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these being all the sacred or double number of Three. In later days,
the Shamrock or Trefoil, and the Pansy, or Herb Trinity, were regarded
as symbolising the Trinity. Cruciform flowers are, at the
present day, all regarded as of good omen, having been marked
with the Sign of the Cross, and thus symbolising Redemption.
The presence of flowers as symbols and language on the
monuments of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, India, and other countries
of the past, and the graceful floral adornments sculptured on
the temples of the Græco-Roman period, demonstrate how great
a part flower and plant symbolism played in the early history of
mankind. The Jews, learning the art from the Egyptians, preserved
it in their midst, and introduced plant emblems in their
Tabernacle, in their Temple, and on the garments of the priests.
Flowers with golden rays became symbols of the Sun ; and as the
Sun was the giver of life and warmth, the bringer of fertility, tha
symbolic flowers stood as symbol-words for these great gifts ; and
gradually all the mysterious phenomena connected with birth,
reproduction, and fecundity, were represented in plant, flower, end
fruit symbolism; for not only were flowers early used as a pictorial
language, but the priests made use of fruits, herbs, shrubs, and
trees to symbolise light, life, warmth, and generation. Let us take
a few examples :—When in the Spring, church altars and fonts are
piously adorned with white Lilies, which are, in some countries,
carried about, worn, and presented by ladies to each other in the
month of May, few of them, we may be sure, imagine that they
are perpetuating the plant symbolism of the Sun-worship of
ancient Egypt. Miss Marshall tells us that “ in Catholic countries
the yellow anthers are carefully removed; their white filaments
alone are left, not, as folks think, that the flower may remain pure
white, but that the fecundating or male organs being removed, the
Lilies may be true flower symbols or visible words for pure
virgins ; for the white dawn as yet unwedded to the day—for the
pure cold Spring as yet yielding no blossoms and Summer fruits.”
Of the flowers consecrated to their deities by the symbol-
worshipper of India and Egypt, the most prominent is the sacred
Lotus, whose leaf was the “ emblem and cradle of creative might.”
It was anciently revered in Egypt as it is now in Hindustan,
Thibet, and Nepaul, where the people believe it was in the consecrated
bosom of this plant that Brahma was born, and that
Osiris delights to float. From its peculiar organisation the Lotus
is virtually self-productive: hence it became the symbol of the
reproductive power of all nature, and was worshipped as a symbol
of the All-Creative Power. The same floral symbol occurs wherever
in the northern hemisphere symbolic religion has prevailed. The
sacred images of the Tartars, Japanese, and Indians are almost
all represented as resting upon Lotus-leaves. The Chinese divinity,
Puzza, is seated in a Lotus, and the Japanese god is représentée,
sitting in a Water-Lily. The Onion was formerly held in the
highest esteem as a religious symbol in the mysterious solemnities
and divinations of the Egyptians and Hindus. In the first place,
its delicate red veins and fibres rendered it an object of veneration,
as typifying the blood, at the shedding of which the Hindu
shudders. Secondly, it was regarded as an astronomical emblem,
for on cutting through it, there appeared beneath the external coat
a succession of orbs, one within another, in regular order, after
the manner of revolving spheres. The Rose has been made a
symbolic flower in every age. In the East, it is the emblem of
virtue and loveliness. The Egyptians made it a symbol of silence;
the Romans regarded it as typical of festivity. In modern times
it is considered the appropriate symbol of beauty and love,—the
half-expanded bud representing the first dawn of the sublime
passion, and the full-blown flower the maturity of perfecif love.
The Asphodel, like the Hyacinth of the ancients, was regarded as
an emblem of grief and sorrow. The Myrtle, from its being
dedicated to Venus, was sacred as a symbol of love and beauty.
White flowers were held to be typical of light and innocence, and
were consecrated to virgins. Sombre and dark-foliaged plants
were held to be typical of disaster and death.
The floral symbols of the Scriptures are worthy of notice.
From the circumstance of Elijah having been sheltered from the
persecutions of King Ahab by the Juniper, that tree has become a
symbol of succour or an asylum. The Almond was an emblem of
haste and vigilance to the Hebrew writers ; with Eastern poets,
however, it was regarded as a symbol of hope. Throughout the
East, the Aloe is regarded as a religious symbol, and is greatly
venerated. It is expressive of grief and bitterness, and is religiously
planted by the Mahommedans at the extremity of every grave.
Burckhardt says that they call it by the Arabic name Saher, signifying
patience—a singularly appropriate name ; for as the plant is
evergreen, it whispers to those who mourn for the loved ones
they have lost, patience in their affliction. The Clover is another
sacred plant symbol. St. Patrick chose it as an emblem of the
Trinity when engaged in converting the Irish, who have ever since,,
in the Shamrock, regarded it as a representative plant. The
Druids thought very highly of the Trefoil because its leaf symbolised
the three departments of nature—the earth, the sea, and the;
heaven.
But of all plant symbols, none can equal in beauty or sancfiity
the Passion Flower, the lovely blossom of which, when first met
with by the Spanish conquerors of the New World, suggested to
their enthusiastic imagination the story of our Saviour’s Passion..
The Jesuits professed to find in the several parts of the Maracot
the crown of thorns, the scourge, the pillar, the sponge, the nails,
and the five wounds, and they issued drawings representing the
flower with its inflorescence distorted to suit their statements,
regarding its almost miraculous chara(5fer. John Parkinson, in