=LILY OF THE VALLEY.=--In mediæval days, the monks and nuns believed

that the _Convallaria_ was the Lily of the Valley mentioned in the

Canticles (ii., 17), and the flower alluded to by Christ when he bade

his disciples “consider the Lilies of the field.” The Martagon Lily,

however (_Lilium Chalcedonicum_), is now generally considered to be the

Lily of Palestine; the Lily of the Valley, or Conval Lily, being quite

unknown in the Holy Land.----Lilies of the Valley are called Virgin’s

Tears; they are the flowers dedicated to Whitsuntide, but in some parts

of England still retain their old name of May Lilies.----There exists

in Devon a superstition that it is unlucky to plant a bed of Lilies

of the Valley, as the person doing so will probably die in the course

of the ensuing twelve months.----In France, Germany, and Holland,

these Lilies are called May-flowers.----The blossoms possess a perfume

highly medicinal against nervous affections. The water distilled

from them was formerly in such great repute that it was kept only in

vessels of gold and silver: hence Matthiolus calls it _aqua aurea_.

It was esteemed as a preventive against all infectious distempers.

Camerarius recommends an oil made of the flowers as a specific against

gout and such-like diseases. His prescription is as follows:--“Have

filled a glass with flowers, and being well stopped, set it for a

moneth’s space in an ante’s hill, and after being drayned cleare, set

it by for use.”----There is a legend in Sussex, that in the forest

of St. Leonard, where the hermit-saint once dwelt, fierce encounters

took place between the holy man and a dragon which infested the

neighbourhood; the result being that the dragon was gradually driven

back into the inmost recesses of the forest, and at last disappeared.

The scenes of their successive combats are revealed afresh every year,

when beds of fragrant Lilies of the Valley spring up wherever the earth

was sprinkled by the blood of the warrior saint.----The Conval Lily is

under Mercury.

=LIME-TREE.=--The origin of the Lime-tree, according to Ovid, is to

be traced to the metamorphosis of Baucis, the good-hearted wife of

an aged shepherd named Philemon. This old couple lived happily and

contentedly in a humble cottage in the plains of Phrygia. Here they

one day, with rustic hospitality, entertained unknowingly the gods

Jupiter and Mercury, who had been refused admittance to the dwellings

of their wealthier neighbours. Appreciating their kindness, Jupiter

bade them ascend a neighbouring hill, where they saw their neighbours’

dwellings swept away by a flood, but their own hut transformed into a

splendid temple, of which the god appointed them the presiding priests.

According to their request, they both died at the same hour, and were

changed into trees--Baucis into a Lime, and Philemon into an Oak. Ovid

thus describes the transformation:--

“Then, when their hour was come, while they relate

These past adventures at the temple gate,

Old Baucis is by old Philemon seen

Sprouting with sudden leaves of sprightly green:

Old Baucis looked where old Philemon stood,

And saw his lengthened arms a sprouting wood;

New roots their fastened feet begin to bind.

Their bodies stiffen in a rising rind.

Then, ere the bark above their shoulders grew,

They give and take at once their last adieu.

At once, farewell, O faithful spouse! they said,

At once th’ incroaching rinds their closing lips invade.

Ev’n yet an ancient Tyanæan shows

A spreading Oak that near a Linden grows.”

Rapin, in his version of the tale, makes both of the old folks become

Limes, male and female:--

“While these you plant, Philemon call to mind,

In love and duty with his Baucis joined--

A good old pair whom poverty had tried,

Nor could their vows and nuptial faith divide;

Their humble cot with sweet content was blest,

And each benighted stranger was their guest.

When Jove unknown they kindly entertained,

This boon the hospitable pair obtained,

Laden with years, and weak through length of time,

That they should each become a verdant Lime

And since the transformation Limes appear

Of either sex; and male and female are.”

In honour of its descent from the worthy old couple, the Lime became

the symbol of wedded love.----In Scandinavian mythology, Sigurd, after

having killed the serpent Fafnir, bathes himself in its blood: a leaf

of a Linden or Lime-tree falls on him between his shoulders, and

renders that particular place vulnerable, although every other portion

of his body had become invulnerable.----In Germany, during May-day

festivities, they often make use of the Linden. Around the Linden

dance the villagers of Gotha. In Finland and in Sweden, the Linden is

considered as a protective tree.----In the cemetery of the hospital of

Annaberg, in Saxony, there is a very ancient Linden-tree, concerning

which tradition relates that it was planted by an inhabitant, with

its top in the ground; and that its roots became branches, which now

overshadow a considerable portion of the country.----At Süderheistede,

in Ditmarschen, there once stood a Linden which was known throughout

the country, as the “Wonderful Tree.” It was much higher than other

trees, and its branches all grew crosswise. Connected with this tree

was an old prophecy that, as soon as the Ditmarschens lost their

freedom, the tree would wither; and so it came to pass. But the people

believe that a magpie will one day build its nest in its branches,

and hatch five young ones, and then the tree will begin to sprout

out anew, and again be green, and the country recover its ancient

freedom.----According to an old legend current in Berlin, the youngest

of three brothers fell in love with the daughter of an Italian, who was

the Elector’s chief kapellmeister. The Italian refused the hand of his

daughter, and forbade any further intercourse. Some time afterwards

the three brothers met the kapellmeister on the occasion of a public

execution; when, suddenly, the assembled crowd were horrified at seeing

the Italian fall with a loud shriek, and pointing to a knife which had

been plunged into his bosom. The brothers were all three arrested on

suspicion of the murder; and the eldest, who had been standing nearest

the deceased, was speedily sentenced to death. The two other brothers,

to save him, however, each declared he was the real murderer, whereupon

the perplexed judge referred the case to the Elector, who resolved upon

a curious ordeal to ascertain the truth. He ordered each of the three

brothers to carry a Linden-tree to a certain churchyard, and plant it

with its head downwards, adding, that the one whose tree did not grow

should be executed as the murderer. Accordingly, the brothers proceeded

to the churchyard, accompanied by the clergy, the magistrates, and many

citizens; and, after hymns had been sung, they planted their trees;

after which solemn act, they were allowed to return home, and remained

unguarded. In course of time, the upper branches of the Lindens all

struck root, and the original roots were transformed into branches,

which, instead of growing upwards, spread horizontally, in rich

luxuriance, and, in thirty years, overshadowed the churchyard. They

have since perished, but the brothers were ennobled by the Elector as

Lords of Linden, and bore the effigy of the marvellous trees on their

escutcheon. The youngest afterwards married the Italian’s daughter.

LING.--See Heather.

=LIVELONG.=--The name of Livelong, or Liblong, is supposed to have been

given to the _Sedum Telephium_ from its remaining alive when hung up in

a room. Parkinson, in his ‘_Paradisus_,’ states that the ladies of his

time (1629) called the plant Life Everlasting; and remarks that “they

are also laid in chests and wardrobes, to keep garments from moths,

and are worne in the heads and arms of gentiles and others, for their

beautiful aspect.” The plant is much esteemed for divining purposes.

(See ORPINE).

=LONDON PRIDE.=--A speckled Sweet John had formerly the honour of being

called London Pride, and a red Sweet William, London Tufts. _Saxifraga

umbrosa_ now bears the title of London Pride, not, however, because,

like the speckled Sweet John, it was the pride and ornament of old

London gardens, but because it was introduced by Mr. London, a partner

in the firm of London and Wise, Royal Gardeners in the early part of

the eighteenth century. (See SAXIFRAGE.)

LONG PURPLES.--See Orchis.

LORDS-AND-LADIES.--See Arum.

=LOOSESTRIFE.=--The word Loosestrife is a translation of the plant’s

Latin name _Lysimachia_ (from the Greek _lysis_, dissolution, and

_mache_, strife). Gerarde, who calls the plant, also, Willow-herb, says

of it:--“Lysimachia, as Dioscorides and Pliny write, tooke his name of

a speciall vertue that it hath in appeasing the strife and unrulinesse

which falleth out among oxen at the plough, if it be put about their

yokes; but it rather retaineth and keepeth the name _Lysimachia_, of

King Lysimachus, the sonne of Agathocles, the first finder-out of the

nature and vertues of this herbe.” He adds that the smoke of the herb

when burnt will drive away gnats, flies, all manner of venomous beasts,

and serpents; and says that Pliny reports that snakes will crawl away

at the smell of Loosestrife.

=LOTOS-TREE.=--Lotis, the beauteous daughter of Neptune, was

unfortunate enough to attract the notice of Priapus, who attempted to

offer her violence. Flying terrified from the deformed deity, the nymph

invoked the assistance of the gods to save herself from his odious

importunities: her prayers were heard, and she was transformed into the

Lotos-tree. Dryope, the wife of Andræmon, passing the tree one day,

in company with her sister Iole, stopped to pluck the fruit to please

her infant son Amphisus, whereupon she became suddenly changed into a

Lotos-tree. Iole afterwards recounted her fate to Alcmena--

“But, lo! I saw (as near her side I stood)

The violated blossoms drop with blood;

Upon the tree I cast a frightful look,

The trembling tree with sudden horror shook,

Lotis, the nymph (if rural tales be true)

As from Priapus’ lawless lust she flew,

Forsook her form; and, fixing here, became

A flow’ry plant, which still preserves her name.

This change unknown, astonished at the sight,

My trembling sister strove to urge her flight;

Yet first the pardon of the nymph implored,

And those offended sylvan powers adored:

But when she backward would have fled, she found

Her stiffening feet were rooted to the ground.”--_Ovid._

The tree into which the nymph Lotis was transformed must not be

confounded with the Lotus Lily, or Sacred Bean, a totally distinct

plant: it was the _Rhamnus Lotus_, the Lotos of the Lotophagi, a

people inhabiting the coast of Africa near the Syrtes. Pliny states

that not far from the lesser Syrtis is the island of Menynx, surnamed

Lotophagitis on account of its Lotos-trees; but Strabo affirms that the

lesser Syrtis, in addition to the adjacent isle of Menynx, was thought

to be Lotophagitis, the land of the Lotos-eaters. In this country, he

says, there are certain monuments to be seen, and an altar to Ulysses,

besides a great abundance of Lotos-trees, whose fruit is wonderfully

sweet. According to Homer, the Lotos-eater became oblivious of the

world and its cares; and he relates how the seductive fruit of the

Lotos-tree possessed of old so potent a charm, that Ulysses, when

returning from the Trojan war, dreaded it would lure his companions to

give up home and friends for ever. In the ninth book of the Odyssey,

the poet sings--

“And whoso tasted of their flowery meat

Cared not with tidings to return, but clave

First to that tribe, for ever fain to eat--

Reckless of home return--the tender Lotos sweet.”

Gerarde describes the Lotos-tree as being as big as a Pear-tree, of a

“gallant greene colour tending to blewnesse,” with leaves similar to

the Nettle, dashed here and there with stripes of a yellowish-white

colour. “The beries be round, and hang upon long stalks like Cherries,

of a yellowish-white colour at the first, and afterwards red, but being

ripe they are somewhat black.” The Lotos-eaters were held to have

immunity from all stomachic complaints. The fruit which formed their

food is described by Theophrastus as being of the size of a Bean, which

changed its colour when ripening, like the Grape. In flavour it was

sweet, pleasant, harmless, and perfectly wholesome; the most agreeable

sort being that which had no kernel. Whole armies were reported to have

been fed with the nutritious food afforded by the Lotos, when passing

through Africa. The Lotophagi obtained a wine from their beloved fruit,

which, however, Cornelius Nepos says would not endure above ten days.

The Lotos and its fruit is dwelt upon by Tennyson, who tells how

“The mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters came,

Branches they bore of that enchanted stem,

Laden with flowers and fruit, whereof they gave

To each; but whoso did receive of them

And taste, to him the gushing of the wave

Far, far away did seem to mourn and rave

On alien shores.”

The Lotos was considered by Theophrastus to be by nature everlasting.

Pliny enumerates several very ancient trees growing in Rome, notably

one in Vulcan’s temple built by Romulus, which was reputed to be as old

as the city.----It was under the Lotos-tree, beyond which there is no

passing, that Mahomed saw the angel Gabriel.

