39 2 p f a n t Tsore, T â eg e l^ /, a n il 19lJî'Î<^,
to blow, and whose ringlets are compared to the twisting Hyacinth
buried in an envelope of the purest Musk :—
“ With Hyacinth and Jasmine her perfumed hair was bound,
A posy of sweet Violets her clustering ringlets seemed ;
Her eyes with love intoxicate, in witching sleep half drowned,
Her locks, to Indian Spikenard like, with love’s enchantments beamed.’’
De Tassy, the translator of the allegories of Aziz Eddin, points
out that the Arabian word yâs-min is composed of the'word yas,
despair, and min, an illusion. In the allegories we read : “ Then
the Jasmine uttered this sentence with the expressive eloquence
of its mute language : “ Despair is a mistake. My penetrating odour
excels the perfume of other flowers ; therefore lovers seledt me as
a suitable offering to their mistresses ; they extraét from me the invisible
treasures of divinity, and I can only rest when enclosed in
the folds and pleats which form in the body of a robe.” An
allusion to the Jasmine is made in the following poetic description
of a young girl drooping from a sudden illness :—“ All of a sudden
the blighting glance of unpropitious fortune having fallen on that
Rose-cheeked Cypress, she laid her head on the pillow of sickness ;
and in the flower-garden of her beauty, in place of the Damask-
Rose, sprang up the branch of the Saffron. Her fresh Jasmine,
from the violence of the burning illness, lost its moisture, and her
Hyacinth, full of curls, lost all its endurance from the fever that
consumed her. ’The Indians cultivate specially for their perfume
two species of Jasmine—viz., the Jasmimm grandiflorum, or Tore,
and the J . Mrsutum, or Samhac. The Moo-le-hua, a powerfulsmelling
Jasmine, is used in China and other parts of the East as
an adornment for the women’s hair. It is believed that the
Jasmine was first introduced into Europe by some Spaniards, who
brought it from the East Indies in 1560. Loudon relates that
a variety of the Jasmine, with large double flowers and exquisite
scent, was first procured in 1699 from Goa, by the Grand Duke
of Tuscany, and so jealous was he of being the sole possessor of
this species, that he stricffly forbade his gardener to part with a
single cutting. However the gardener was in love, and so, on the
birthday of his betrothed, he presented her with a nosegay, in the
midst of which was a sprig of this rare Jasmine. Charmed with its
fragrance, the girl planted the sprig in fresh mould, and under her
lover’s instrucilions was soon able to raise cuttings from the plant,
and to sell them at a high price : by this means she soon saved
enough money to enable her to wed the gardener, who had hitherto
been too poor to alter his condition. In memory of this tender
episode, the damsels of Tuscany still wear a wreath of Jasmine on
their wedding days, and the event has given rise to a saying that
a “ girl worthy of wearing the Jasmine wreath is rich enough to
make her husband happy.” Yellow Jasmine is the flower of the
Epiphany. To dream of this beautiful flower foretells good
luck ; to lovers it is a sure sign they will be speedily married.
G
p f a n t 15)01*©, l5)©g©1^ / , a n il l5)ijrie/. 393
J E R U S A L E M .—Many plants are found to have been named
in olden times after the Holy City. The Lungwort, Pulmonaria
officinalis, is the Jerusalem Cowslip; Phlomis is Jerusalem Sage; and
Teucrium Botrys is the Oak of Jerusalem, called so from the resemblance
of its leaf to that of the Oak. In these three cases the prefix
“ Jerusalem ” seems to have been applied for no particular reason
■—probably because the plants had an Eastern origin. Salsafy,
Tragopogón porrifolius, is the Star of Jerusalem, so named from the
star-like expansion of its involucre ; and Helianthus tuherosus is the
Jerusalem Artichoke, a plant of the same genus as the Sunflower,
called Artichoke from the flavour of its tubers. The soup made
from it is termed Palestine Soup. In the last two cases. Dr. Prior
thinks the prefix “ Jerusalem ” is simply a corruption of the Italian
word girasole, turn-sun, and has been applied to these plants from
a popular belief that they turn with the Sun. The Lychnis Chalce-
donica is the Jerusalem Cross, which has derived its name from the
fact that a variety of it has four instead of five petals, of the colour
and form of a Jerusalem Cross.
J E W S ’ E A R S .—The Auricula Ju d e is a Fungus resembling
in shape the human ear, which grows usually upon the trunks of
the Elder, the tree upon which Judas Iscariot is said by some to
have hung himself. Sir John Maundevile relates that he actually
saw the identical tree. Bacon says of this excrescence, “ There is
an herb called Jewes-Eare, that groweth upon the roots and lower
parts of the bodies of trees, especially of Elders, and sometimes
Ashes. It hath a strange propertie ; for in warme water it swelleth,
and openeth extremely. It is not greene, but of a darke browne
colour. And it is used for squinancies and inflammations in the
throat, whereby it seemeth to have a mollifying and lenifying
vertue.”
JO A N ’ S S I L V E R P IN .—The red-Poppy {Papaver Phceas)
has acquired the name of Joan’s Silver Pin, because, according to
Parkinson, the gaudy flower is “ fair without and foul within ” (in
allusion to its yellow juice). Joan’s Silver Pin was a contemptuous
term applied to some tawdry ornament displayed ostentatiously by
a sloven.
JO B ’ S T E A R S .—The pretty East Indian Grass, Coix lacryma,
is called Jo b ’s Tears on account of the formation of its hard beardlike
seeds, of which Gerarde says “ every graine resembleth the
drop or teare that falleth from the e5'e.” Among the Arabs,
the Fleabane {Inula dysenterica) is also called Jo b ’s Tears (See
F l e a b a n e .
JO N A H ’ S G O U R D .—According to the Greek version of the
Scriptures, the plant under which Jonah sat was a Gourd, but
the Vulgate considers it a species of Ivy. The Picinus communis,
the Castor-oil-tree, with its broad palmate leaves, has been, howii
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