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other reasons for associating the Cassia with the Moon. They say
that it is the only tree producing flowers with four petals which are
yellow—the colour of a metal, an element appertaining to the West,
the region where the Moon appears to rise. Then the Cassia-flower
opens in Autumn, a period when sacrifices are offered to the Moon ;
and it has, like the Moon, four phases of existence. During the
seventh Moon (August) it blossoms. At the fourth Moon (May) its
inflorescence ceases. During the fifth and sixth Moon (June and
July) its buds are put forth, and after these have opened into
leaf, the tree again bears flowers. Anglo-Indians call the Cassia
Fistula, or Umultuss-tree, the Indian Laburnum : its long cylindrical
pods are imported into England, and a sugary substance ex-
tradted from the pulp between the seeds is commonly used as a
laxative. Gerarde says this pulp of Cassia Fistula, when extradied
with Violet water, is a most sweet and pleasant medicine, and may
be given without danger to all weak people of what age and sex
soever. Lord Bacon writes in his Natural History:—“ It is reported
by one of the ancients, that Cassia, when it is gathered, is
put into the skins of beasts, newly flayed, and that the skins corrupting,
and breeding wormes, the wormes doe devoure the pith
and marrow it, and so make of it hollow; but meddle not with the
barke, because to them it is bitter.”
C A T C H - F L Y .—The Silene, or Catch-fly, received its English
name from its glutinous stalk, from which flies, happening to light
upon it, cannot disengage themselves. Gerarde gives the plant the
additional name of Limewort, and adds, that in his time the}' were
grown in London gardens, “ rather for toies of pleasure than any
virtues they are possessed with.”
C A T M IN T .—Gerarde, probably copying from Dodoens,
says of Cat Mint or Cat Nep, that “ cats are very much delighted
herewith, for the smell of it is so pleasant unto them, that they rub
themselves upon it, and swallow or tumble in it, and also feed on
the branches very greedily.” There is an old proverb respecting
this herb—
“ I f you set it, the cats will eat it;
I f you sow it, the cats won’t know it.”
According to Hoffman, the root of the Cat Mint, if chewed, will
make the most gentle person fierce and quarrelsome; and there is a
legend of a certain hangman who could never find courage to
execute his task until he had chewed this aromatic root. Nep or
Cat Mint is considered a herb of Venus.
C E D A R .—Numerous are the allusions made in the Bible to
the Cedars of Lebanon {Cedrus Libani), the tree which Josephus says
was first planted in Judea by Solomon, who greatly admired this
noble tree, and built himself a palace of Cedar on Lebanon itself.
The celebrated Temple of Solomon was built of hewn stone, lined
with Cedar, which was “ carved with knops and open flowers;
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all was Cedar, there was no stone seen.” Since King Solomon’s
time, the Cedar forest of Lebanon has become terribly reduced, but
Dr. Hooker, in i860, counted some four hundred trees, and Mr.
Tristram, a more recent traveller in the Holy Land, discovered a
new locality in the mountains of Lebanon, where the Cedar was
more abundant. Twelve of the oldest of these Cedars of Lebanon
bear the title of “ Friends of Solomon,” or the “ Twelve Apostles,”
The Arabs call all the older trees, saints, and believe an evil fate
will overtake anyone who injures them. Every year, at the feast
of the Transfiguration, the Maronites, Greeks, and Armenians go
up to the Cedars, and celebrate mass on a rough stone altar at
their feet. The Cedar is made the emblem of the righteous in
the 92nd Psalm, and is likened to the countenance of the Son of
God in the inspired Canticles of Solomon. Ezekiel (xxxi., 3—9)
compares the mighty King of Assyria to a Cedar in Lebanon, with
fair branches, and says, as a proof of his greatness and power, that
“ the Cedars in the garden of God could not hide him.” In the
Romish Church, the Cedar of Lebanon, because of its height, its
incorruptible substance, and the healing virtues attributed to it in
the East, is a symbol of the Virgin, expressing her greatness, her
beauty, and her goodness. The Jews evidently regarded the
Cedar as a sacred tre e : hence it was used in the making of idols.
According to a very old tradition, the Cedar was the tree from
which Adam obtained the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden,
The ancient legend relating how the Cross of Christ was formed of
a tree combining in itself the wood of the Cypress, Cedar, and
Pine, will be found under the heading C y p r e s s . Another
tradition states that of the three woods of which the Cross was
composed, and which symbolised the three persons of the Holy
Trinity, the Cedar symbolised God the Father. -Pythagoras recommended
the Cedar, the Laurel, the Cypress, the Cak, and the
Myrtle, as the woods most befitting to honour the Divinity.------
The Shittim wood of the Scriptures is considered by some to have
been a species of Cedar, of which the most precious utensils were
made: hence the expression Cedro digna signified “ worthy of eternity.”——
The Cedar is the emblem of immortality. The ancients
called the Cedar “ life from the dead,” because the perfume of its
wood drove away the insedts and never-dying worms of the tombs.
According to Evelyn, in the temple of Apollo at Utica, there was
found Cedar-wood nearly two thousand years o ld ; “ and in
Sagunti, of Spain, a beam, in a certain oratory consecrated to
Diana, which had been brought from Zant two hundred years
before the destrudtion of Troy. The statue of that goddess in
the famous Ephesian Temple was of this material also, as was
most of the timber-work in all their sacred edifices.” In a
temple at Rome there was a statue of Apollo Sosianus in Cedar-
wood originally brought from Seleucia. Virgil states that Cedar-
wood was considered to be so durable, that it was employed for
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