=LOTUS.=--The Lotus, as described by Herodotus, is the “Water Lily

that grows in the inundated lands of Egypt”: it is the _Nymphæa Lotus_

of Linnæus, and, according to Grecian mythology, owed its origin to

a young girl who was deeply in love with Hercules, and who, dying of

jealousy, was transformed into the Lotus. With the Greeks, the flower

was the symbol of beauty and of eloquence, perhaps because it was

reputed to flourish in the fields of Helicon. Young girls twined these

flowers into garlands. Theocritus writes of maidens carrying a crown

of Lotus for the Princess Helen on her marriage with Menelaus. In a

painted temple at Pompeii, the Lotus-flower is represented above a geni

or winged god.----The Grecian god of silence (Harpocrates), who was of

Egyptian origin, is represented sometimes with a Lotus-flower in his

left hand; sometimes seated on a Lotus.----But it is in the East where

the Lotus is supreme--a sacred plant not merely revered as a symbol,

but even the object of worship in itself, and notably in Hindostan,

Thibet, and Nepaul, where it is believed that from its mystic blossom

came forth the all-powerful Brahma. In the Hindu theology, OM is the

one Supreme Being from whom proceed the great deities Brahma (creator),

Vishnu (preserver), and Siva (destroyer). Before the creation of this

world, there existed an immense sea covering its surface; on this vast

sea moved the spirit of OM, and quickened into life a golden Lotus,

resplendent as the sun, from which emanated the four-formed creative

god Brahma, who by the radiance of his countenance dispelled the

pervading gloom, and by the light and warmth of his divine presence

evoked the earth from the surrounding waters. Vishnu, the pervader or

preserver, is represented with four arms: from his umbilicus springs

a Lotus-plant, in the beautiful calyx of which Brahma appears seated,

ready to accomplish the work of creation. The breath of Vishnu is like

the perfume of the Lotus, and he rests and walks, not on the earth,

but on nine golden Lotus-plants, carried by the gods themselves. The

heaven of Vishnu is described in the _Mahâbhârata_ as blazing with

golden edifices studded with innumerable gems. Descending from the

superior heaven the waters of the Ganges flow through this Paradise,

and here are also lovely diminutive lakes of water, upon the surfaces

of which myriads of red, blue, and white Lotus-flowers, with a thousand

petals, are seen floating. On a throne glorious as the meridian sun,

seated on Lotus-lilies, is Vishnu, and on the right hand is his wife,

the goddess Lakshmî, also seated in a Lotus, shining like a continued

blaze of lightning, while from her beauteous form the fragrance of the

Lotus is diffused through the heaven. Siva, the destroyer (the third

member of the Hindoo triad), is represented in many ways, but generally

with three eyes; his favourite seat is a Lotus. Buddha, an emanation

from Vishnu, like Brahma, first appeared on this hemisphere floating on

an enormous Lotus, which spread itself over the ocean. Buddha had for

his symbol a Lotus, surmounted by a trident (typical of the Sun with

a flame, or the superior heaven).----The emblem of the Sun was called

_Sûramani_ (the jewel of the Sun), but when the _Svâbhâvikas_ adopted

the Lotus as their symbol of spontaneous generation, they called this

ornament _Padmi Mani_ (jewel of the Lotus), and inscribed their temples

with these words:--

AUM MANI PADMI HOONG.

_Jehovah_ _The Jewel_ _Lotus_ _Amen._

This sentence forms the Alpha and Omega of Lama worship, and is

unceasingly repeated by the devotees of Thibet and the slopes of

the Himalayas. For the easy multiplication of this prayer, that

extraordinary contrivance, the praying-wheel, was invented. In

accordance with the principles of this belief, Jin-ch’au represents all

creation as a succession of worlds, typified by Lotus-flowers, which

are contained one within the other, until intelligence is lost in the

effort to multiply the series _ad infinitum_.----A legend connected

with Buddha runs as follows:--In an unknown town, called _Bandnumak_,

Bipaswi Buddh arrived one day, and having fixed his abiding place on a

mountain to the east of _Nâg-Hrad_, saw in a pool a seed of the Lotus

on the day of the full moon, in the month of _Chait_. Soon afterwards

from this Lotus-seed sprang a Lotus-flower, in the middle of which

appeared Swayambhû, in the form of a luminary, on the day of the full

moon in the month of _Asvins_.----Another Buddhist legend relates that

the King Pându had the imprudence to burn a tooth of Buddha, which was

held in high reverence among the Kalingas: but a Lotus-flower sprang

from the middle of the flame, and the tooth of Buddha was found lying

on its petals.----In Eastern India, it is popularly thought that the

god Brahma first appeared on a sea of milk, in a species of Lotus of

extraordinary grandeur and beauty, which grew at Temerapu, and which

typified the umbilicus of that ocean of sweetness. To that flower is

given eighteen names, which celebrate the god’s different beauties;

and within its petals he is believed to sleep during six months of

the year.----Kâmadeva, the Indian Cupid, was first seen floating

down the sacred Ganges, pinioned with flowers, on the blossom of a

roseate Lotus.----The Hindus compare their country to a Lotus-flower,

of which the petals represent Central India, and the eight leaves

the surrounding eight divisions of the country. The sacred images of

the Indians, Japanese, and Tartars are nearly always found seated

upon the leaves of the Lotus.----The sacred Lotus, as the hallowed

symbol of mystery, was deemed by the priests of India and China an

appropriate ornament for their religious structures, and hence its

spreading tendrils and perfect blossoms are found freely introduced

as architectural enrichments of the temples of the East.----Terms

of reverence, endearment, admiration, and eulogy have been freely

lavished by Indian writers on the flowers of the Lotus, dear to the

sick women of their race from the popular belief of its efficacy in

soothing painful feelings. Nearly every portion of the human body has

been compared by Indian poets to the Lotus; and in one of their works,

the feet of the angels are said to resemble the flowers of that sacred

plant.----The Persians represent the Sun as being robed with light

and crowned with Lotus.----By the Japanese, the Lotus is considered

as a sacred plant, and pleasing to their deities, whose images are

often seen sitting on its large leaves. The blossom is deemed by them

the emblem of purity because it is unsullied by the muddy waters in

which it often grows: with the flowers of the Mother-wort it is borne

aloft in vases before the body in funeral processions.----The Chinese

make the Lotus typical of female beauty: their god Puzza is always

represented as seated upon the leaves of the plant.----The Lotus is

stated to be held sacred by the Egyptians because it conceals the

secret of the gods; from the throne of Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys, it

rises in the midst of the waters, bearing on the margin of its blossom

the four genii. It is the “Bride of the Nile,” covering the surface of

the mighty river, as it rises, with its fragrant white blossom. Like

the Indians, the ancient Egyptians represented the creation of the

world under the form of a Nymphæa that floated on the surface of the

waters. The Lotus was consecrated by the Egyptians to the Sun, and the

dawn of day was figured by them as a youth seated upon a flower of the

Nymphæa. The god Osiris (the Egyptian Phœbus) is represented as having

his head decorated with the sacred Lotus. Oblations of flowers were

common among the offerings of the Egyptians to their gods. A papyrus in

the British Museum (lent by the Prince of Wales) represents the altar

of the god Re or Ra piled up with Lotus-blossoms and other offerings.

Upon approaching a place of worship, the ancient Egyptian always held

the flower of the Lotus or Agrostis in his hand. A single flower was

sometimes deemed a suitable oblation, or a bouquet of the Lotus or

Papyrus, carefully arranged in a prescribed form, was offered.----The

Lotus typified Upper Egypt; the Papyrus, Lower Egypt. In the British

Museum are several Egyptian statues with sceptres of the Lotus; and

a mummy with crossed arms, holding in each hand a Lotus-flower. In

the mummies of females the Lotus is found, placed there probably to

typify regeneration or purification. A bust of Isis emerging from

a Lotus-flower has often been mistaken for Clytie changing into a

Sunflower.----The Egyptians cultivated three species of Nymphæaceæ--the

_Nymphæa cerulea_, or blue-flowered Lotus; the _Nymphæa Lotus_, a

white-flowered variety, which still grows profusely in Lower Egypt, and

which is the flower represented in the mosaic pavement at Præneste;

and, lastly, the _Nelumbium speciosum_, or Sacred Bean--the “Rose Lily”

of Herodotus--the true Lotus of the Egyptians, whose blossoms are of a

brilliant red colour, and hang over broad peltated leaves: its fruit

is formed of many valves, each containing a Nut about the size of a

Filbert, with a taste more delicate than that of the Almond. It has

been thought that the use of the seeds in making bread, and the mode

of sowing them, by enclosing each seed in a ball of clay, and throwing

it into the water, may be alluded to in the text, “Cast thy bread

upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days.” The Nelumbo

maintains its sacred character in Africa, India, China, Japan, Persia,

and Asiatic Russia; it has, however, disappeared from Egypt.----The

Arabians call the Lotus, _Nuphar_; and the Syrians regard it as a

symbol of the cradle of Moses, and typify, also, the Ark of Noah by

the same flower.----The collar of the order of the Star of India is

composed of the heraldic Rose of England, two Palm-branches crossed,

and a Lotus-flower, alternating with each other.

=LOVE PLANTS.=--The _Clematis Vitalba_ was formerly called Love,

because of its habit of embracing; from its clinging to people,

the _Galium Aparine_ has obtained the name of Loveman; _Levisticum

officinale_ is Loveage; the _Solanum Lycopersicum_ is the Apple of

Love; _Nigella damascena_ is Love-in-a-mist; the Pansy is called

Love-in-idleness and Love-and-idle; and _Amaranthus caudatus_ has been

named Love-lies-bleeding, from the resemblance of its crimson flowers

to a stream of blood.

=LUCK-FLOWER.=--There is in Germany a favourite legend of a certain

mystical Luck-flower which possesses the extraordinary power of gaining

admittance for its owner into the recesses of a mountain, or hidden

cave, or castle, wherein vast treasures lie concealed. The legend

generally runs that the fortunate discoverer of the receptacle for

wealth is a man who has by chance found a beautiful flower, usually

a blue one, which he sticks in his hat. Suddenly the mountain he is

ascending opens to admit him; astounded at the sight, he enters the

chasm, and a white lady or fairy bids him help himself freely from the

heaps of gold coin he sees lying all around. Dazzled at the sight of so

much wealth, he eagerly fills his pockets, and is hastening away when

she calls after him, “_Forget not the best!_” He thinks, as he feels

his stuffed pockets, that he cannot find room for any more, but as he

imagines the white lady wishes to imply that he has not helped himself

to enough, he takes his hat and fills that also with the glittering

gold. The white lady, however, alluded to the little blue flower which

had dropped from his hat whilst he stooped to gather up the gold coins.

As he hurries out through the doorway the iron door shuts suddenly

behind him with a crash of thunder, and cuts off his right heel. The

mountain side instantly resumes its old impenetrable appearance, and

the entrance to the treasure hall can never be found again. As for the

wonderful flower, that has vanished, but is to this day sought for by

the dwellers on the Kyffhäuser, on the Quästenburg, and even on the

north side of the Harz. It was from this legend that, according to

Grimm, the little blue flower “Forget-me-not” originally received its

name, which at first was indicative of its magic virtue, but afterwards

acquired a sentimental meaning from the tale of the drowning lover of

the Danube and his despairing death cry.

LUNARY.--See Moonwort and Honesty.

=LUPINE.=--The Romans cultivated the Lupine (_Lupinus_) as an article

of food, and Pliny declared that nothing could be more wholesome than

white Lupines eaten dry, and that this diet imparted a fresh colour

and cheerful countenance.----The eating of Lupines was also thought

to brighten the mind and quicken the imagination. It is related of

Protogenes, a celebrated painter of Rhodes, that during the seven

years he was employed in painting the hunting piece of Ialysus, who

was the accredited founder of the State of Rhodes, he lived entirely

upon Lupines and water, with an idea that this aliment would give

him greater flights of fancy.----Virgil called the Lupine, _Tristis

Lupinus_, the Sad Lupine, and this expression has given rise to much

discussion--the only tangible explanation being that when the Lupine

pulse was eaten without preparation to destroy the bitter, it was

apt to contract the muscles and give a sorrowful appearance to the

countenance.----The seeds are said to have been used by the ancients,

in their plays and comedies, instead of pieces of money: hence the

proverb, _Nummus Lupinus_, a piece of money of no value.----The

Bolognese have a tradition that during the flight of the Holy Family

into Egypt, the Lupine received the maledictions of the Virgin Mary,

because, by the clatter and noise they made, certain plants of this

species drew the attention of Herod’s minions to the spot where the

tired and exhausted travellers had made a brief halt.

=LYCHNIS.=--The scarlet _Lychnis Coronaria_ is, in the Catholic

Church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and the text in which he is

described as “a light to them which sit in darkness,” being taken in

a literal sense, the flame-coloured flower was said to be lighted up

for his day, and was called _Candelabrum ingens_. This flower is also

called Rose-Campion, and, on the Continent, Cross of Jerusalem and

Cross of Malta. By old writers it was known as Flower or Campion of

Constantinople, Flower of Bristow, and Nonsuch.

=MAGNOLIA.=--The _Magnolia grandiflora_ is one of those shrubs the

baneful emanations from which have procured for them an ill name. It

is a native of Carolina, and has large white blossoms of powerful

fragrance. When wafted to a distance upon the air, the scent is

delicious, but when inhaled in the immediate neighbourhood of a group

of Magnolias in flower, it becomes overpowering. The Indians carefully

avoid sleeping under a Magnolia in blossom, and it is stated that so

powerful is the perfume of the flower, that a single blossom placed in

a bedroom suffices to cause death in one night.

MAGHET.--See Mayweed.

=MAHWAH.=--The _Bassia latifolia_, or Mahwah, is esteemed a sacred

tree in India, and is, besides, interesting as being one of the few

plants whose flowers are used as food by the human race. They are

eaten raw by the poor of India, and are also employed largely in the

distillation of a spirit somewhat resembling Scotch whiskey. A kind of

flour is produced from them when dried, and so valuable are they to

the Indians, that the prosperity of some parts of the country depends

largely on their abundance. The Almond-like fruit is eaten, and an

oil is obtained from it: the wood is hard, and is used by the Indians

in constructing their huts. Among certain uncivilised hill tribes, the

Mahwah is regarded as equal to a deity, so great is their affection

for this tree, under whose branches they hold their assemblies and

celebrate their anniversaries; on whose boughs they suspend, when not

in use, their spears and their ploughshares, and beneath whose shadow

they exhibit those mysterious circles of flint which take the place of

idols with them. So, when attacked by the Hindus, the wild tribes fight

with desperation for the defence of their Mahwahs, which their enemies,

when at war with them, make a point of seizing and destroying.

