; i
í'i
*'!' I
: !
divisions. These are, firstly, plants which are symbols, pure and
simple, of the Great Unknown God, or Heaven Father; and embrace
those, the form, colour, or other peculiarities of which led the
priests, the early thinkers to the community, the medicine-men,
magicians, and others, to associate them with ideas of the far-
distant, unknown, incomprehensible, and overwhelming—the de-
stru(ifive forces of Nature. Such plants were used as hieroglyphics
for these ideas, and became symbols of the Deity or Supreme
Power. To these visible symbols belong plants such as the L ily,
Onion, flowers of heavenly blue colour (symbolising the blue sky),
and leaves threefold or triangular, symbolising God the Creator,
Preserver, and Destroyer.
Secondly, the plants symbolising or suggesting portions or
organs of the human body, internal and external, which to the
earliest of mankind, and certainly to the Egyptian embalmers,
were organs of mystery and importance; such is the heart, the
first to beat in the foetal, and the last to cease pulsating in the
adult organism, &c. To this secfiion belong heart-shaped leaves
and petals ; and where, as in the Shamrock, there is united the
threefold emblem and the heart-shaped leaf, there is a doubly
sacred idea united with the form. To this secfiion belong also
plants and fruits such as the P'ig, Pomegranate, &c.
The third secifion comprises plants that were consecrated
or set apart as secret and sacred, because those who possessed
the knowledge of their powers made use of them to awe
the ignorant people of their race. These plants were supposed to
be under the control of the good or evil powers. They were the
narcotics, the stupefying or the exciting vegetable drugs. The
sacred incense in all temples was compounded of these, and
their use has been, and still is, common to all countries ; and as
some of these compounds produced extraordinary or deadly
effects, as the very dust of the burnt incense, when mixed with
water, and drunk, brought on a violent and agonising death, while
the fumes might merely produce delightful and enticing ecstacy,
making men and women eloquent and seemingly inspired, the
knowledge was wisely kept secret from the people, and severe
penalties—sometimes even death—awaited those who illegally
imitated, compounded, or used these drugs. To this sedfion
belong the plants used to make the Chinese and Japanese joss,
as well as Opium, Tobacco, Stramonium, and various opiates now
well known.
The fourth sedtion comprises those plants which in all countries
have been observed to bear some resemblance to parts of the
human body. Such plants were valued and utilised as heavensent
guides in the treatment of the ills flesh is heir to ; and they
are the herbs whose popular names among the inhabitants of
every land have become “ familiar in their mouths as household
words.” To such belong the Birth-wort, Kidney-wort, Lung!
Í
wort, Liver-wort, Pile-wort, Nit-grass, Tooth-cress, Heart-clover,
and many others known to the ancient herbalists. It was their
endeavours to find out whether or no the curious forms, spots, and
markings of such plants really indicated their curative powers, that
led to the properties of other herbs being discovered, and a suggestive
nomenclature being adopted for them, such as is found in
the names Eyebright, Flea-bane, Canker-weed. Hunger - grass,
Stone-break, &c.
Lastly, in the fifth sedtion of symbolical plants we come to
those which point to a time when symbols were expressed by
letters, such as appear on the Martagón L ily—the true poetical
Hyacinth of the Greeks—on the petals of which are traced the
woeful AI, A I,—the expression of the grief of Phoebus at the death
of the fair Adonis.
“ In the flower he weaved
The sad impression of his sighs ; which bears
At, AZf displayed in funeral characters.”
In this sedfion also are included plants which exhibit in some
portion of their strudfure typical markings, such as the Astragalus,
which in its root depidfs the stars; the Banana, whose fruit, when
cut, exhibits a representation of the Holy Cross; and the Bracken
Fern, whose stem, when sliced, exhibits traces of letters which are
sometimes used for the purposes of love divination. In Ireland,
however, the Pteris aquilina is called the Fern of God, because the
people imagine that if the stem be cut into three sedfions, on the
first of these sedfions will be seen the letter G, on the second O,
and on the third D—forming the sacred word G od.
In the science of plant symbols, not only the names, but the
forms, perfumes, and properties of plants have to be considered, as
well as the numerical arrangements of their parts. Thus of all sacred
symbolical plants, those consisting of petals or calyx-sepals, or
leaves, divided into the number Five, were formerly held in peculiar
reverence, because among the races of antiquity five was for ages a
sacred number. The reason of this is thus explained by Bunsen :—
“ It is well known,” he says, “ that the numeral owe, the undivided,
the eternal, is placed in antithesis to all other numerals. The
figure four included the perfedf ten, as 1+ 2 + 3 4 -4 = 10 . So four
represents the All of the universe. Now if we put these together,
4 + 1 will be the sign of the whole God-Universe,” Three is a
number sacred to the most ancient as well as modern worship.
Pythagoras called it the perfedf number, expressive of “ beginning,
middle, and end,” and therefore he made it a symbol of deity.
Three therefore plays its rôle in plant symbology. Thus the
Emhlica officinalis, one of the sacred plants of India, was once the
exclusive property of the priests, who kept its medicinal virtues
secret : it was held in peculiar reverence because of its fiowers
possessing a six-parted calyx ; three stamens, combined ; three
dichotomous styles ; a fieshy fruit, tricoccous and six-seeded ;
N— 2