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formed when, heart-broken at the desertion of her lover Phoebus,
she remained rooted to the ground, and became, according to
Ovid, metamorphosed into a flower resembling a Violet. “ Held
firmly by the root, she still turns to the Sun she loves, and, changed
herself, she keeps her love unchanged.” Now the Helianthus, or
modern Sunflower, could not have been the blossom mentioned by
Ovid, inasmuch as it is not a European plant, was not known in
his day, and first came to us from North America. In its native
country of Peru, the Helianthus is said to have been much
reverenced on account of the resemblance borne by its radiant
blossoms to the Sun, which luminary was worshipped by the
Peruvians. In their Temple of the Sun, the officiating priestesses
were crowned with Sunflowers.of pure gold, and they wore them
in their bosoms, and carried them in their hands. The early
Spanish invaders of Peru found in these temples of the Sun
numerous representations of the Sunflower in virgin gold, the
workmanship of which was so exquisite, that it far out-valued the
precious metal of which they were formed. Gerarde, writing in
1597, remarks The floure of the Sun is called in Latine Flos
Solis; for that some have reported it to turn with the Sunne, which
I could never observe, although I have endeavoured to finde out
the truth of it : but I rather thinke it was so called because it
resembles the radiant beams of the Sunne, whereupon some have
called Corona Solis and Sol Indianus, the Indian Sunne-floure : others
Chrysanthemum Peruvianum, or the Golden Flower of Peru ; in English,
the Floure of the Sun, or the Sun-floure.” (See H e l i o t r o p e .)
S Y C A M O R E .—Sycamore is properly the name of an E g yp tian
tree, the leaves of .which resemble those of the Mulberry and.
the fruit that of the wild F ig ; whence it was named from both
Sukomoros; suhon signifying a Fig, and moros a Mulberry-tree.____
Thevenot gives an interesting tradition relating to one of these
trees. He writes “ At Matharee is a large Sycamore, or Pharaoh’s
Fig, very old, but which bears fruit every year. They say, that upon
the Virgin passing that way with her son Jesus, and being pursued
by the people, this Fig-tree opened to receive her, and closed her
in, until the people had passed by, when it re-opened; and that
it remained open ever after to the year 1656, when the part
of the trunk that had separated itself was broken away.” The
tree is still shown to travellers a few miles north-east of Cairo.,
Another version relates that the Holy Family, at the conclusion
of their flight into Egypt, finally rested in the village of
Matarea, beyond the city of Hermopolis, and took up their residence
in a grove of Sycamores, a circumstance which gave the
Sycamore-tree a certain degree of interest in early Christian
times. The .Crusaders imported it into Europe, and Mary Stuart,
probably on account of its sacred associations, brought from France
and planted in her garden the first Sycamores which grew in
Scotland. From the wood of this Egyptian Fig-tree or Sycamore
.
[Ficus Sycomorus), which is very indestrudtible, the coffins of the
Egyptian mummies were made. B y a mistake of Ruellius the
name Sycamore became transferred to the Great Maple [Acer
pseudoplatanus), which is the tree commonly known in England as
the Sycamore or Mock-Plane. This mistake. Dr. Prior considers,
may perhaps have arisen from the Great Maple having been, on
account of the density of its foliage, used in the sacred dramas
of the Middle Ages to represent the Fig-tree into which Zaccheus
climbed on the day of our Saviour’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem
—the Ficus Sycomorus mentioned above.
“ Here a sure shade
Of barren Sycamores, which the all-seeing sun
Could not pierce through.—Massinger.
In Scotland, the most remarkable Sycamores are those called
Dool-trees or Grief-trees. They were used by the powerful barons
in the west of Scotland for hanging their enemies and refradtory
vassals on. The Great Maple is called in France, as with us,
Sycomore or Faux Platane (Mock-Plane); the Italians call the same
tree Acero Fico (Fig-Maple); but in both these countries there grows
the Melia Azadirachta, or False Sycamore, which is called the Sacred
Tree in France, and the Tree of Our Father in Italy. In Sicily,
it is known as the Tree of Patience, and is regarded as emblematic
of a wife’s infidelity and a husband’s patience. To dream of the
Sycamore-tree portends jealousy to the married; but to the virgin
it prognosticates a speedy marriage. (See also M a p l e ).
S Y R IN G A .—The Arcadian nymph Syrinx pursued by Pan,
who was enamoured of her, fled to the banks of the river Ladon.
Her flight being there stopped, she implored relief from the water-
nymphs, and was changed into a Reed, just as Pan was on the
point of catching her. Ovid thus describes her transformation :—
“ Now while the lustful god, with speedy pace.
Just thought to strain her in a strict embrace,
He filled his arms with Reeds, new rising on the place;
And while he sighs his ill-success to find,
The tender canes were shaken by the wind,
And breathed a mournful air, unheard before;
That much surprising Pan, yet pleased him more.
Admiring this new music, ‘ Thou,' he said,
‘Who can’st not be the partner of my bed.
A t least shall be the consort of my mind;
And often, often to my lips be joined.'
He formed the Reeds, proportioned as they are.
Unequal in their length, and waxed with care,
They still retain the name of his ungrateful fair.”—Dryden.
The Philadelphus coronarius is the shrub into which, according to
Ovid, the nymph Syrinx was metamorphosed. The stems of this
shrub are used in Turkey for making pipe-sticks. Evelyn applied
the name Syringa also to the Lilac, which for the same reason was
called “ Pipe-tree.”