=MAIDENHAIR FERN.=--_Adiantum_, or _Capillus Veneris_, derived its name

from the Greek _adiantos_, unmoistened, in relation, doubtless, to its

property of repelling water--a peculiarity noticed by Theophrastus,

and also by Pliny, who says it is in vain to plunge the _Adiantum_

in water, for it always remains dry. This property of remaining

unmoistened by water was attributed to the hair of Venus, when she rose

from the sea; and hence the _Adiantum_ obtained the name of _Capillus

Veneris_. Nevertheless, _Adiantum_ was specially dedicated to Pluto

and to Proserpine. Maidenhair is called _polytrichon_, because it

brings forth a multitude of hairs; _callitrichon_, because it produces

black and fair hair; _Capillus Veneris_, because it produces grace and

love.----According to Egyptian symbolism, _Adiantum_ indicated recovery

from illness.----In the Catholic Church, the Maidenhair Fern is known

as the Virgin’s Hair.

=MAITHES or MAIDS.=--The _Pyrethrum Parthenium_ was formerly known

by the name of Maithes (Maids), because by the old herbalists it was

considered efficacious in hysterical and other irregularities of

the system to which maidens are subject. In the same category are

the plants formerly known as Maghet, Mather, or Maydweed (_Anthemis

Cotula_), the Maydweed (_Matricaria Chamomilla_), Maudlein, or

Costmary (_Balsamita_), Maudlin-wort or Moon Daisy (_Chrysanthemum

Leucanthemum_), the Maudlin, or _Herba divæ Mariæ_ (_Achillea

Ageratum_), the Marguerite (_Bellis perennis_), and some others.

These plants, bearing flowers with white ray florets, were thought to

resemble the Moon, which, as it regulated the monthly periods of the

year, was supposed, says Dr. Prior, to have an influence over female

complaints. By the ancients these plants were consecrated to Isis,

Juno Lucina, and Artemis, or Diana, the virgin goddess of the night;

but were transferred by the Catholics to St. Mary Magdalene and St.

Margaret of Cortona.

=MAIZE.=--The American aborigines worshipped Maize as a divinity.

Children were kept to watch the precious grain as it grew, and guard

it from the ravages of birds; but some of the tribes protected the

thievish crow because of the legend that a crow had brought them

the first seed of the sacred plant.----At the present day, the

Indians regard it with superstitious veneration. They esteem it, says

Schoolcraft, so important and divine a grain, that their story-tellers

invented various tales in which this idea is symbolised under the form

of a special gift from the Great Spirit. The Ojebwa-Algonquins, who

call it Mon-da-min, or the Spirit’s grain or berry, cherish a legend,

in which the stalk in full tassel is represented as descending from the

sky, under the guise of a handsome youth, in response to the prayers of

a young man offered up at his fast of virility.----Among the American

colonists, the husking of the Maize was always accompanied with a

rustic ceremony and gathering of the villagers.----Longfellow tells us

how--

“In the golden weather the Maize was husked, and the maidens

Blushed at each blood-red ear, for that betokened a lover;

But at the crooked laughed, and called it a thief in the cornfield.

Even the blood-red ear to Evangeline brought not her lover.”

=MALLOW.=--The ancient Romans had some kind of Mallow (_Malva_) served

up as vegetables, and the Egyptians, Syrians, and Chinese also use them

as food. In Job’s days, these plants were eaten by those wandering

tribes who, as the patriarch says, “cut up Mallows by the bushes, and

Juniper-roots for their meat.” The Mallow formed one of the funeral

flowers of the ancients, with whom it was customary to plant it around

the graves of departed friends. The plant yields a fibre capable of

being woven into a fabric; and there is an Eastern tradition that

Mahomed was so delighted with the texture of a robe made of this

material, that he forthwith miraculously turned the Mallow into a

Pelargonium. The seeds of the Mallow are called by country children,

cheeses. Clare recalls the days of his childhood, when he and his

playmates sat--

“Picking from Mallows sport to please,

The crumpled seed we call’d a cheese.”

Pliny ascribes a magical power to Mallows. He says, “Whosoever shall

take a spoonful of any of the Mallows shall that day be free from

all the diseases that may come unto him;” and he adds, that it is

especially good against the falling sickness. The same writer, quoting

Xenocrates, attributes to the seed of Mallows the power of exciting

the passions. Gerarde, writing of the _Malva crispa_, commends its

properties in verse:--

“If that of health you have any speciale care,

Use French Mallowes, that to the body holsome are.”

=MANCHINEEL.=--The Manchineel-tree (_Hippomane Mancinella_) is one of

ill repute. Its exhalations are stated to cause certain death to those

who sleep beneath its foliage. It abounds in a white milky juice, which

is highly poisonous; a single drop causing instant pain if it touches

the human skin.

=MANDRAKE.=--The _Atropa Mandragora_ derives its name from Atropos, the

eldest of the all-powerful Parcæ, the arbiters of the life and death of

mankind. Clothed in sombre black robes, and holding scissors in her

hands, Atropos gathers up the various-sized clues of thread which, as

the chief of the inexorable Fates, it is her privilege to cut according

to the length of the persons’ lives they represent.----Another name

bestowed by the Greeks upon the Mandrake was that of Circeium, derived

from Circe, the weird daughter of Sol and Perseis, celebrated for her

witchcraft and knowledge of magic and venomous herbs.----From the

earliest ages, the _Atropa Mandragora_ appears to have been deemed

a mystic plant by the inhabitants of Eastern countries, and to have

been regarded by them as stimulating the passions; on which account

it is still used for preparing love potions. It is generally believed

that the Mandrake is the same plant which the ancient Hebrews called

_Dudaim_; and that these people held it in the highest esteem in

Jacob’s time is evident from the notice in Genesis (xxx., 14) of Reuben

finding it and carrying the plant to his mother Leah. From the remotest

antiquity the Mandrakes were reputed in the East to possess the

property of removing sterility; hence Rachel’s desire to obtain from

Leah the plants that Reuben had found and given to his mother. It is

certain that the _Atropa Mandragora_ was looked upon by the ancients as

something more than a mere vegetable, and, in fact, as an embodiment of

some unquiet or evil spirit. In an Anglo-Saxon manuscript of the tenth

or eleventh century, the Mandrake is said to shine in the night like a

candle. The Arabs call it the Devil’s Candle, because of this nocturnal

shining appearance; and in allusion to this peculiarity, Moore says of

it in ‘Lalla Rookh’:--

“Such rank and deadly lustre dwells,

As in those hellish fires that light

The Mandrake’s charnel leaves at night.”

From times long past has come down the legend that the Mandrake is a

dweller in the dark places of the earth, and that it thrives under the

shadow of the gallows, being nourished by the exhalations or flesh

of the criminals executed on the gibbet. Amongst other mysterious

attributes, we are told by old writers that the Mandrake has the power

of emitting sounds, and that when it is pulled out of the ground, it

utters dreadful shrieks and groans, as if possessed of sensibility.

Shakspeare thus describes these terrible cries:--

“Would curses kill, as doth the Mandrake’s groan,

I would invent as bitter-searching terms,

As curst, and harsh, and horrible to hear.”

And Moore relates in verse another tradition--

“The phantom shapes--oh touch them not--

That appal the maiden’s sight,

Lurk in the fleshy Mandrake’s stem

That shrieks when plucked at night.”

These screams were so horrible and awe-inspiring, that Shakspeare tells

us the effect was maddening--

“And shrieks like Mandrakes, torn out of the earth,

That living mortals, hearing them, ran mad.”

One other terrible attribute of this ill-omened plant was its power, by

its pestilential effects, severely to injure, if not, indeed, to strike

with death, the person who had the hardihood to drag the root from its

bed. To guard against these dangers, therefore, the surrounding soil

was removed, and the plant securely fastened to the tail of a dog,

which was then driven away, and thus pulled up the root. Columella, in

his directions for the site of gardens, says they may be formed where

“The Mandrakes flowers

Produce, whose root shows half a man, whose juice

With madness strikes.”

The Romans seem to have been very superstitious as to the manner of

taking up the root. According to Pliny, those who undertook the office

were careful to stand so that the wind was at their back; and before

commencing to dig, they made three circles around the plant with the

point of the sword; then, turning to the west, they proceeded to take

it up. Probably the plant’s value as a narcotic and restorative alone

induced the gathering of so dangerous a root.----In mediæval times,

when ignorance and credulity were dominant in Europe, the mountebank

quack doctors palmed on the credulous fictitious Mandrake-roots,

which were largely sold as preventives against mischief and dangers.

Speaking of this superstition, Lord Bacon, in his ‘Natural History,’

says, “Some plants there are, but rare, that have a mossie or downie

root, and likewise that have a number of threads, like beards, as

Mandrakes, whereof witches and impostours make an ugly image, giving

it the forme of a face at the top of the root, and leave those strings

to make a broad beard down to the foot.”----Madame de Genlis speaks

of an author who gravely gives a long description of the little

idols which were supposed to be roots of the Mandrake, and adds that

they must be wrapped up in a piece of sheet, for that then they will

bring unceasing good luck. The same author, she says, gives this name

_Mandragora_ (Mandrake) to certain sprites that are procured from an

egg that must be hatched in a particular manner, and from which comes

forth a little monster (half chick and half man) that must be kept in

a secret chamber, and fed with the seed of Spikenard, and that then it

will prophesy every day. Thus it can make its master lucky at play,

discover treasures to him, and foretell what is to happen.----The

credulous people of some nations have believed that the root of the

Mandrake, if dislodged from the ground, becomes the good genius of

the possessor, and not only cures a host of maladies, but discovers

hidden treasures; doubling the amount of money locked up in a box,

keeping off evil spirits, acting as a love charm, and rendering other

notable services. According to Pliny, the Mandrake was sometimes

conformed like a man, at others like a woman: the male was white, the

female black. In the mountain of Pistoia, the peasants think they can

trace the form of a man in the leaves of the Mandrake, and of the

human face in the roots.----In Germany, since the time of the Goths,

the word _alruna_ has borne the double meaning of witch and Mandrake.

Considering the roots to possess magical properties, the Germans formed

from them little idols, to which they gave the name of _Alrunen_. These

images were regularly habited every day, and consulted as oracles;

their repute becoming very great, large numbers were manufactured and

sold in cases: in this state they were brought over to this country

during the reign of Henry VIII., and met with a ready sale. Fraudulent

dealers used to replace the Mandrake-roots with those of the White

Briony, cut to the shape of men and women, and dried in a hot sand

bath.----In France, under the names of _Main de gloire_ or _Maglore_,

the Mandrake became a species of elf; and, till the eighteenth century,

there existed a wide-spread superstition among the peasantry connected

therewith. Sainte-Palaye writes: “When I asked a peasant one day why

he was gathering Mistletoe, he told me that at the foot of the Oaks on

which the Mistletoe grew, he had a Mandrake (_Main de gloire_); that

this Mandrake had lived in the earth from whence the Mistletoe sprang;

that he was a kind of mole; that he who found him was obliged to give

him food,--bread, meat, or some other nourishment; and that he who

had once given him food was obliged to give it every day, and in the

same quantity, without which the Mandrake would assuredly cause the

forgetful one to die. Two of his countrymen, whom he named to me, had,

he said, lost their lives; but, as a recompense, this _Main de gloire_

returned on the morrow double what he had received the previous day. If

one paid cash for the _Main de gloire’s_ food one day, one would find

double the amount the following; and so with anything else. A certain

countryman, whom he mentioned as still living, and who had become very

rich, was believed to have owed his wealth to the fact that he had

found one of these _Mains de gloire_.”----The Chinese physicians assert

that the Mandrake has the faculty of renovating exhausted constitutions.

=MANGO.=--The Indian mythologists relate that the daughter of the

Sun, persecuted by a wicked enchantress, plunged into a pool, where

she was transformed into a golden Lotus. The king became enamoured of

the beautiful flower, so the enchantress burnt it; but from its ashes

rose the Mango (_Mangifera Indica_). Then the king fell in love, first

with the Mango-flower, and next with the fruit, which he ordered to be

carefully preserved for his own use. At last, just as the fruit was

ripe, it fell from the bough, and out of it issued the daughter of the

Sun, whom the king, after having lost and forgotten, now recognised as

his former wife.----The Indian poets are never tired of singing the

praises of the Mango, the beauty of its flowers, and the sweetness of

its fruit. The Indian Cupid Kâmadeva is represented as having five

arrows, each tipped with the blossom of a flower which pierce the heart

through one of the five senses. A young maiden once plucked one of

these blossoms, and offered it to the god, saying:--

“God of the bow, who with Spring’s choicest flowers

Dost point the five unerring shafts; to thee

I dedicate this blossom; let it serve

To barb thy truest arrow; be its mark

Some youthful heart that pines to be beloved.”

