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“ Here also sprang that goodly golden fruit
With which Acontius got his lover true,
Whom he had long time sought with fruitless suit •
Here eke that fcimous goldcn Apple grew.
The which among the gods false Até threw,
For which th’ Idsean ladies disagreed,
Till partial Paris deem’d it Venus’ due,
And had of her fair Helen for his meed.
That many noble Greeks and Trojans made to bleed.”
At Brighton, there exists a curious custom of bowling or throwin©
Oranges along the high-road 011 Boxing-day. He whose Oran©e is
hit by that of another, forfeits the fruit to the successful h i t t e r ___
An Andalusian tradition, given by De Gubernatis, relates that the
Virgin Mary, journeying with the infant Jesus and with Toseph
came to the Orange-tree, which was guarded by an eagle a+d
begged of it one of the Oranges for the holy child. The ea©le
miraculously fell asleep, and the Virgin thereupon plucked not
one but three Oranges, one of which she gave to the infant
Jesus, another to Joseph, and the third she kept for herself Then
and not till then, the eagle that guarded the Orange-tree’ awoke’
-According to Evelyn, the first China Orange-tree which
reached Europe was sent as a present to the old Conde Mellor
then Prime Minister to the King of Portugal. Writing in 1607’
the Jesuit L e Comte states that “ the first and unique Oran©etree
from which it is said all others have sprung, is still preserved
at Lisbon, in the house of Count St. Laurent.” -In Sicily
statues of the Madonna are decorated with branches of the Oran©e •
at Avola, m Sicily, on Easter Sunday, two posts are set up and
decorated with Orange-boughs. The Orange is one of those rare
trees which produce at the same time fruit, fiowers, and folia©e •
hence it is in some countries considered as typifying great fulness’
and has thus become connected with wedding ceremonies The’
practice of wearing Orange-blossoms and wreaths by brides has
been derived from the Saracens, amongst whom the Orange-fiower
was regarded as emblematic of a happy and prosperous marriage.
In Crete, the bride and bridegroom are sprinkled with Oran©efiower
water. In Sardinia, it is customary to attach Oranges to
the horns of oxen which draw the nuptial carriage To dream
of Oranges would appear to be at all times a very unfavourable
omen •
O R C H IS .—From mythology we learn that the Orchis owes
Its origin to the wanton son of the satyr Patellanus and the nymph
Acolasia, who presided at the feasts celebrated in honour of
Priapus. The headstrong Orchis, being present at the celebration
of the feast of Bacchus, laid violent hands on one of the priestesses
of that god; and this sacrilegious condua so incensed the B a c chanals
against the youth, that they forthwith set upon him and
in their fury literally tore him in pieces. His father adjured the
gods, but the only remedy he could obtain was that his son’s
p i a a t h o t e , Tsege't^/, a t iá Tsijrie/, 479
mangled corpse should be transformed into a fiower, which should
ever after bear the name of Orchis, as a blot upon his memory.
Among the early Romans, the Orchis was often called Satyrion,
because it was believed to be the food of the satyrs, and as such
excited them to those excesses which were characteristic of the
attendants of Bacchus. Hence, the Orchis-root not unnaturally became
famous as a powerful stimulating medicine, and is so described
by all herbalists from the time of Dioscorides. A very old tradition
exists that Orchids sprang from the seed of the thrush
and the blackbird. Bishop Fleetwood writes of these curious
fiowers that they represent apes, birds, wasps, bees, flies, butter-
fiie/ gnats, spiders, grasshoppers, and other insects; “ but the most
curious sort is that which is called Anthropophora, because it represents
a man or a woman very exadlly.” He further tells us “ this
fiower, resembling a man, appears in the beginning of Autumn; but
that which represents women comes in May. These two Orchids
were, in 1671, engraved by order of ihe Academia Cmiosorum Nature,
and were described as Orchis Anthropophorus Mas., and 0 . + . Femina.”
-A tradition is attached to the English species. Orchis mascula,
which usually has its leaves marked with deep purple spots. It is
said that these spots are the stains of the precious blood which
flowed from our Lord’s wounded body on the cross at Calvary, as
this species of Orchis is reported to have grown there. In Cheshire,
the plant is called Gethsemane. The sweet-scented Orchis,
Gymnadenia conopsea, is the Northern goddess F rigg’s Grass.
O R P IN E .—On Midsummer Eve, Orpine {Sedum Telephium),
Fennel, Lilies, and Hypericum used formerly to be hung over doors
and windows. The plant is commonly called ‘ Midsummer Men ’
and ‘ Livelong,’ from a custom of country lasses to try their lovers’
fidelity with it on Midsummer Eve : this they do by setting up two
plants of Orpine—one representing themselves, and another their
lovers—upon a slate or trencher, and afterwards judging of the
state of their lover’s aifecitions by his plant living and turning to
their own, or not. Wives, also, place over their heads the Orpine-
plant, and by the bending of the leaves to the right or to the left
divine whether husbands are true or false. (See L i v e l o n g .)
O SM U N D R O Y A L .— The stately flowering Fern Osmunda
Regalis is said to derive its name from the following legend:—A
waterman, named Osmund, once dwelt on the banks of Loch
Fyne, with his wife and daughter. One day a band of fugitives,
bursting into his cottage, warned Osmund that the cruel Danes
were fast approaching the ferry. Osmund heard them with fear;
he trembled for those he held dearer than life. Suddenly the
shouts of furious men roused him to action. Snatching up his
oars, he rowed his trembling wife and child to a small island
covered with this beautiful F e rn ; and helping them to land, he bade
them lie down beneath the shady foliage for protection. Scarcely
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