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liis Paradisus Terrestris (1629), gives a good figure of the Virginian
species of the plant, as well as an engraving of “ The Jesuites
Figure of the Maracoc—Granadillus Frutex Indicus Christi Passionis
Imago.” But, as a good Protestant, he feels bound to enter his
protest against the superstitious regard paid to the fiower by the
Roman Catholics, and so he writes: “ Some superstitious Jesuites
would fain make men believe that in the fiower of this plant are to
5Tf)e JpniSSiotl'ilobjer of tI)C Scsuita. From Parkinson's Paradisus.
be seen all the markes of our Saviour’s Passion: and therefore call
it Flos Passionis: and to that end have caused figures to be drawn
and printed, with all the parts proportioned out, as thornes, nailes,
spear, whip, pillar, &c., in it, and as true as the sea burns, which
you may well perceive by the true figure taken to the life of the
plant, compared with the figure set forth by the Jesuites, which I
have placed here likewise for everyone to see: but these be their
advantageous lies (which with them are tolerable, or rather pious
and meritorious) wherewith they use to instrucif their people ; but
I dare say, God never willed His priests to instruct His people with
lies: for they come from the Devill, the author of them.”
In early times, it was customary in Europe to employ particular
colours for the purpose of indicating ideas and feelings, and
in France where the symbolical meaning of colours was formed
into a regular system, much importance was attached to the art of
symbolising by the selection of particular colours for dresses,
ornaments, &c. In this way, fiowers of various hues became the
apt media of conveying ideas and feelings ; and in the ages of
chivalry the enamoured knight often indicated his passion by
wearing a single blossom or posy of many-hued fiowers. In the
romance of Perceforet, a hat adorned with Roses is celebrated as a
favourite gift of love; and in Amadis de Caule, the captive Oriana
is represented as throwing to her lover a Rose wet with tears, as.
the sweetest pledge of her unalterable faith. Red was recognised
as the colour of love, and therefore the Rose, on account of its
tint, was a favourite emblem. Of the various allegorical meanings
which were in the Middle Ages attached to this lovely fiower,
a description will be found in the celebrated Pomaunt de la Pose,
which was commenced in the year 1620 by Guillaume de Lorris,
and finished forty years later by Jean de Meung.
In France, during the Middle Ages, fiowers were much employed
as emblems of love and friendship. At the banquet given in
celebration of the marriage of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy,
w i t h the English Princess, Margaret, several ingenious automata
were introduced, one being a large unicorn, bearing on its
back a leopard, which held in one claw the standard of England,
and on the other a Daisy, or Marguerite. The unicorn having gone
round all the tables, halted before the Duke ; and one of the
maîtres d'hôtel, taking the Daisy from the leopard’s claw, presented,
it, with a complimentary address, to the royal bridegroom. _
In the same country, an act of homage, unique in its kind, was
paid to a lady in the early part of the seventeenth century. The
Duke of Montausier, on obtaining the promise of the hand of
Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, sent to her, according to custom,
every morning till that fixed for the nuptials, a bouquet composed
of the finest flowers of the season. But this was not all : on the
morning of New Year’s Day, 1634—the day appointed for the
marriage—he laid upon her dressing-table a magnificently-bound
folio volume, on the parchment leaves of which the nx>st skilful
artists of the day had painted from nature a series of tho choicest
flowers cultivated at that time in Europe. The first poets of
Paris contributed the poetical illustrations, which wero written by
the cleverest penmen under the différent flowers. The most
celebrated of these madrigals, composed! by Chapelain on the
Crown Imperial, represented that superb flower as having sprung
from the blood of Gustavus Adolphus, who fell in the battle of