Kâmadeva accepted the offering, and tipped with the Mango-flower one

of his darts, which, from that time, was known as the arrow of love,

and is the god’s favourite dart. Along with Sandalwood, the wood of the

Mango is used by the Hindus in burning their dead. Among the Indian

jugglers, the apparent production and growth of the Mango-tree is a

performance executed in such a marvellous manner as to excite the

astonishment of those who have most determined to discover how the

illusion is effected.

=MANNA.=--Some naturalists consider that the Manna miraculously

provided for the sustenance of the Children of Israel in the Desert

was a species of Lichen--the _Parmelia esculenta_. Josephus, however,

describes it as a kind of dew which fell, like honey in sweetness and

pleasant taste, but like in its body to Bdellium, one of the sweet

spices, but in bigness equal to Coriander-seed. The origin of the

different species of Manna or sugary exudations which cover certain

trees, has at all times been a subject of wonder, and for a long time

it was thought that these saccharine tears, which appear so quickly,

were simply deposits from the atmosphere. The Manna used in medicine is

principally procured from the flowering Ash (_Fraxinus ornus_), which

is cultivated for the purpose in Sicily and Calabria: the puncture of

an insect of the cochineal family causes the sap to exude. The Manna

of Mount Sinai is drawn from the Tamarisk by puncture of the coccus:

it exudes in a thick syrup during the day, falls in drops, congeals in

the night, and is gathered in the cool of the morning. The Larch-tree

furnishes the Manna of Briançon. A sweet substance resembling Manna

exudes from the leaves of the _Eucalyptus resinifera_, dries in the

sun, and when the leaves are shaken by the wind, falls like a shower

of snow. In some countries, even herbs are covered with an abundant

sugary exudation similar to Manna. Bruce observed this in Abyssinia.

Matthiolus relates that in some parts of Italy the Manna glues the

grass of the meadows together in such a manner as to impede the mowers

at their work.----To dream of Manna denotes that you will be successful

through life, and overcome all troubles.

=MAPLE.=--The wood of the Maple (_Acer_) was considered by Pliny to

be, in point of elegance and firmness, next to the Citron itself. The

veined knobs of old Maples, known as the _bruscum_ and _molluscum_,

were highly prized by the Romans, and of these curiously-marked woods

were made the famous Tigrine and Pantherine tables, which were of such

immense value, that when the Romans reproached their wives for their

extravagance in jewels, they were wont to retort and (literally) “turn

the tables” upon their husbands. Evelyn tells us, that such a table

was that of Cicero, “which cost him 10,000 sesterces; such another had

Asinius Gallus. That of King Juba was sold for 15,000; and yet that

of the Mauritanian Ptolemy was far richer, containing four feet and

a half diameter, three inches thick, which is reputed to have been

sold for its weight in gold.”----Some centuries ago, Maple-wood was in

great request for bowls and trenchers. The unfortunate Fair Rosamond

is reputed to have drunk her fatal draught of poison from a Maple

bowl; and the mediæval drinking-vessels, known as mazers, were chiefly

made of this material--deriving their name from the Dutch _Maeser_,

Maple.----On May-day, in Cornwall, the young men proceed, at daybreak,

to the country, and strip the Maple (or Sycamore) trees--there called

May-trees--of all their young branches, to make whistles, and with

these shrill musical instruments they enliven their way home with “May

music.”----In Germany, the Maple is regarded with much superstitious

reverence. There existed formerly, in Alsace, a curious belief that

bats possessed the power of rendering the eggs of storks unfruitful.

When once a stork’s egg was touched by a bat, it became sterile;

and so, in order to preserve it, the stork placed in its nest some

branches of the Maple, and the wonderful power of this tree sufficed

to frighten away every intruding bat.----De Gubernatis relates a

Hungarian fairy tale, in which the Maple plays a conspicuous part.

According to this legend, a king had three daughters, one of whom, a

beautiful blonde, was in love with a shepherd, who charmed her with

delightful music he produced from a flute. One night, the king, the

princess, and the shepherd, were disturbed by disquieting dreams. The

king dreamt that his crown had lost its diamonds; the princess that

she had visited her mother’s tomb and was unable to get away from it;

the shepherd that two fallow deer had devoured the best lamb in his

flock. After this dream, the king called his three daughters to him,

and announced to them that she who should first bring to him a basket

of Strawberries should become his pet daughter, and inherit his crown

and seven kingdoms. The three daughters hastened to a neighbouring

hill to gather the Strawberries. There, setting down their baskets,

each one in turn wished that her basket might be filled with fruit.

The wishes of the two elder sisters were unheeded; but when it came to

the blonde’s turn, her wish was no sooner expressed, than her basket

was filled with Strawberries. At this sight, the two sisters, mad with

envy, fell upon the poor blonde, and slew her; then, having buried her

under an old Maple-tree, they broke her basket in two, and divided the

Strawberries between them. On their return to the palace, they told the

king that their sister had been devoured by a fallow deer. On hearing

this sad news, the unhappy father exclaimed: “Alas! I have lost the

most precious diamond of my crown.” At the approach of the new moon,

the shepherd took up his flute to play a tune; but it was mute, for

the fair princess was no longer there to listen to its tuneful notes.

Meanwhile, on the third night, there sprang from the stem of the old

Maple on the hill a new shoot, on the spot where the poor princess had

met her cruel death. The shepherd, happening to pass by, saw this fresh

shoot from the Maple, and thought he would make from it a new flute. So

he cut the Maple-shoot, and from it fashioned a flute; but the moment

he placed it to his lips, the flute sang, “Play, play, dearest. Once

I was a king’s daughter; then I was a Maple-shoot; now I am a flute

made from the Maple-shoot.” The shepherd rushed off with the flute

to the king, who put it to his lips, when instantly it sang, “Play,

play, my father. Once, &c.” Then the two wicked sisters approached,

and each in turn put the flute to her lips--only, however, to hear it

hiss, “Play, play, murderess. Once, &c.” Then the king, becoming aware

of the sisters’ wickedness, cursed them, and drove them with bitter

reproaches from his palace into the wide world.----The Maple has been

made the emblem of reserve, because its flowers are late in opening,

and slow to fall.----A curious belief exists in some parts of England,

that the Maple can confer longevity on children, if they are passed

through its branches. In West Grinstead Park, Sussex, was an old Maple

much used for this purpose, and, upon a rumour reaching the parish,

that the ancient tree was to be felled, many petitions were made that

it might be spared.----Pliny says that Maple-root, pounded, is a remedy

for pains in the liver, and Gerarde states that, steeped in wine, it is

useful in stopping pain in the side. He quotes a verse from Sammonicus,

which he thus translates:--

“Thy harmless side if sharp disease invade,

In hissing water quench a heated stone:

This drink. Or Maple-root in powder made,

Take off in wine, a present med’cine known.”

=MARGUERITE.=--The Daisy (_Bellis perennis_), which Chaucer called

“douce Margarette,” derives its French name of Marguerite from its

supposed resemblance to a pearl. In Germany, indeed, it is known as the

Meadow-pearl, and Chaucer, in describing the flower, says:--

“And of a perle fine orientall,

Her white croune was imaked all.”

The Greek word for pearl, _Margarites_, became in Latin _Margarita_,

remained the same in Italian, and in French was spelt _Marguerite_; the

same word in each language indicating both the pearl and the flower

we call Daisy. This flower was formerly employed in the treatment of

certain female complaints, and on that account, perhaps, was dedicated

by the Monks to St. Margaret of Cortona. Chaucer, in error, referred

the name Margaret, as bestowed on the Daisy, to St. Margaret of

Hungary, who was martyred in the thirteenth century; but in an old

legend it is stated

“There is a double flowret, white and red,

That our lasses call Herb Margaret,

In honour of Cortona’s penitent,

Whose contrite soul with red remorse was rent;

While on her penitence kind Heaven did throw

The white of purity surpassing snow;

So white and red in this fair flower entwine,

Which maids are wont to scatter at her shrine.”

This St. Margaret of Cortona, who in mediæval days was very popular,

had for some years, says Mrs. Jameson, led an abandoned life, but

having repented and been canonised, she was regarded by the people

of her native town as a modern Magdalene; and, like her prototype,

was supposed, on account of her early habits, to preside over uterine

diseases, and others peculiar to young women. The Daisy, and other

flowers which were supposed from their shape to resemble the Moon, were

by the ancients dedicated to the virgin goddess of the night, Artemis,

or Diana: but in Christian times were transferred to the two saints who

replace her, namely, St. Mary Magdalene and St. Margaret of Cortona.

Dr. Prior, in his work on plant names, points out that this latter

saint has often been confounded with a St. Margaret of Antioch, who was

“invoked as another Lucina, because in her martyrdom she prayed for

lying-in-women.” This maiden of Antioch is described in old metrical

legends as

“Maid Marguerite that was so meeke and milde.”

The Daisy has been connected with several eminent women of the name of

Margaret. Margaret of Anjou wore the flower as her device, and had it

embroidered on the robes of her courtiers. Lady Margaret, the mother of

Henry VII., wore three white Daisies; Margaret, the sister of Francis

I., also wore the Daisy, and was called by her brother his Marguerite

of Marguerites--his pearl of pearls. (See DAISY).

=MARIGOLD.=--The African Marigold (_Tagetes erecta_) is regarded as a

sacred flower in Northern India, where the natives adorn the trident

emblem of Mahâdeva with garlands of it; and both men and women wear

chaplets made of its flowers on his festival.----The Romans named the

European Marigold _Calendula_--the flower of the Calends--from a notion

that it blossoms the whole year.----In the oldest of English herbals,

the ‘Grete Herball,’ the Marigold is called Mary Gowles, but by the

old poets it is frequently alluded to as Gold simply, and it is still

called Goules or Goulans in some counties of England. Another old

English name for these flowers was Ruddes.----From its tawny yellow

blossom the Marigold is presumed to have been the _Chrusanthemon_, or

Gold Flower, of the Greeks.----In mediæval times, this flower, along

with numerous others, was dedicated by the monks and nuns to the

Virgin, and had the prefix Mary appended to its name. According to an

old tradition, however, the Marigold was so called because the Virgin

Mary wore this flower in her bosom.----Shakspeare, in ‘Cymbeline,’

speaks of the flower as the Mary-bud, and in ‘A Winter’s Tale,’ alludes

to its habit of closing at sunset and opening at sunrise:--

“The Marigold that goes to bed with the sun,

And with him rises weeping.”

Linnæus states that the flower is usually open from 9 a.m. till 3 p.m.,

and this foreshows a continuance of dry weather. Should the blossom

remain closed, rain may be expected. This circumstance, and the plant’s

habit of turning its golden face towards the sun, has gained for it the

name of the “Sun-flower” and the “Spouse of the Sun”.----Marguerite

of Orleans, the maternal grandmother of Henri IV., chose for her

armorial device a Marigold turning towards the sun, and for a motto,

“_Je ne veux suivre que lui seul_.”----In America, Marigolds are called

Death-flowers, in reference to an existing tradition that the crimson

and gold-coloured blossoms sprang upon ground stained by the life-blood

of those unfortunate Mexicans who fell victims to the love of gold and

arrogant cruelty of the early Spanish settlers in America.----In the

reign of Henry VIII., the Marigold was called _Souvenir_, and ladies

wore wreaths of them intermixed with Heart’s-ease.----To dream of

Marigolds appears to be of happy augury, denoting prosperity, riches,

success, and a happy and wealthy marriage.----The Marigold is deemed by

astrologers a Solar herb, under the sign Leo.

=MARJORAM.=--The origin of Marjoram (_Origanum vulgare_: Greek,

_Amarakos_) is related by the Greeks as follows:--A young man named

Amaracus was employed in the household of Cinyras, King of Cyprus:

one day, when carrying a vase containing perfumes, he unfortunately

let it fall, and was so frightened at the mishap that he lost all

consciousness, and became metamorphosed into an odoriferous herb called

at first _Sampsuchon_, and afterwards _Amarakos_. According to Rapin,

the goddess Venus first raised Sweet Marjoram. He says:--

“And tho’ Sweet Marjoram will your garden paint

With no gay colours, yet preserve the plant,

Whose fragrance will invite your kind regard,

When her known virtues have her worth declared:

On Simois’ shore fair Venus raised the plant,

Which from the goddess’ touch derived her scent.”

The Greeks and Roman crowned young married couples with Marjoram, which

in some countries is the symbol of honour.----Astrologers place the

herb under the rule of Mercury.

=MARSH MALLOW.=--The name _Althæa_ (from a Greek root meaning to cure)

was given to this plant on account of its manifold healing properties,

which were duly appreciated by the old herbalists. It was sometimes

called _Bismalva_, being held to be twice as good in medicinal

properties as the ordinary Mallow. As an ointment, it was celebrated

for mollifying heat, and hence it became invaluable as a protection to

those who had to undergo the ordeal of holding red-hot iron in their

hands. This ordeal was practised by the ancient Greeks; for we read in

the ‘Antigone’ of Sophocles, that the guards placed over the body of

Polynices--which had been carried away surreptitiously--offered, in

order to prove their innocence, to take up red-hot iron in their hands:

a similar ordeal was extant in the Middle Ages, when invalids and

delicate persons, particularly monks and ecclesiastics, were exempted

from the usual mode of single combat, and were required to test their

innocence by holding red-hot iron in their hands. These trials were

made in the church during the celebration of mass, inspection being

made by the clergy alone. The suspected person, therefore, if he had

any friends at hand, was easily shielded by covering his hand with a

thick coating of some substance which would enable him to resist the

action of heat. Albertus Magnus describes a paste compounded in the

thirteenth century for this express purpose. The sap of the Marsh

Mallow, the slimy seeds of a kind of Fleabane, and the white of a hen’s

egg, were combined to make the paste adhere, and the hands covered with

it were perfectly safe.----According to a German tradition, an ointment

made of the leaves of the Marsh Mallow was employed to anoint the

body of anyone affected by witchcraft.----The Marsh Mallow is held by

astrologers to be a herb of Venus.

