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h
pation, and the whole territory was thus searched through. Of the
Ginseng thus collefled the root is the only part preserved.
G L A D IO L U S .—The Corn-flag, or Sword-flag (Gladiolus),
has been thought by some to be the flower alluded to by Ovid as
the blossom which sprang from the blood of Hyacinthus when he
was accidentally slain by Apollo with a quoit—the flower which
bears displayed upon its petals the sad impression of the Sun-god’s
sighs—Ai, AH (See Hya c inth) . The upper root of the Sword-
flag was supposed by the old herbalists to provoke amatory
passions, whilst the lower root was thought to cause barrenness.
The Gladiolus is a plant of the Moon.
G L A S T O N B U R Y T H O R N .—In'London's Arboretum Bri-
tannicum, the Glastonbury Thorn is mentioned as the Grategus
Oxyacantha precox. This variety of the Hawthorn blossoms during
the Winter, and was for many years believed religiously to blow
on Christmas-day. The Abbey of Glastonbury, in Somersetshire,
which is now a ruin, and of whose origin only vague memorials exist,
was said by the monks to have been the residence of Joseph of
Arimathea. The high ground on which the old abbey was erecfled
used in early days to be called the Isle of Avalon. The Thorn-
tree stood on an eminence to the south-west of the town of Glastonbury,
where a nunnery, dedicated to St, Peter, was in after
rtimes erefled. The eminence is called Weary-all H ill; and the
same monkish legend which accounts for the name of the hill,
states also the origin of the Thorn. It seems that when Joseph of
Arimathea, to whom the original conversion of this country is
attributed, arrived at this spot with his companions, they were
weary with their journey, and sat down. St. Joseph then stuck
his stick in the ground, when, although it was a dry Hawthorn
staff", it took root and grew, and thenceforth commemorated the
birth of Christ in the manner above mentioned. This rendered
its blossoms of so much value in all Christian nations, that the
Bristol merchants exported them as things of price to foreign
lands. It had two trunks or bodies until the time of Queen
Elizabeth, when a Puritan cut down one of them, but left the
other, which was about the size of an ordinary man. This desecration
of the tree brought condign punishment upon the over-
zealous Puritan, for, according to James Howell, a writer of the
period, “ some of the prickles flew into his eye, and made him
monocular.” The reputation which the Glastonbury Thorn still retained,
notwithstanding the change of religion, may be estimated
by the fa fl that King James and his Queen, and other persons of
distinflion, gave large sums for small cuttings from the original
tree. Until the time of Charles I., it was customary to carry a
branch of the Thorn in procession at Christmas time ; but during
the civil war, in that reign, what remained of the tree was cut
down ; plants from its branches are, however, still in existence,
353
fo^ a vintner of the place secured a slip, and planted it in his
garden, where it duly flowered on the 25th December. When the
new style was introduced in 1752, the alteration (which consisted
o omitting eleven days) seems to have been very generally dis-
hked by the mass of the people. The use which was made of
tne Glastonbury Thorn to prove the impropriety of the change
is not a little curious. The alteration in the Christmas Day,
which was held that year and since on a day which would have
been January 5th, was particularly obnoxious, not only as dis-
turbing old associations, but as making an arbitrary change from
what was considered the true anniversary of the birth of Christ
In s e ^ r a l places, where real or supposed slips from the Glastonbury
Thorn existed, the testimony of the plant against the change
was anxiously sought on the first Christmas Day under the new
style. As the special distincflion of the Thorn arose from its supposed
connecflion with the great event commemorated on that day
it was argued that it must indicate the true anniversary, and that
Its evidence would be conclusive on the subjecfl. The event of one
of these references (at Quainton, in Buckinghamshire) is thus
recorded in the ‘ Gentleman’s Magazine ’ for 1 7 5 3 Above 2000
people came here this night (December 24th, 1752, n.s., being the
first Christmas E v e under the new calendar), with lanthorns and
candles, to view a Thorn-tree which grows in this neighbourhood
and which w ^ remembered (this year only) to be a slip from the
Glastonbury Thorn; that it always budded on the 24th, was fullblown
the next day, and went off at night. But the people, finding no
appearance of a bud, it was agreed that December 25th n s could
not be the right Christmas Day, and accordingly they refuseci going
to Church, or treating their friends as usual. At length the affair
became so serious, that the ministers of the neighbouring villages
‘ it ‘ h® people, thought it prudent to give notice
that the old Christmas Day should be kept holy as usual,” The
slips of the^ Thorn seem to have been everywhere unanimous in
this opposition to the new style. There still exist at Glastonbury
within the precincfls of the ruins of the Abbey, two distinfl trees’
which, doubtless, sprang from the Thorn of Joseph of Arimathea’
and which continue to blossom during the winter months.
g l o b e f l o w e r . —The botanical name of the Globe
blower, Trollms Europeus, is supposed to be of Scandinavian origin
and to signify a magic flower. The plant is also called Glob^
Ranunculus and Globe Crow-foot, from the globular form of its
calyx. The flower was formerly known as the Troll-flower, and in
Scotland as the Luckan Go wan (Cabbage Daisy). Its name of
Troll was probably derived from the Swedish word troll, a malig-
nant sup^natural being,—a name corresponding to the Scotch
Witches Gowan, and given to the Trollius on account of its acrid
poisonous qualities. It is a common flower on the Alps, and has
been employed from time immemorial by the Swiss peasantry to
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