meetings. He says :— ‘Near to this wood there lay a pleasant meade Where Fairies often did their measures treade, Which in the meadows made such circles greene, As if with garlands it had crowned beene, ®) fants of the dairies. 69 Or like the circle where the signes we tracke, And learned shepheards call’t the zodiacke ; Within one of these rounds was to be seene A hillock rise, where oft the Fairie queene At twilight sat, and did command her Elves To pinch those maids that had not swept their shelves ; And further, if by maiden’s oversight, Within doors water were not brought at night, Or if they spread no table, set no bread, They should have nips from toe unto the head, And forthe maid that had performed each thing, She in the water-pail bade leave a ring.” St. John’s Eve was undoubtedly chosen for important com- munication between the distant Elfin groves and the settlements of men, on account of its mildness, brightness, and unequalled beauty. Has not Shakspeare told us, in his‘ Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,’ of the doings, on this night, of Oberon, Ariel, Puck, Titania, and her Fairy followers ?— ‘* The darling puppets of romance’s view ; Fairies, and Sprites, and Goblin Elves we call them, Famous for patronage of lovers true ; No harm they act, neither shall harm befall them, So do not thou with crabbed frowns appal them.” Yet timorous and ill-informed folk, mistrusting the kindly disposi- tion of Elves and Fairies, took precautions for excluding Elfin visitors from their dwellings by hanging over their doors boughs of St. John’s Wort, gathered at midnight on St. John’s Eve. A more kindly feeling, however, seems to have prevailed at Christmas time, when boughs of evergreen were everywhere hung in houses in order that the poor frost-bitten Elves of the trees might hide them- selves therein, and thus pass the bleak winter in hospitable shelter. Sairy ®fants, In Devonshire the flowers of Stitchwort are known as Pixies. Of plants which are specially affected by the Fairies, first mention should be made of the Elf Grass (Vesleria caerulea), known in Germany as Elfenkvaut or Elfgras. This is the Grass forming the Fairy Rings, round which, with aerial footsteps, have danced ** Ye demi-puppets, that By moonlight do the green sour ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites.” —Shakspeare’s Tempest. The Cowslip, or Fairy Cup, Shakspeare tells us forms the couch of Ariel—the ‘dainty Ariel” who has so sweetly sung of his Fairy life— ‘* Where the bee sucks, there lurk I; In a Cowslip’s bell I lie ; There I couch when owls do cry; On a bat’s back I do fly After summer merrily. Merrily, merrily, shall I live now Under the blossom that hangs on the bough,’’ 70° Ofant lore, Wegenos, ana layrics. The fine small crimson drops in the Cowslip’s chalice are said to possess the rare virtue of preserving, and even of restoring, youthful bloom and beauty; for these ruddy spots are fairy favours, and therefore have enchanted value. Shakspeare says of this flower of the Fays :— ‘* And I serve the Fairy queen, To dew her orbs upon the green : The Cowslips tall her pensioners be ; In their gold coats spots you see ; Those be rubies, fairy favours : In those freckles live their savours.” Another of the flowers made potent use of by the Fairies of Skakspeare is the Pansy—that ‘little Western flower” which Oberon bade Puck procure :— ‘* Fetch me that flower,—the herb I showed thee once: The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid, Will make a man or woman madly dote Upon the next live creature that it sees.” The Anemone, or Wind-flower, is a recognised Fairy blossom. The crimson marks on its petals have been painted there by fairy hands; and, in wet weather, it affords shelter to benighted Elves, who are glad to seek shelter beneath its down-turned petals. Tulips are greatly esteemed by the Fairy folk, who utilise them as cradles in which to rock the infant Elves to sleep. The Fairy Flax (Linum catharticum) is, from its extreme delicacy, selected by the Fays as the substance to be woven for their raiment. The Pyvus Faponica is the Fairies’ Fire. Fairy- Butter (Tvemella arborea and albida) is a yellowish gelatinous sub- stance, found upon rotten wood or fallen timber, and which is popularly supposed to be made in the night, and scattered about by the Fairies. The Pezita, an exquisite scarlet Fungus cup, which grows on pieces of broken stick, and is to be found in dry ditches and hedge-sides, is the Fairies’ Bath. To yellow flowers growing in hedgerows, the Fairies have a special dislike, and will never frequent a place where they abound; but it is notorious that they are passionately fond of most flowers. It is part of their mission to give to each maturing blossom its proper hue, to guide creepers and climbing plants, and to teach young plants to move with befitting grace. But the Foxglove is the especial delight of the Fairy tribe: it is the Fairy plant par excellence. When it bends its tall stalks the Foxglove is making its obeisance to its tiny masters, or pre- paring to receive some little Elf who wishes to hide himself in the safe retreat afforded by its accommodating bells. In Ireland this flower is called Lusmore, or the Great Herb. It is there the Fairy Cap, whilst in Wales it becomes the Goblin’s Gloves. As the Foxglove is the special flower of the Fairies, so isa four-leaved Clover their peculiar herb. It is believed only to grow Pfanty of the OGWatez Rympfy. 