=MARSH MARIGOLD.=--According to Rapin, the Sicilian shepherd Acis

originally discovered the Marsh Marigold (_Caltha_) growing in his

native pastures:--

“Nor without mention shall the _Caltha_ die,

Which Acis once found out in Sicily;

She Phœbus loves, and from him draws her hue,

And ever keeps his golden beams in view.”

The flower’s modern Italian name, _Sposa di Sole_, has probably been

given to it in reference to this legend. On May-day, country people

strew Marsh Marigolds before their doors, and twine them into garlands.

Some think the _Caltha palustris_ to be Shakspeare’s “winking May-bud

with golden eye,” which, if plucked with due care, and borne about,

will hinder anyone from speaking an angry word to the wearer.

=MASTIC.=--The Mastic or Pistachio-tree (_Pistacia Lentiscus_), the

symbol of purity and virginity, was particularly dear to Dictynna, a

nymph of Crete, and one of Diana’s attendants. Following her example,

the Greek virgins were fond of adorning themselves with Mastic-sprays;

and at the present time, in the isle of Chios, where the Mastic-tree

flourishes, they eat the gum to preserve sweetness of breath. The

Mastic is stated to have been under the special protection of Bacchus,

as being the tree under which the Bacchanals found and slew Pentheus,

King of Thebes, who had forbidden his subjects to acknowledge the new

god.

MATHER.--See Mayweed.

MAUDLEIN, MAUDELYNE, or _Maudlin_.--See Costmary.

MAUDLIN WORT.--See Moon Daisy.

=MAURITIA.=--The Moriche Palm (_Mauritia flexuosa_) is regarded as a

sacred tree by the Mexican Indians. Certain tribes live almost entirely

on its products, and, strange to say, build their houses high up

amongst its leaves, where they live during the floods. These Indians

have a traditional Deluge, which they call the Water Age, when there

was only one man and one woman left alive. To re-people the earth,

the Deucalion and Pyrrha of the new world, instead of stones, threw

over their shoulders the fruit of the Moriche Palm, and from its seeds

sprang the whole human race. The Moriche is regarded as a deity among

the Tamancas, a tribe of Oronoco Indians.

=MAY.=--The Hawthorn has obtained the name of May, or May-bush, from

the time of its flowering. In Suffolk, it is believed to be unlucky to

sleep in a room in which there is May in bloom. In Sussex, to bring

a branch of blossoming May into the house is thought to portend a

death. It was a custom in Huntingdonshire, forty years ago, for the

rustic swains to place a branch of May in blossom before sunrise at the

doorway of anyone they wished to honour, singing the while--

“A branch of May we have brought you,

And at your door it stands;

It is but a sprout,

But it’s well budded out,

By the work of our good Lord’s hands.”

An Italian proverb describes the universal lover as “one who hangs

every door with May.” (See HAWTHORN).

=MAYFLOWER.=--The Mayflower of New England, _Epigæa repens_, is the

emblem of Nova Scotia. The trailing Arbutus, or Mayflower, is a native

of North America; it grows abundantly in the vicinity of Plymouth,

Massachusetts, and was the first flower that greeted the Pilgrims after

their terrible winter.

=MAYWEED.=--The Mayweed, or more properly Maydweed (_Anthemis Cotula_),

owes its name to its having been formerly used for the complaints

of young women. In olden times, the plant was also known as Maghet,

and Mather or Mauther, words signifying a maid.----The flower is

distinguished as having, for its fairness, been likened to the brow of

the Northern divinity Baldr.----The _Matricaria Chamomilla_ is called

Stinking Maydweed. (See MAITHES, COSTMARY, and MOON DAISY.)

=MELON.=--According to a tradition of the Arabs, the Melon is to be

found in Paradise, where it signifies that God is One, and that Ali is

his true prophet.----Sebastian, a Roman traveller of the seventeenth

century, recorded that on Mount Carmel, in the Holy Land, he had seen

a field of Melons which had been turned into stones by the curse of

Elias.----An old Tuscan legend records how the wife of a certain

young king bore him three children, which were represented by the

Queen’s jealous sisters to be a cat, a piece of wood, and a snake.

The enraged king, upon this, cast his unfortunate wife into prison,

whilst the three infants were secured by the wicked sisters in a box,

and cast into the sea. A gardener found the box, and compassionating

the helpless babes, brought them up, and taught them to tend his

garden. Through the kindly offices of a good fairy, the king came to

dinner one day, and a large Water Melon was gathered from the garden

and placed before him. The king cut the Melon, when in place of seeds

he discovered inside a number of precious stones. In astonishment, he

demanded: “How is it possible that a Melon can produce gems?” Then the

good fairy responded: “And how, sire, is it possible that a woman could

give birth to a cat, a piece of wood, and a snake? Behold your three

children, and hasten, cruel man, to release the poor innocent queen.

The envy of her sisters has occasioned all this mischief.” The king was

deeply affected; he embraced his children, and forthwith hastened with

all speed to his wife, whose pardon he implored. Then he ordered public

fêtes and rejoicings to take place, but condemned the wicked sisters

to the stake.----According to dream oracles, a young woman who dreams

of Melons is destined to marry a rich foreigner, and to live with him

in a foreign land. If a young man dreams of Melons, it denotes that he

will marry a rich foreign lady, by whom he will have a large family,

but they will die young. If a sick person dreams of Melons, it is a

prognostic of recovery by reason of their humidity or juicy substance.

MIDSUMMER MEN.--See Orpine.

=MIGNONETTE.=--The Mignonette, or Little Darling, is supposed to be an

Egyptian plant, and to have been brought to England from the South of

France, where it is called _Herbe d’Amour_, or Love-flower. Although

a flower of no heraldic fame, the Mignonette is nevertheless, to be

seen on the armoured shield of a noble Saxon house, and the origin

of its adoption is related in the following legend:--A Count of

Walstheim was betrothed to Amelia von Nordburg, a young and beautiful

heiress, whose poor cousin Charlotte, an amiable girl of no particular

personal charms, had been brought up with her from infancy. Returning

one evening from a charitable visit, the humble dependent found her

aunt’s saloon full of guests, the ladies busily occupied in selecting

flowers for which their admirers were expected to improvise mottoes.

Charlotte was invited to follow the example of her betters. Amelia

von Nordburg had selected the Rose as her emblem, and her companions

had naturally chosen such popular flowers as were best calculated to

elicit gallant compliments. Thus most of the floral favourites had

been appropriated; so Charlotte placed a modest spray of Mignonette

in her dress. Noticing as she did so that her coquettish cousin was

neglecting the Count of Walstheim for the fascinations of a gallant

colonel, and anxious to recall the thoughtless heiress to her lover’s

side, Charlotte asked the Count what motto he had ready for the Rose.

Taking out his pencil, he wrote: “_Elle ne vit qu’un jour, et ne plait

qu’un moment_;” and then presented her with this motto for her own

Mignonette: “_Ses qualités surpassent ses charmes_.” His wilful fiancée

took offence at the Count’s discrimination, and revenged herself by

treating him with studied coldness and neglect; the result being that

the Count transferred his affections to the dependent Charlotte, whom

he soon afterwards married, and to celebrate the event added a spray of

Mignonette to the ancient arms of his family.

=MILK THISTLE.=--The Thistle _Silybum Marianum_ is called the Milk

Thistle from a supposition that it derived the colour of its leaves

from the Milk of the Virgin Mary having fallen on them as she suckled

the infant Jesus.

=MILKWORT.=--In olden times, the Milkwort (_Polygala vulgaris_),

bore the names of Cross-flower, Rogation-flower, Gang-flower, and

Procession-flower, which were given it because, according to ancient

usage, maidens made garlands of the flower, and carried them in

procession during Rogation Week. At this period it was customary to

offer prayers against plagues, fires, and wild beasts, and as the

bounds of the parish were traversed on one of the days, it was also

termed Gang Week. This custom was a relic of the ancient Ambarvalia.

The bishop, or one of the clergy, perambulated the limits of the parish

with the Holy Cross and Litanies, and invoked the blessing of God upon

the crops; on which occasion, Bishop Kennett tells us, the maidens made

garlands and nosegays of the Milkwort, which blossomed in Rogation

Week, the next but one before the Whitsuntide.----Gerarde relates that,

in Queen Elizabeth’s time, Milkwort-flowers were “vulgarly knowne in

Cheapside to the herbe women by the name of Hedge Hyssop.” The plant

was called Milkwort from an old belief that it increased the milk of

mothers who took it.----A Javanese species, _Polygala venenata_, is

greatly dreaded by the natives of Java for its poisonous effects;

violent sneezing and faintness seizes anyone touching the leaves of

this ill-omened plant.

=MILLET.=--According to Schlegel, Millet has, among the Chinese, given

its name to the constellation _Tien-tzi_, “Celestial Millet,” which

is composed of five stars, and presides at the grain harvest. Its

clearness and brilliance presage an abundant harvest, its absence

foretells famine. This constellation the Chinese consider as the

residence of the King of the Cereals.----The grain of Millet has

become proverbial as indicative of anything minute: possibly on this

account, Millet portends misery if seen in a dream.----There is a

legend in North Germany, that, long ago, a rich merchant had a fine

garden, in which was a piece of land sown with Millet. One day the

merchant discovered that a part of the Millet had been shorn during the

preceding night, so he set his three sons to watch in case the theft

should be repeated. Both the eldest and the second son fell asleep

during their respective vigils; and on each occasion the theft was

repeated, and further portions of the Millet disappeared. On the third

night, the youngest son, John, agreed to watch: he surrounded himself

with Thorns and Thistles, so that if he felt sleepy, and began to nod,

the Thorns should prick him, and thus keep him awake. At midnight

he heard a tramping, and then a sound of munching among the Millet:

pushing aside the Thorns, John sprang out from his hiding-place, and

saw a beautiful little colt feeding on the Millet. To catch the little

animal was an easy task, and it was soon safely locked up in the

stable. The merchant, overjoyed at the capture his vigilant son John

had made, made him a present of the colt, which he named Millet-thief.

Soon after this, the brothers heard of a beautiful princess who was

kept by enchantment confined in a palace that stood on the top of a

glass mountain, which no one, on account of its being so slippery,

could ascend; but it was said that whosoever should be so fortunate as

to reach its summit, and ride thrice round the palace, would disenchant

the princess and obtain her hand in marriage. Numbers had already

endeavoured to ride up the slippery mountain, but were precipitated

to its foot; and their skeletons lay bleaching all around. The three

brothers determined to try and ascend the mountain, but, alas, the two

eldest fell with their horses down the treacherous mountain side, and

lay sorely hurt. Then John saddled his little colt Millet-thief, and

to his delight, when ridden to the mountain, he easily rattled up to

its summit, and trotted round the palace three times as though he knew

the road perfectly. Soon they stood in front of the palace-gates, which

opened spontaneously, and the lovely princess stepped forth with a cry

of joy, as she recognised in Millet-thief her own little colt, who had

been accustomed to take her by night down the steep mountain, so that

she might enjoy a gallop across the green fields--the only indulgence

permitted her by the cruel enchanter. Then the princess bestowed her

hand upon her deliverer, and they lived happily, far removed from

worldly cares, in the palace on the glass mountain.

=MIMOSA.=--The _Mimosa Catechu_, according to Indian mythology, was

the tree which sprang from the claw lost by a falcon whilst engaged in

purloining the heavenly Soma, or Amrita, the drink of immortality.

The Vedas recount that, when the gods were pining for the precious

beverage, the falcon undertook to steal it from the demons who kept

it shut up: the attempt was successful, but the falcon, whilst flying

off with its prize, was wounded by an arrow discharged by one of

the demons, and lost a claw and a feather. They fell to earth, and

struck root there; the claw becoming the Indian Thorn-tree, or _Mimosa

Catechu_--the younger branches of which have straight thorns, that

afterwards become hooked, and bear a strong resemblance to a bird’s

claw.----Bishop Heber tells us that, whilst travelling in Upper India,

he saw, near Boitpoor, a Mimosa-tree, with leaves at a little distance

so much resembling those of the Mountain Ash, that he was for a moment

deceived, and asked if it did not bear fruit. The Bishop says: “They

answered no; but that it was a very noble tree, being called the

Imperial Tree for its excellent properties. That it slept all night,

and awakened, and was alive all day, withdrawing its leaves if any

one attempted to touch them. Above all, however, it was useful as a

preservative against magic. A sprig worn in the turban, or suspended

over the bed, was a perfect security against all spells, Evil Eye, &c.,

insomuch that the most formidable wizard would not, if he could help

it, approach its shade. One, indeed, they said, who was very renowned

for his power (like Lorinite, in the Kehama) of killing plants and

drying up their sap with a look, had come to this very tree and gazed

on it intently; but, said the old man, who told me this with an air

of triumph, look as he might, he could do the tree no harm. I was

amazed and surprised to find the superstition which in England and

Scotland attaches to the Rowan-tree here applied to a tree of nearly

similar form. What nation has, in this case, been the imitator? Or from

what common centre are these common notions derived?”----The _Mimosa

sensitiva_ is the true Sensitive Plant, which collapses its leaflets

upon the slightest touch (see SENSITIVE PLANT); and another member of

this singular family droops its branches whenever anyone approaches;

hence Moore has called it

“That courteous tree

Which bows to all who seek its canopy.”

