passion of the Nightingale for the Rose and of the fondness of the
Bird of Paradise for the dazzling blooms of the Tropics: the
especial liking, however, of one of this race—the Amhlyornis inor-
mta—for flowers is worthy of record, inasmuch as this bird-gardener
not only erecfls for itself a bower, but surrounds it with a mossy
sward, on which it continually deposits fresh flowers and fruit of
brilliant hue, so arranged as to form an elegant parterre.
We have reached our limit, and can only just notice the old
traditions relating to the sympathies and antipathies of plants.
The Jesuit Kircher describes the hatred existing between Hemlock
and Rue, Reeds and Fern, and Cyclamen and Cabbages as so
intense, that one of them cannot live on the same ground with the
other. The Walnut, it is believed, dislikes the Oak, the Rowan the
Juniper, the White-thorn the Black-thorn ; and there is said to be
a mutual aversion between Rosemary, Lavender, the Bay-tree,
Thyme, and Marjoram. On the other hand, the Rose is reported to
love the Onion and Garlic, and to put forth its sweetest blooms
when in propinquity to those plants ; and a bond of fellowship is
fabled to exist between a Fig-tree and Rue. Lord Bacon, noticing
these traditionary sympathies and antipathies, explains them as
simply the outcome of the nature of the plants, and his philosophy
is not difficult to be understood by intelligent observers, for, as St.
Anthony truly said, the great book of Nature, which contains but
three leaves—the Heavens, the Earth, and the Sea—is open for all
men alike.
P I P N T h 0 1 ( E , h E G E N D S , J I N D
C H A P T E R I.
U f i e © Y ^ o r P i L - U r e e / t f i e o K a c i e r j i / .
T is a proof of the solemnity with which, from the
very earliest times, man Iras invested trees, and
of the reverence with which he has ever regarded
them, that they are found figuring prominently
in the mythology of almost every nation ; and
despite the fact that in some instances these
ancient myths reach us, after the lapse of ages,
in distorted and grotesque forms, they would
seem to be worthy of preservation, if only as curiosities in plant
lore. In some cases the myth relates to a mystic cloud-tree which
supplies the gods with immortal fruit ; in others to a tree which
imparts to mankind wisdom and knowledge; in others to a tree
which is the source and fountain of all life ; and in others, again,
to the actual descent of mankind from anthropological or parent
trees. In one cosmogony—that of the Iranians—the first human
pair are represented as having grown up as a single tree, the
fingers or twigs of each one being folded over the other’s ears, till
the time came when, ripe for separation, they became two sentient
beings, and were infused by Ormuzd with distinct human souls.
But besides these trees, which in some form or other benefit
and populate the earth, there are to be found in ancient myths
records of illimitable trees that existed in space whilst yet the
elements of creation were chaotic, and whose branches overshadowed
the universe. One of the mythical accounts of the
creation of the world represents a vast cosmogonic tree rearing its
enormous bulk from the midst of an ocean before the formation of
the earth had taken place; and this conception, it may be remarked.
B