71 in places frequented by the Elfin tribe, and to be gifted by them with magic power. * T’ll seek a four-leaved Clover In all the Fairy dells, And if I find the charmed leaf, Oh, how I’ll weave my spells ! ” The maiden whose search has been successful for this diminu- tive plant becomes at once joyous and light-hearted, for she knows that she will assuredly see her true love ere the day is over. The four-leaved Clover is the only plant that will enable its wearer to see the Fairies—it is a magic talisman whereby to gain admittance to the Fairy kingdom,* and unless armed with this potent herb, the only other means available to mortals who wish to make the acquaintance of the Fairies is to procure a supply of a certain precious unguent prepared according to the receipt of a celebrated alchymist, which, applied to the visual orbs, is said to enable anyone with a clear conscience to behold without difficulty or danger the most potent Fairy or Spirit he may anywhere encounter. The following is the form of the preparation :— «“R. A pint of Sallet-oyle, and put it into a vial-glasse ; but first wash it with Rose-water and Marygolde water ; the flowers to be gathered towards the east. Wash it till the oyle come white ; then put it into the glasse, wt supra: and then put thereto the budds of Holyhocke, the flowers of Marygolde, the flowers or toppers of Wild Thyme, the budds of young Hazle: and the Thyme must be gathered neare the side of a hill where Fayries used to be: and take the grasse of a Fayrie throne. Then all these put into the oyle into the glasse: and sette it to dissolve three dayes in the sunne, and then keep it for thy use ; ut supra.” — [Ashmolean MSS.]. ®fantd of tke OGWater RympRd ano gays. Certain of the Fairy community frequented the vicinity of pools, and the banks of streams and rivers. Ben Jonson tells of ** Span-long Elves that dance about a pool ;” and Stagnelius asks— —S, Lover. ‘* Say, know’st the Elfin people gay? They dwell on the river’s strand ; They spin from the moonbeams their festive garb, With their small and lily hand.” Of this family are the Russalkis, river nymphs of Southern Russia, who inhabit the alluvial islands studding the winding river, or dwell in detached coppices fringing the banks, or con- struct for themselves homes woven of flowering Reeds and green Willow-boughs. The Swedes delight to tell of the Strémkarl, or boy of the stream, a mystic being who haunts brooks and rivulets, and sits * See legend in Part II., under the head of ‘f CLOVER.” 72 Dfant wore, eegenos, and layricy. on the silvery waves at moonlight, playing his harp to the Elves and Fays who dance on the flowery margin, in obedience to his summons—., “*Come queen of the revels—come, form into bands The Elves and the Fairies that follow your train ; Tossing your tresses, and wreathing your hands, Let your dainty feet dance to my wave-wafted strain.” The Greeco-Latin Naiades, or Water-nymphs, were also of this family: they generally inhabited the country, and resorted to the woods or meadows near the stream over which they presided. It was in some such locality on the Asiatic coast that the ill-fated Hylas was carried off by Isis and the River-nymphs, whilst obtaining water from a fountain. | ‘© The chiefs composed their wearied limbs to rest, But Hylas sought the springs, by thirst opprest ; At last a fount he found with flow’rets graced : On the green bank above his urn he placed. *Twas at a time when old Ascanius made An entertainment in his watery bed, For all the Nymphs and all the Naiades Inhabitants of neighb’ring plains and seas.” These inferior deities were held in great veneration, and received from their votaries offerings of fruit and flowers; animal sacrifices were also made to them, with libations of wine, honey, oil, and milk ; and they were crowned with Sedges and flowers. A remnant of these customs was to be seen in the practice which formerly prevailed in this country of sprinkling rivers with flowers on Holy Thursday. Milton, in his ‘Comus,’ tells us that, in honour of Sabrina, the Nymph of the Severn— ‘