Frankincense is the product of the Egyptian Mimosa, a tree spoken of by

Theophrastus as an Acanthus, and referred to by Virgil.

=MIMUSOPS.=--The _Mimusops Elengi_ is one of the sacred trees of India,

and dedicated to the god Krishna. An odoriferous water, highly prized,

is distilled from the flowers, and the astringent bark of the tree is

used medicinally.

=MINT.=--Ovid tells us, in his ‘Metamorphoses,’ that the nymph Minthe,

a daughter of Cocytus, was beloved of Pluto, and that Proserpine,

discovering her husband’s infidelity, transformed his mistress into the

herb which is called by her name.----In olden times, Mint (_Mentha_)

was called _Herba bona_ and _Herba sancta_, and the ancients were

wont to weave garlands of its foliage to be worn by brides--_corona

Veneris_. In later days, the herb was dedicated to the Virgin, under

the name of _Herba Sanctæ Mariæ_.----It was formerly customary to

strew the churches with Mint or other herbs or flowers. In ‘Appius and

Virginia,’ an old play, is an illustration of this custom:--

“Thou knave, but for thee ere this time of day

My lady’s fair pew had been strewed full gay

With Primroses, Cowslips, and Violets sweet,

With Mints, and with Marygold and Marjoram meet,

Which now lyeth uncleanly, and all along of thee.”

Among the women of the Abruzzi there exists a curious superstition. If,

whilst walking, they should chance to come across a plant of Mint, they

will bruise a leaf between their fingers, in order to ensure that, on

the day of their death, Jesus Christ will assist them.----In Holstein,

at the funeral of peasants, Mint is carried by youths attending the

ceremony.----Pliny was of opinion that “the smell of Mint doth stir up

the minde and taste to a greedy desire of meat;” and other old writers

state that Mint should be smelled, as being refreshing for the head and

memory; probably on this account it was formerly a custom to strew it

“in chambers and places of recreation, pleasure, and repose, and when

feasts and banquets are to be made.” Gerarde says of this herb:--“It is

poured into the eares with honied water. It is taken inwardly against

scolopendres, beare-wormes, sea scorpions and serpents. It is applied

with salt to the bitings of mad dogs.”

=MISTLETOE.=--According to Scandinavian mythology, Baldr (the Apollo of

the North) was rendered by his mother Frîgg proof against all injury

by the four elements, fire, air, earth, and water: Loki, the evil

spirit, however, being at enmity with him, fashioned an arrow out of

Mistletoe (which proceeded from neither of the elements), and placed

it in the hand of Hödr, the blind deity, who launched the fatal dart

at Baldr, and struck him to the earth. The gods decided to restore

Baldr to life, and as a reparation for his injury, the Mistletoe was

dedicated to his mother Frîgg; whilst, to prevent its being again used

adversely to her, the plant was placed under her sole control so long

as it did not touch the earth, the empire of Loki. On this account

it has always been customary to suspend Mistletoe from ceilings; and

so, whenever persons of opposite sexes pass under it, they give one

another the kiss of peace and love, in the full assurance that this

plant is no longer an instrument of mischief.----Like the Indian

Asvattha, and the Northern Rowan, the Mistletoe was supposed to be

the embodiment of lightning: hence its Swiss name, _Donnerbesen_; and

like them, again, it is very generally believed to spring from seed

deposited by birds on trees. Some naturalists, indeed, say that the

seeds will not vegetate until they have passed through the stomach

of a bird, and so recommend that fowls should be caused to eat the

seeds, which, after evacuation, should be sown. This old belief in the

Mistletoe-seed being sown by birds is referred to by Lord Bacon in his

‘Natural History.’ His lordship says:--“They have an idle tradition

that there is a bird called a Missel-bird that feedeth upon a seed

which many times she cannot digest, and so expelleth it whole with her

excrement, which, falling upon a bough of a tree that hath some rift,

putteth forth the Misseltoe.”----In Druidic times, the Mistletoe was

regarded as a divine gift of peculiar sanctity, only to be gathered

with befitting ceremonies, on the sixth day, or at latest on the sixth

night, of the sixth moon after the winter solstice, when their year

commenced.----Pliny tells us that “the Druids hold nothing more sacred

than the Mistletoe and the tree upon which it is produced, provided

it be an Oak. They make choice of groves of Oak on their own account,

nor do they perform any of their sacred rites without the leaves of

these trees, so one may suppose that for this reason they are called

by the Greek etymology Druids, and whatever Mistletoe grows upon the

Oak they think is sent from heaven, and is a sign of God Himself as

having chosen that tree. This, however, is rarely found, but, when

discovered, is treated with great ceremony; they call it by a name

which in their language signifies the curer of all ills, and, having

duly prepared their feast and sacrifices under the tree, they bring to

it two white bulls, whose horns are then for the first time tied; the

priest, dressed in a white robe, ascends the tree, and, with a golden

pruning-hook, cuts off the Mistletoe, which is received into a white

_sagum_, or sheet; then they sacrifice the victims, praying that God

would bless His own gift to those on whom He has bestowed it.” As the

Druids attributed to the Mistletoe marvellous curative properties, they

placed it in water, and distributed this water to those who deserved

it, to act as a charm against the spells of witches and sorcerers.

If any portion of this plant came in contact with the earth, it was

considered as ominous of some impending national disaster.----The

practice of decorating dwellings with Mistletoe and Holly is

undoubtedly of Druidic origin. Dr. Chandler states that, in the times

of the Druids, the houses were decked with boughs in order that the

spirits of the forest might seek shelter among them during the bleak

winds and frosts of winter.----Among the Worcestershire farmers, there

is a very ancient custom of taking a bough of Mistletoe, and presenting

it to the cow that first calved after New Year’s Day, as this offering

is presumed to avert ill-luck from the dairy.----In some provinces of

France, they preserved for a long period the custom of gathering the

Mistletoe of the Oak, which they regarded as a talisman. Many public

documents attest that, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,

large gatherings of the country-people took place at the fêtes held

in commemoration of the ceremony of the sacred Mistletoe, and which

was called _Auguilanneuf_ (_Gui de l’an neuf_).----In Holstein, the

peasantry call the Mistletoe the “Spectre’s wand,” from the supposition

that a branch borne in the hand will enable the holder not only to

see ghosts, but to compel them to speak.----The magical properties

of the Mistletoe are alluded to by Virgil in his _Æneid_, as well as

by Ovid and other ancient writers. Albertus Magnus states that the

Mistletoe, which the Chaldæans called _Luperax_, the Greeks _Esifena_,

and the Latins _Viscus Querci_, like the herb _Martagon_ (Moonwort),

possessed the property of opening all locks. The Druids called it

All-heal, and represented it as an antidote to all poisons, and a cure

for all diseases. When there were no longer any Druids in England

left to gather the holy plant with the customary sacred rites, it was

gathered by the people themselves, with a lack of due solemnity, so

that, according to Aubrey, this want of reverence met with miraculous

punishment. He relates how some ill-advised folk cut the Mistletoe from

an Oak, at Norwood, to sell to the London apothecaries: “And one fell

lame shortly after; soon after each of the others lost an eye; and a

rash fellow, who ventured to fell the Oak itself, broke his leg very

shortly afterwards.” At this time, the powder of an Oak-Mistletoe was

deemed an infallible cure for epilepsy; and Culpeper, the astrological

herbalist, prescribed the leaves and berries of this precious

plant, given in powder for forty days together, as a sure panacea

for apoplexy, palsy, and falling sickness. Clusius affirmed that a

sprig of the sacred plant worn round the neck was a talisman against

witchcraft, always providing that the bough had not been allowed to

touch earth after being gathered.----In the West of England, there is a

tradition that the Cross was made of Mistletoe, which, until the time

of the Crucifixion, had been a noble forest tree, but was thenceforth

condemned to exist only as a mere parasite. Culpeper remarks that

it was sometimes called _lignum sanctæ crucis_--wood of the holy

cross--from a belief in its curative virtues in cases of consumption,

apoplexy, and palsy--“not only to be inwardly taken, but to be hung at

their neck.”----In Sweden, Oak-Mistletoe is suspended in the house to

protect it from fire and other injuries; a knife with an Oak-Mistletoe

handle is supposed by the Swedes to ward off the falling sickness: for

other complaints, a piece of this plant is hung round the patient’s

neck, or made into a finger-ring.

=MOLY.=--The Moly was a magical plant, beneficent in its nature, which

Homer tells us, in the ‘Odyssey,’ was given by Mercury to Ulysses to

enable him successfully to withstand and overcome the enchantments of

the sorceress Circe, and obtain the restoration of his comrades whom

the witch-goddess had by her enchantments transformed into swine.

Ulysses, distressed at the fate of his companions, was visited by

Mercury, who promised to give him a plant of extraordinary powers,

which should baffle the spells of Circe;

“Thus while he spoke, the sovereign plant he drew

Where on th’ all-bearing earth unmark’d it grew,

And show’d its nature and its wondrous power:

Black was the root, but milky white the flower;

Moly the name, to mortals hard to find,

But all is easy to th’ ethereal kind.”--_Pope._

The Moly is generally supposed to have been a species of Garlick

(a plant credited with many magical qualities), and Gerarde, in

his ‘Herbal,’ describes several plants under the head of “Moly, or

Sorcerer’s Garlick,” one of which he particularises as Homer’s Moly

(_Moly Homericum_). The identity of the plant has, however, long

been a matter for speculation among botanists of all ages. Dodonæus,

Anguillara, and Cæsalpinus consider it to be _Allium magicum_;

Matthiolus and Clusius, _Allium subhirsutum_; Sprengel, _Allium

nigrum_; and Sibthorp, a plant which he names _Allium Dioscoridis_.

Various treatises have appeared on the subject, in one of which

the Moly is thought to be identified with the Lotus. Milton, in

his ‘Comus,’ mentions a magical plant, designated Hæmony, which

possessed similar properties to the Moly, and was potent in dispelling

enchantments, ghostly apparations, mildew-blast, and unwholesome

vapours.

MONEY FLOWER.--See Honesty.

=MONK’S HOOD.=--_Aconitum_ has two English names, Monk’s Hood and

Wolf’s Bane. The former has been given it from the resemblance of the

plant’s upper sepal to the cowl of a monk. The latter is of great

antiquity, being the same as that of the Anglo-Saxon. By the ancients

(who were unacquainted with mineral poisons) the Aconite was regarded

as the most virulent of all poisons, and their mythologists declare it

to be the invention of Hecate, who caused the plant to spring from the

foam of the many-headed Cerberus, when Hercules dragged him from the

gloomy regions of Pluto. The legend is thus told by Ovid:--

“Medea, to dispatch a dang’rous heir,

(She knew him) did a pois’nous draught prepare,

Drawn from a drug, long while reserved in store,

For desp’rate uses, from the Scythian shore,

That from the Echydnæan monster’s jaws

Derived its origin, and this the cause.

Through a dark cave a craggy passage lies

To ours ascending from the nether skies,

Through which, by strength of hand, Alcides drew

Chained Cerberus, who lagged and restive grew,

With his bleared eyes our brighter day to view.

Thrice he repeated his enormous yell,

With which he scares the ghosts, and startles hell;

At last outrageous (though compelled to yield),

He sheds his foam in fury on the field;

Which, with its own and rankness of the ground,

Produced a weed by sorcerers renowned

The strongest constitution to confound--

Called Aconite, because it can unlock

All bars, and force its passage through a rock.”

With this venomous plant the ancients were wont to poison their

arrow-heads when engaged in war and also when in pursuit of wild

beasts. As a poison, it had a sinister reputation. Ovid was of opinion

that the _Aconitum_ derived its name from growing on rocks almost

barren; and he describes, in his ‘Iron Age,’ the step-dame occupied in

preparing a deadly potion of this plant:--

“_Lurida terribiles miscent Aconita novercæ._”

In Greece, the Wolf’s Bane is credited with many malignant influences,

and the fevers so common in the neighbourhood of Corinth were

attributed to it. Until the Turks were dispossessed, the Aga proceeded

every year in solemn procession to denounce it and hand it over to

destruction.----In North India, a species, _Aconitum ferox_, is used as

a poison for arrows--the poison which is obtained from the roots being

of remarkable virulence and activity when infused into the blood.

