yr .7 '
p f a n t Tsoro, Tsegel^/, oni^ feyric^.
direciling him to cut three leaves on three successive mornings.-----
Hurdis, in his poem of ‘ The Village Curate,’ fantastically compares
the sparkling undergraduate and the staid divine to the
Dandelion in the two stages of its existence:—
“ Dandelion this,
A college yonth, that flashes for a day
All gold : anon he doffs his gaudy suit,
Touched by the magic hand of some grave bishop.
And all at once becomes a reverend divine—how sleek. *
But let me tell you, in the pompous globe
Which rounds the Dandelion’s head, is couched
Divinity most rare.”
To dream of Dandelions betokens misfortune, enemies, and deceit
on the part of loved ones. Astrologers claim the Dandelion as a
plant of Jupiter.
D A N E W O R T .—^The Dwarf Elder [Sambucus Ebulm) is said
only to grow where blood has been shed, either in battle or in
murder. A patch of it thrives on ground in Worcestershire, where
the first blood was drawn in the civil war between the Royalists
and the Parliament. The Welsh call it Llysan gmaed gwyv, or
“ Plant of the blood of men.” A name of similar import is its
English one of Death-wort. It is chiefly in connecflion with the
history of the Danes in England, that the superstition holds;
wherever the Danes fought and bled, there did the Dwarf Elder,
or Dane’s Wood, spring up and flourish. According to Aubrey, the
plant obtained the name of Danewort, Daneweed, or Dane’s blood,
because it grew plentifully in the neighbourhood of Slaughterford,
Wilts, where there was once a stout battle fought with the Danes.
Parkinson, however, thinks the plant obtained the name of Dane-
wort because it would cause a flux called the Danes.
D A P H N E .—The generic name of Daphne has been given to
a race of beautiful low shrubs, after the Nymph Daphne, who was
changed by the gods into a Laurel, in order that she might escape
the solicitations of Apollo (see L a u r e l ) ; because many of the
species have Laurel-like leaves. The sweet-scented Daphne Me-
zereon is very generally known as the Lady Laurel, and is also
called Spurge Olive, Spurge Flax, Flowering Spurge, and Dwarf
Bay. The name of Mezereon is probably derived from its Persian
name, Madzaryoun, which signifies “ destroyer of life,” in allusion to
the poisonous nature of its bright red berries. Gerarde says, “ I f
a drunkard doe eat one graine or berrie of it, he cannot be allowed
to drinke at that time ; such will be the heate of his mouth, and.
choking in the throte.” A decocftion of this plant, mixed with
other ingredients, is the Lisbon diet-drink, a well-known alterative.
The Russian ladies are reputed to rub their cheeks with
the fruit of the Mezereon, in order, by the slight irritation, to
heighten their colour. The Spurge Laurel (Daphne Lauveola)
p f a n t T^ore, L e g e r^ / , onR T^yi'lc/, 3 1 1
possess similar properties to the Mezereon. It is called Ty-ved in
Denmark, and is sacred to Tyr, the Scandinavian god of war.
It is the badge of the Highland Grahams. The Flax-leaved
Daphne, called by Gerarde the Mountain Widow-Wayle, is supposed
to be the herb Casia, mentioned by Virgil and other Roman
writers ; the Cneoron of the Greeks.
D A T E .—The Date Palm [Phoenix dactylifera) is the Palm of
the Oases, and supplies not only food for man and beast, but a
variety of useful commodities. This Palm has plume-like leaves,
and grows from sixty to eighty feet high, living to a great age, and
providing yearly a large crop of fruit. The male and female
flowers are borne on separate trees, and it is remarkable that there
is a difference in the fructification of the wild Date and the cultivated,
though both are the same species. The wild Dates impregnate
themselves, but the cultivatec! trees do not, without the assistance
of art. Pontanus, an Italian poet of the fifteenth century^
gives a glowing description of a female Date-tree which had stooci
lonely and barren, near Otranto, until at length a favouring wind
wafted towards it the pollen of a male that grew at a distance of
fifteen leagues. Father Labat has told of a Date-tree that grew
in the island of Martinico, and produced fruit which was much
esteemed ; but when an increase of the number of Date-trees was
wanted, not one could be reared from the seed, and they had to
send to Africa for Dates, the stones of which grew readily and
produced abundantly. The Date Palm is so abundant in the
country between the States of Barbary and the desert (which
produces no other kind of tree), that this region is designated as
the Land of Dates [Biledulgerid). The Palm of Palestine is the
Date Palm. When the sacred writers wished to describe the
majesty and beauty of recflitude, they appealed to the Palm as the
fittest emblem which they could selecit. “ He shall grow up and
flourish like the Palm-tree” is the promise of David to the just.
Mahomet, like the Psalmist of Israel, was wont to compare the
virtuous and generous man to the Date-tree:—“ He stands erecit
before his Lord ; in every acTion he follows the impulse received
from above; and his whole life is devoted to the welfare of his
fellow-creatures.” The inhabitants of Medina, who possess the:
most extensive plantations of Date-trees, say that their prophet
caused a tree at once to spring from the kernel at his command,,
and to stand before his admiring followers in mature fruitfulness
and beauty. The Tamanaquas of South America have a tradition
that the human race sprang again from the fruits of the Date
Palm after the Mexican age of water. The Arabs say that
when Adam was driven out of Paradise, the Date, the chief of all
fruits, was one of the three things which he took with him ; the
other two being the Myrtle and an ear of Wheat. A popular
legend concerning the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt„
narrates how a Date Palm, at the command of the child Jesus,,