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46 p f a n t I s o p © , T â e g e ^ y , c m ^ T s i j r i c / ,
sponge; the reed by means of which the Jews gave our Lord
vinegar and gall ; and one of the nails wherewith He was fastened
to the Cross. All these relics Maundevile tells us he saw at Constantinople.
_ Of what particular plant was composed the crown of Thorns
which the Roman soldiers plaited and placed on the Saviour’s
head, has long been a matter of dispute. Gerarde says it was the
Paliurus aculeatus, a sharp-spined shrub, which he calls Christ’s
Thorn ; and the old herbalist quotes Bellonius, who had travelled
m the Holy Land, and who stated that this shrubby Thorn was
common m Judea, and that it was “ The Thorne wherewith they
crowned our Saviour Christ.” The melancholy distinction has,
however, been variously conferred on the Buckthorns, Rhamnus
Spina Chnsti and R. Paliurus; the Boxthorn, the Barberry, the
Bramble, the Rose-briar, the Wild Hyssop, the Acanthus, or
Brank-ursine, the Spartium villosum, the Holly (called in Germany,
Christdorn), the Acacia, or Nahkha of the Arabians, a thorny plant,
very suitable for , the purpose, since its flexible twigs could be
twisted into a chaplet, and its small but pointed thorns would
cause terrible wounds ; and, in France, the Hawthorn—the épine
nolle. The West Indian negroes state that Christ’s crown was
composed of a branch of the Cashew-tree, and that in consequence
one of the golden petals of its blossom became black and bloodstained.
The Reed Mace [Typha latifolia) is generally represented as the
reed placed, in mockery, by the soldiers in the Saviour’s right
hand. ^
U fte © y /o o iL op tR© © roM ,
According to the legend connected with the Tree of Adam, the
wood of the Cross on which our Lord was crucified was Cedar__
a beam hewn from a tree which incorporated in itself the essence of
the Cedar, the Cypress, and the Olive (the vegetable emblems of
the Holy Trinity. Curzon, in his ‘ Monasteries of the Levant,’
gives a tradition that the Cedar was cut down by Solomon, and
buried on the spot afterwards called the Pool of Bethesda ; that
about the time of the Passion of our Blessed Lord the ’wood
floated, and was used by the Jews for the upright posts of the
Cross. Another legend makes the Cross of four kinds of wood
representing the four quarters of the globe, or all mankind : it is
not, however, agreed what those four kinds of wood were, or their
respective places in the Cross. Some say they were the Palm, the
Cedar, the Olive, and the Cypress ; hence the line—
Ligna crucis Falfna, Cedrus, Cupressus, OlivaP
In place of the Palm or the Olive, some claim the mournful honour
for the Pine and the Box ; whilst there are others who aver it was
made entirely of Oak. Another account states the wood to have
p fan ,t“é o? IR© ©rucidi^ion. 47
been the Aspen, and since that fatal day its leaves have never
ceased trembling with horror.
“ Far off in Highland wilds ’tis said
That of this tree the Cross was made.”
In some parts of England it is believed that the Elder was the
unfortunate tree ; and woodmen will look carefully into the faggots
before using them for fuel, in case any of this wood should be
bound up in them. The gipsies entertain the notion that the Cross
was made of Ash ; the Welsh that the Mountain Ash furnished the
wood. In the West of England there is a curious tradition that
the Cross was made of Mistletoe, which, until the time of our
Saviour’s death, had been a goodly forest tree, but was condemned
henceforth to become a mere parasite.
Sir John Maundevile asserts that the Cross was made of Palm,
Cedar, Cypress, and Olive, and he gives the following curious
account of its manufacture :—“ For that pece that wente upright
fro the erthe to the heved was of Cypresse; and the pece that
wente overthwart to the wiche his bonds weren nayled was of
Palme ; and the stock that stode within the erthe, in the whiche was
made the morteys, was of Cedre ; and the table aboven his heved,
that was a fote and an half long, on the whiche the title was written,
in Ebreu, Grece, and Latyn, that was of Olyve. And the Jewes
maden the Cros of theise 4 manere of trees: for thei trowed that
oure Lord Jesu Crist scholde han honged on the Cros als longe as
the Cros myghten laste. And therfore made thei the foot of the
Cros of Cedre : for Cedre may not in erthe ne in watre rote. And
therfore thei wolde that it scholde have lasted longe. For thei
trowed that the body of Crist scholde have stonken ; therfore thei
made that pece that went from the erthe upward, of Cypres : for it
is welle smellynge, so that the smelle of His body scholde not greve
men that wenten forby. And the overthwart pece was of Palme:
for in the Olde Testament it was ordyned that whan on overcomen,
He_ scholde be crowned with Palme. And the table of the tytle
thei maden of Olyve ; for Olyve betokenethe pes. And the storye
of Noe wytnessethe whan that the culver broughte the braunche of
Olyve, that betokend pes made betwene God and man. And so
trowed the Jewes for to have pes whan Crist was ded : for thei
seyd that He made discord and strif amonges hem.”
pfanfll) tR© ©ruoipi^ioq.
In Brittany the Vervain is known as the Herb of the Cross.
John White, writing in 1624, says of it—
“ Hallow’d be thou Vervain, as thou growest in the ground,
For in the Mount of Calvary thou first was found.
Thou healedst our Saviour Jesus Christ
And staunchedst His bleeding wound.
In the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I take thee from the ground.”