=MOON DAISY.=--The _Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum_, a large Daisy-like

flower, resembles the pictures of a full moon, and on this account has

acquired the name of Moon Daisy. From its use in uterine diseases, this

plant was dedicated by the ancients to Artemis, goddess of the Moon,

Juno Lucina, and Eileithuia, a deity who had special charge over the

functions of women--an office afterwards assigned by the Romish Church

to St. Mary Magdalene and St. Margaret. Hence, in the Middle Ages, the

Moon Daisy became known as Maudelyne or Maudlin-wort.----The plant

is also called the Ox-eye and Midsummer Daisy; and in France, this

flower, known as the _Paquerette_, is employed, like the Bluet, as a

divining-flower, to discover the state of a lover’s affections.----The

Midsummer Daisy is dedicated to St. John the Baptist.

=MOONWORT.=--The Fern _Botrychium Lunaria_ has derived its name of

Moonwort from the crescent shape of the segments of its frond. Perhaps

it is this lunar form which has caused it to be so highly esteemed for

its supposed magical properties. The old alchymists professed to be

able, by means of the Moonwort, which they called _Lunaria minor_, or

Lesser Lunary, to extract sterling silver from Mercury. By wizards and

professors of necromancy no plant was held in greater repute, and its

potency is attested by many old writers. Gerarde refers to the use made

by the alchymists of this Fern in those mystic compounds over which

they pored night and day, and he also states that it was a plant prized

by witches, who called it Martagon. In Ben Jonson’s ‘Masque of Queens,’

a witch says to her companions:--

“And I ha’ been plucking plants among

Hemlock, Henbane, Adder’s-tongue;

Nightshade, Moonwort, Libbard’s-bane,

And twice by the dogs was like to be ta’en.”

Coles, referring to the mystical character of the Moonwort, observes:

“It is said, yea, and believed by many, that Moonwort will open the

locks, fetters, and shoes from those horses’ feet that goe on the

places where it groweth; and of this opinion was Master Culpeper, who,

though he railed against superstition in others, yet had enough of

it himselfe.” Du Bartas, in his ‘Divine Weekes,’ thus refers to this

superstition--

“Horses that, feeding on the grassie hills,

Tread upon Moonwort with their hollow heels,

Though lately shod, at night goe barefoot home,

Their maister musing where their shooes become.

O Moonwort! tell us where thou hidst the smith,

Hammer and pincers, thou unshodd’st them with.

Alas! what lock or iron engine is’t

That can thy subtill secret strength resist,

Sith the best farrier cannot set a shoe

So sure, but thou (so shortly) canst undo?”

Culpeper tell us that the Moonwort was a herb which, in his days,

was popularly believed to open locks and unshoe horses that trod on

it. “This,” he adds, “some laugh to scorn, and those no small fools

neither, but country people that I know call it Unshoe-the-Horse.

Besides, I have heard commanders say that on White Down, in Devonshire,

near Tiverton, there were found thirty horse-shoes, pulled off from the

Earl of Essex’s horses, being there drawn up in a body, many of them

being newly shod, and no reason known, which caused much admiration;

and the herb described usually grows upon the heaths.”--In Virginia,

the _Botrychium Lunaria_ is called the Rattle-snake Fern, because that

reptile shelters itself beneath its fronds.

=MOSS.=--The _Sifjar haddr_, or Hair Moss (_Polytrichum commune_),

which supplies the Lapp with bedding, is dedicated to Sif, the wife of

Thor. The _Supercilium Veneris_ is Freyja’s hair.--The good fairies

called by the Germans _Moosweibchen_ are represented as being entirely

covered with Moss. They live in the hollows of forest trees, or on the

soft Moss itself. These beneficent fairies of the forest spin soft

Moss of various kinds, which they weave into beautiful fabrics, and,

according to their custom, occasionally make handsome presents to

their protégés.----There is a legend that Oswald, King of Northumbria,

erected a certain cross, which, after his decease, acquired miraculous

properties. One day, a man who was walking across the ice towards

this venerated cross, suddenly fell and broke his arm; a friend who

was accompanying him, in dire distress at the mishap, hurried to the

cross, and plucked from it some Moss, which was growing on the surface.

Then, hastening back to his friend, he placed the Moss in his breast,

when the pain miraculously ceased, and the broken arm became set, and

was soon restored to use.----The _Bryum_ Moss, which grows all over

the walls of Jerusalem, is supposed to be the plant referred to by

Solomon as “the Hyssop that groweth out of the wall.”----According

to tradition, headache is to be removed by means of snuff made from

the Moss which grows on a human skull in a churchyard; and Gerarde

says that this Moss is “a singular remedie against the falling evill

and the chin-cough in children, if it be powdered, and then given

in sweet wine for certain daies together.” Robert Turner tells us of

this Moss that it is “a principal ingredient in the Weapon Salve; but

the receipt is, it should be taken from the skull of one who died a

violent death.”----The dust from the spore cases of Club-Moss is highly

inflammable, and is used in fireworks; it is the _Blitz-mehl_, or

lightning-meal, of the Germans. (See CLUB-MOSS.)

=MOSS ROSE.=--The country of the Moss Rose or Moss Provins Rose (_Rosa

Muscosa_) is unknown, but the origin of its mossy vest is thus given by

a German writer:--

“The angel of the flowers one day

Beneath a Rose-tree sleeping lay;

That spirit to whose charge is given

To bathe young buds in dews from heaven;

Awaking from his light repose,

The angel whispered to the Rose;

‘O fondest object of my care,

Still fairest found where all are fair,

For the sweet shade thou’st given to me

Ask what thou wilt, ’tis granted thee.’

‘Then’ said the Rose, with deepened glow,

‘On me another grace bestow:’

The spirit paused in silent thought

What grace was there that flower had not?

’Twas but a moment: o’er the Rose

A veil of Moss the angel throws,

And robed in Nature’s simplest weed,

Could then a flower that Rose exceed?”

The Moss Rose is one of the flowers specially plucked at the fall of

the dew on Midsummer Eve for the purposes of love divination. This

rite of rustic maidens is fully described in the poem of ‘The Cottage

Girl’:--

“The Moss Rose that, at fall of dew,

Ere eve its duskier curtain drew,

Was freshly gathered from its stem,

She values as the ruby gem;

And, guarded from the piercing air,

With all an anxious lover’s care,

She bids it, for her shepherd’s sake,

Await the New Year’s frolic wake:

When, faded, in its altered hue

She reads--the rustic is untrue!

But if its leaves the crimson paint,

Her sick’ning hopes no longer faint;

The Rose upon her bosom worn,

She meets him at the peep of morn.”

=MOTHERWORT.=--According to Parkinson, the Motherwort (_Leonurus

Cardiaca_) was so called from its being “of wonderful helpe to women

in the risings of the mother;” its name of _Cardiaca_ was given

because the herb was formerly noted for curing not only heartburn but

the mental disorder known as heart-ache.----In Japan, the Motherwort

is in great estimation. In bygone times it is related that to the

north of the province of Nanyo-no-rekken, there was a village situated

near a hill covered with Motherwort. At the foot of the hill, fed

by the dew and rains that trickled down its sides, ran a stream of

pure water, which formed the ordinary beverage of the villagers,

who generally lived till they had attained an age varying from a

hundred to a hundred and thirty years. Thus the people ascribe to the

Motherwort the property of prolonging life. At the Court of the Cairi,

the ecclesiastical potentate of Japan, it is a favourite amusement to

drink _zakki_, a kind of strong beer prepared from Motherwort-flowers.

The Japanese have five grand festivals in the course of the year. The

last, which takes place on the 9th of the 9th month, is called the

Festival of Motherwort; and the month itself is named _Kikousouki_,

or month of Motherwort-flowers. It was formerly the custom to gather

these flowers as soon as they had opened, and to mix them with boiled

rice, from which they prepared the _zakki_ used in celebrating the

festival. In the houses of the common people, instead of this beverage,

you find a branch of the flowers fastened with a string to a pitcher

full of common _zakki_, which implies that they wish one another a long

life. The origin of this festival is as follows:--An emperor of China

who succeeded to the throne at seven years of age, was disturbed by a

prediction that he would die before he attained the age of fifteen.

An immortal having brought to him, from Nanyo-no-rekken, a present of

some Motherwort-flowers, he caused _zakki_ to be made from them, which

he drank every day, and lived upwards of seventy years. This immortal

had been in his youth in the service of the Emperor, under the name of

Zido. Being banished for some misdemeanour, he took up his residence in

the valley before mentioned, drinking nothing but the water impregnated

with these flowers, and lived to the age of three hundred years, whence

he obtained the name of _Sien-nin-foso_.

=MOUSE-EAR.=--The plant now known as Forget-me-not, was formerly called

Mouse-Ear, from its small, soft, oval leaves. It is called _Herba

Clavorum_, because, according to tradition, it hinders the smith from

hurting horses when he is shoeing them.

=MULBERRY.=--According to tradition, the fruit of the Mulberry-tree was

originally white, but became empurpled by human blood. Referring to the

introduction of the Mulberry by the Greeks, Rapin writes:--

“Hence Pyramus and Thisbe’s mingled blood

On Mulberries their purple dye bestowed.

In Babylon the tale was told to prove

The fatal error of forbidden love.”

This tale of forbidden love is narrated at length by Ovid: Pyramus, a

youth of Babylon, and his neighbour, Thisbe, became mutually enamoured,

but were prohibited by their parents from marrying; they therefore

agreed to meet at the tomb of Ninus, under a white Mulberry-tree.

Thisbe reached the trysting-place first, but was compelled to seek

safety in a cave, owing to the arrival of a lioness, who besmeared with

blood a veil which the virgin dropped in her flight. Soon afterwards

Pyramus reached the spot, and finding the bloody veil, concluded that

Thisbe had been torn to pieces. Overcome with grief, he stabbed himself

with his sword; and Thisbe, shortly returning, and beholding her lover

in his death throes, threw herself upon the fatal weapon. With her last

breath she prayed that her ashes should be mingled with her lover’s in

one urn, and that the fruit of the white Mulberry-tree, under which the

tragedy occurred, should bear witness of their constancy by ever after

assuming the colour of their blood.

“The prayer which dying Thisbe had preferred

Both gods and parents with compassion heard.

The whiteness of the Mulberry soon fled,

And ripening, saddened in a dusky red;

While both their parents their lost children mourn,

And mix their ashes in one golden urn.”--_Eusden._

Lord Bacon tells us that in Calabria Manna falls upon the leaves

of Mulberry-trees during the night, from whence it is afterwards

collected.----Pliny called the Mulberry the wisest of trees, because it

is late in unfolding its leaves, and thus escapes the dangerous frosts

of early spring. To this day, in Gloucestershire, the country folks

have a saying that after the Mulberry-tree has shown its green leaves

there will be no more frost.----At Gioiosa, in Sicily, on the day of

St. Nicholas that saint is believed to bless the sea and the land,

and the populace sever a branch from a Mulberry-tree and preserve it

for one year as a branch of good augury.----In Germany, at Iserlohn,

the mothers, to deter the children from eating the Mulberries, sing

to them that the Devil requires them for the purpose of blacking his

boots.----According to Gerarde, “Hegesander, in _Athenæus_, affirmeth

that the Mulberry-tree in his time did not bring forth fruit in twenty

yeares together, and that so great a plague of the gout then raigned,

and raged so generally, as not onely men, but boies, wenches, eunuches,

and women were troubled with that disease.”----A Mulberry-tree, planted

by Milton in the garden of Christ’s College, Cambridge, has been

reverentially preserved by successive college gardeners. The Mulberry

planted by Shakspeare in Stratford-on-Avon was recklessly cut down in

1759; but ten years later, when the freedom of the town was presented

to Garrick, the document was enclosed in a casket made from the wood

of the tree. A cup was also wrought from it, and at the Shakspeare

Jubilee, Garrick, holding this cup aloft, sang the following lines

composed by himself:--

“Behold this fair goblet, ’twas carved from the tree

Which, O my sweet Shakspeare, was planted by thee;

As a relic I kiss it, and bow at the shrine;

What comes from thy hand must be ever divine!

All shall yield to the Mulberry-tree;

Bend to the blest Mulberry;

Matchless was he who planted thee;

And thou, like him, immortal shall be.”

To dream of Mulberries is of good import: they denote marriage,

many children, and all sorts of prosperity: they are particularly

favourable to sailors and farmers.----Among the hill tribes of Burmah,

the Mulberry-tree is regarded as sacred, and receives a kind of

worship.----A Chinese folk-lore tale records that in the Tse dynasty,

one Chang Ching, going out at night, saw a woman in the south corner

of his house. She beckoned him to come to her, and said: “This is your

honour’s Mulberry-ground, and I am a shên (fairy); if you will make

next year, in the middle of the first moon, some thick congee and

present it to me, I will engage to make your Mulberry-trees a hundred

times more productive.” Ching made the congee, and afterwards had

a great crop of silkworms. Hence came the Chinese custom of making

thickened congee on the fifteenth of the first month.

