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C H A P T E R V.
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x x x x x x x x x ,! F T E R Rome Pagan became Rome Christian, the
Y Y 'a z r x x z x
priests of the Church of Christ recognised the
importance of utilising the connexion which
existed between plants and the old pagan
worship, and bringing the floral world into active
co-operation with the Christian Church by the
institution of a floral symbolism which should be
associated not only with the names of saints, but
also with the Festivals of the Church.
But it was more especially upon the Virgin Mary that the
early Church bestowed their floral symbolism. Mr. Hepworth Dixon,
writing of those quiet days of the Virgin’s life, passed purely and
tenderly among the flowers of Nazareth, says—“ Hearing that
the best years of her youth and womanhood were spent, before she
yet knew grief, on this sunny hill and side slope, her feet being for
ever among the Daisies, Poppies, and Anemones, which grow
everywhere about, we have made her the patroness of all our
flowers. The Virgin is our Rose of Sharon—our L ily of the'
Valley. The poetry no less than the piety of Europe has inscribed
to her the whole bloom and colouring of the fields and hedges.”
The choicest flowers were wrested from the classic Juno,
Venus, and Diana, and from the Scandinavian Bertha and Freyja,
and bestowed upon the Madonna, whilst floral offerings of every
sort were laid upon her shrines. •
Her husband, Joseph, has allotted to him a white Campanula.,
which in Bologna is known as the little Staff of St. Joseph. In
Tuscany the name of St. Joseph’s staff is given to the Cleander: a
legend recounts that the good Joseph possessed originally only an
ordinary staff, but that when the angel announced to him that he
was destined to be the husband of the Virgin Mary, he became so
radiant with joy, that his very staff flowered in his hand.
Before our Saviour’s birth, the Virgin Mary, strongly desiring
to refresh herself with some luscious cherries that were hanging in
clusters upon the branch of a tree, asked Joseph to gather some for
her. He hesitated, and mockingly said—“ Let the father of thy
child present them to you.” Instantly the branch of the Cherry-
tree inclined itself to the Virgin’s hand, and she plucked from it
the refreshing fruit. Cn this account the Cherry has always been
dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The Strawberry, also, is specially
set apart to the Virgin’s use ; and in the Isle of Harris a species
of Beans, called Molluka Beans, are called, after her, the Virgin
Mary’s Nuts.
At Bethlehem, the manger in which the Infant Jesus was laid
after His birth was filled with Cur L ad y ’s Bedstraw (Galium vevum).
Some few drops of the Virgin’s milk fell upon a Thistle, which
from that time has had its leaves spotted with white, and is known
as Cur L ad y ’s Thistle (Carduus Marianus). In Germany the Polypodium
vulgan, which grows in clefts of rocks, is believed to have
sprung from the milk of the Virgin (in ancient times from Freyja’s
milk). The Pulmonaria is also known as Unser Frauen Milch (Cur
L ad y ’s Milk). ^
When, after the birth of Jesus, His parents fled into Egypt,
traditions record that in order that the Virgin might conceal herself
and the infant Saviour from the assassins sent out by Herod,
various trees opened, or stretched their branches and enlarged their
leaves. As the Juniper is dedicated to the Virgin, the Italians
consider that it was a tree of that species which thus saved the
mother and child, and the Juniper is supposed to possess the
power of driving away evil spirits and of destroying magical spells.
The Palm, the Willow, and the Rosemary have severally been
named as having afforded their shelter to the fugitives. Cn the
other hand, the Lupine, according to a tradition still current
among the Bolognese, received the maledictions of the Virgin
Mary because, during the flight, certain plants of this species, by
the noise they made, drew the attention of the soldiers of Herod
to the spot where the harassed travellers had halted.
During the flight into Egypt a legend relates that certain
precious bushes sprang up by the fountain where the Virgin
washed the swaddling clothes of her Divine babe. These bushes
were produced by the drops of water which fell from the clothes,
and from which germinated a number of little plants, each yielding
precious balm. Wherever the Holy Family rested in their flight
sprang up the Posa Hierosolymitana—tPe Posa Marice, or Rose of the
Virgin. Near the city of On there was shown for many centuries the
sacred Fig-tree under which the Holy Family rested. They also,
according to Bavarian tradition, rested under a Hazel.
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In Tuscany there grows on walls a rootless little pellitory
{Parietaria), with tiny pale-pink flowers and small leaves. They