=MULLEIN.=--The Mullein (_Verbascum_) was formerly employed by

wizards and witches in their incantations. The plant is known as the

Flannel-flower from its stem and large leaves being covered with wool,

which is often plucked off for tinder. The Great Mullein (_V. Thapsus_)

was called by the old Romans _Candela regia_, and _Candelaria_,

because they used the stalks dipped in suet to burn at funerals, or

as torches; the modern Romans call the plant Light of the Lord. In

England, the White Mullein was termed Candle-week-flower; and the

Great Mullein’s tall tapering spikes of yellow flowers suggested, at a

period when candles were burnt in churches, the old names of Torches,

Hedge-taper, High-taper, and Hig-taper, which became corrupted into

Hag-taper, from a belief that witches employed the plant in working

their spells.----The little Moth Mullein (_V. Blattaria_) derives

its specific name from _blatta_, a cockroach, it being particularly

disliked by that troublesome insect. Gerarde explains its English

prefix by stating that moths and butterflies, and all other small

flies and bats, resort to the place where these herbs are laid or

strewed.----Mullein is known by country people as Bullock’s Lungwort, a

decoction of the leaves being considered very efficacious in cases of

cough: probably we are indebted to the Romans for this specific, for

they attributed extraordinary properties to the Mullein as a remedy for

coughs. (See also HAG-TAPER).

=MUGWORT.=--The old Latin name for this species of Wormwood was

_Artemisia, mater herbarum_; and, according to Gerarde, the plant was

so named after Artemisia, the wife of Mausolus, King of Caria, who

adopted it for her own herb.

“_That_ with the yellow crown, named from the queen

Who built the Mausoleum.”--_Smith’s ‘Amarynthus.’_

Other authorities say that _Artemisia_ is derived from Artemis, one of

the names of Diana, and that the plant was named after that goddess,

on account of its being used in bringing on precocious puberty. Among

the ancients, the Mugwort had a reputation for efficacy in the relief

of female disorders. It was also used for the purpose of incantations.

Pliny says that the wayfarer having this herb tied about him feels no

fatigue, and that he who hath it about him can be hurt by no poisonous

medicines, nor by any wild beast, nor even by the sun itself. Apuleius

adds that it drives away lurking devils and neutralises the effect of

the evil eye of men. The plant was also considered a charm against the

ague.--T--here is an old Scotch legend which tells how a mermaid of the

Firth of Clyde, upon seeing the funeral of a young girl who had died of

consumption, exclaimed--

“If they wad drink Nettles in March,

And eat Muggins [Mugwort] in May,

Sae mony braw maidens

Wad not go to clay.”

In Italy, there is still a superstitious custom extant of consulting

Mugwort as to the probable ending of an illness. Some leaves of Mugwort

are placed beneath the pillow of the patient without his knowledge. If

he falls asleep quickly, his recovery is certain: if he is unable to

sleep, it is a sign that he will die.----Mugwort is one of the plants

associated with St. John the Baptist, and is, indeed, called the Herb

of St. John in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Holland. There is

a curious superstition regarding it which is related by Lupton in his

‘Notable Things.’ He says:--“It is certainly commonly affirmed that, on

Midsummer Eve, there is found under the root of Mugwort a coal which

keeps safe from the plague, carbuncle, lightning, and the quartan ague,

them that bear the same about them: and Mizaldus, the writer hereof,

saith that it is to be found the same day under the root of Plantain,

which I know for a truth, for I have found them the same day under

the root of Plantain, which is especially and chiefly to be found at

noon.” Paul Barbette, writing in 1675, says, these coals were old

dead roots, and that it was a superstition that “old dead roots ought

to be pulled up on the Eve of St. John the Baptist, about twelve at

night.”----In some parts of England, girls pull a certain root which

grows under Mugwort, and which, they believe, if pulled exactly at

midnight, on the eve of St. John, and placed under the pillow, will

cause dreams of the future husband.----De Gubernatis tells us that, in

Sicily, on the eve of the Ascension, the women of Avola form crosses of

Mugwort, and place them on the roofs of their houses, believing that,

during the night, Jesus Christ, as He re-ascends to heaven, will bless

them. They preserve these crosses of Mugwort for a year. Placed in

stables, they are believed to possess the power of taming unmanageable

animals.----The same author gives the following legends:--In the

district of Starodubsk, Russia, on the day of the Exaltation of the

Cross, a young girl was searching for Mushrooms in a forest, when she

saw a number of serpents curled up. She endeavoured to retrace her

steps, but fell into a deep pit, which was the abode of the serpents.

The pit was dark, but at the bottom she found a luminous stone; the

serpents were hungry; the queen of the golden-horned serpents guided

them to the luminous stone, and the serpents licked it, and satisfied

their hunger; the young girl did the same, and remained in the pit

until Spring. On the arrival of Spring, the serpents interlaced

themselves in such a manner as to form a ladder on which the young

girl ascended to the mouth of the pit. But in taking her leave of the

queen of the serpents, she received, as a parting gift, the power of

understanding the language of plants, and of knowing their medicinal

properties, on the condition that she should never name the Mugwort, or

_Tchornobil_ (that which was black): if she pronounced that word, she

would forget all that she had come to know. The damsel soon understood

all that the plants talked about; but, one day, a man suddenly asked

her, “What is the plant which grows in the fields by the side of the

little footpaths?” Taken by surprise, the girl replied, _Tchornobil_;

and, at the same moment, all her knowledge forsook her. From that time,

it is said, the Mugwort obtained the additional name of _Zabytko_, or

the Herb of Forgetfulness.----In Little Russia, Mugwort has obtained

the name of _Bech_, which has a legendary etymology. The story goes,

that the Devil had, one day, offended his brother, the Cossack Sabba,

who took him and bound him, saying he should remain a prisoner until

he did him some great service. Soon afterwards, a troop of Poles

arrived in the neighbourhood, and began to make merry at a rustic

feast, leaving their horses to graze. The Cossack Sabba wished to seize

their horses, and promised the Devil his liberty if he would aid him

to accomplish his object. The Devil despatched certain demons to the

fields where the horses were feeding, who caused Mugwort to spring up.

As the horses trotted away, the plant moaned “_Bech_, _Bech_”: and now,

whenever a horse treads on the Mugwort, recollecting the horses of the

Poles, the plant always moans, “_Bech_, _Bech_”; hence, the name which

has been given to it in the Ukraine.----The Japanese manufactured a

kind of tinder, called Moxa, from the dried leaves of Mugwort, and,

according to Thunberg, twice in a year, men and women, young and old,

rich and poor, were indiscriminately burnt with it, either to prevent

disorders, or to cure rheumatism, &c.----Astrologers state that Mugwort

is a herb of Venus.

=MUSHROOM.=--On account of their apparently spontaneous generation,

Porphyrius calls Mushrooms sons of the gods.----In Indo-European

mythology, the Sun-hero is represented as sometimes hiding under a

Mushroom. He also appears as King of the Peas, and in a Russian legend,

in this capacity, gives battle to the Mushroom tribes.----In Wales,

the poisonous Mushroom is called _Bwyd Ellyllon_, or the meat of the

goblins.----In many parts of England it is believed that the changes of

the moon influence the growth of Mushrooms, and in Essex there is an

old saying that

“When the moon is at the full,

Mushrooms you may freely pull;

But when the moon is on the wane,

Wait ere you think to pluck again.”

There is an old belief that Mushrooms which grow near iron, copper, or

other metals, are poisonous; the same idea is found in the custom of

putting a piece of metal in the water used for boiling Mushrooms, in

order that it should attract and detach any poison from the Mushrooms,

and thus render them innocuous.----Bacon characterises Mushrooms as

“venereous meat,” but Gerarde remarks that “few of them are good to be

eaten, and most of them do suffocate and strangle the eater. Therefore,

I give my advice unto those that love such strange and new-fangled

meates, to beware of licking honey among thornes, least the sweetnesse

of the one do not countervaile the sharpnesse and pricking of the

other.”----The Burman, if he comes across Mushrooms at the beginning

of a journey, considers it as a most fortunate omen.----Dream oracles

state that Mushrooms forbode fleeting happiness; and that to dream of

gathering them indicates a lack of attachment on the part of lover or

consort.

=MUSTARD.=--Among the Jews, “Small as a grain of Mustard-seed” was a

common comparison; and our Saviour referred to it as being “the least

of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs,

and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in

the branches thereof” (Matthew xiii., 31, 32). The Mustard-tree here

alluded to is not, however, the English Mustard (_Sinapis nigra_), but

a tree called by the Arabs _Khardal_ (_Salvadora Persica_), a tree with

numerous branches, among which birds may take shelter, while the seed

is exceedingly small. In the north-west of India, this plant is known

as _Kharjal_.----One of the Sanscrit names given to the Mustard-tree

is the She-devil or Witch. By means of the seed the Hindus discover

witches. During the night they light lamps and fill certain vessels

with water, into which they gently drop Mustard-seed oil, pronouncing

the while the name of every woman in the village. If, during this

ceremony, as they pronounce the name of a woman, they notice the

shadow of a female in the water, it is a sure sign that such woman is

a witch.----In India, the Mustard-seed symbolises generation: thus, in

the Hindu myth of the ‘Rose of Bakawali,’ the king of Ceylon destroys

the temple in which the nymph Bakawali is incarcerated; having been

condemned by Indra to remain there transformed into marble for the

space of twelve years. A husbandman ploughs over the site of this

temple, and sows a Mustard-seed. In course of time the Mustard ripens,

is gathered, pressed, boiled, and the oil extracted. According to the

custom of his class, the husbandman first tastes it, and then his wife:

immediately she, who before had been childless, conceives, and nine

months afterwards gives to the world a daughter (Bakawali), beauteous

as a fairy.

=MYROBALAN.=--The Myrobalan Plum-tree produces a fruit similar to a

Cherry, but containing only a juice of so disagreeable a flavour that

the very birds refuse to feed upon it: the fruit, however, is much

employed in Indian medicines. According to Hindu tradition, the wife

of Somaçarman struck twice with a wand a Myrobalan-tree, whereupon

the tree rose from the earth with her, and carrying her away, at last

placed her on a golden hill in a golden town.

=MYRRH.=--Myrrh is an exudation from the tree _Balsamodendron Myrrha_;

but the precious resin was held by the ancients to have been first

produced by the tears of Myrrha, daughter of Cinyras, King of Cyprus,

and mother of Adonis. Flying from the avenging sword of her father,

for whom she had conceived an incestuous passion, the guilty Myrrha,

after long and weary wanderings, reached the Arabian continent, and at

length, in the Sabæan fields, overcome with fatigue and the misery of

her situation, prayed with her dying breath to the gods to accept her

penitence and to bestow upon her, as a punishment for her sin, a middle

state “betwixt the realms above and those below.” “Some other form,”

cries she, “to wretched Myrrha give, nor let her wholly die, nor wholly

live.”

“The prayers of penitents are never vain;

At least she did her last request obtain.

For while she spake the ground began to rise

And gathered round her feet, her legs, and thighs;

Her toes in roots descend, and, spreading wide,

A firm foundation for the trunk provide:

Her solid bones convert to solid wood,

To pith her marrow, and to sap her blood:

Her arms are boughs, her fingers change their kind,

Her tender skin is hardened into rind.

And now the rising tree her womb invests,

Now, shooting upwards still, invades her breasts

And shades her neck; when, weary with delay,

She sunk her head within, and met it half the way.

And though with outward shape she lost her sense,

With bitter tears she wept her last offence;

And still she weeps, nor sheds her tears in vain,

For still the precious drops her name retain.”--_Dryden._

Myrrh is one of the ingredients of the sacred ointment or oil of the

Jews, with which were anointed the Tabernacle, the Ark, the altars,

and the sacred vessels (Exodus xxx.) It was also used to consecrate

Aaron and his sons. The purification of women, as ordained by the

Jewish law, lasted one year; the first six months being accomplished

with oil of Myrrh, and the rest with other sweet odours. After our

Lord’s death, Nicodemus brought a mixture of Myrrh and Aloes, about

an hundred pounds weight, that his body might be embalmed.----Myrrh

formed part of the celebrated _Kuphi_ of the Egyptians--a preparation

used in fumigations and embalmings. At the _fête_ of Isis, which was

celebrated with great magnificence, they sacrificed an ox filled with

Myrrh and other aromatics. This ancient people delighted in displays of

perfumes: in a religious procession which took place under one of the

Ptolemies, marched one hundred and twenty children, carrying incense,

Myrrh, and Saffron in golden basins, followed by a number of camels

bearing precious aromatics.----At Heliopolis, the city of the sun,

where the great luminary was worshipped under the name of Re, incense

was burnt to him thrice a day,--resin at his rising, Myrrh when in

the meridian, and the compound called _Kuphi_ at his setting. In the

temples of Isis similar rites were observed. According to Herodotus,

powdered Myrrh formed one of the principal ingredients inserted in the

bodies of mummies.----The Persian kings usually wore on their heads

crowns composed of Myrrh and Labyzus.----In mediæval times, it was

customary for the king to make an oblation on Twelfth Day. In pursuance

of this custom, we read that so late as 1762 George III. made the usual

offering at the Chapel Royal, of gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh--the

gifts of the Magi, offered to the infant Saviour at Bethlehem; the gold

typifying king; Frankincense, God; and Myrrh, man.

=MYRTLE.=--The father, mother, and brothers of Myrene, a beautiful

Grecian, were murdered by robbers, who despoiled their home, and

carried Myrene away. She escaped, however, and on her return was made

a priestess of Venus. On the occasion of a festival, she discovered

one of the assassins of her family, who was seized, and disclosed

the hiding-place of his confederates. Myrene’s lover promised that,

if she would yield him her hand, he would bring the rest of the band

to punishment. He was successful, and received his promised reward;

but Venus, offended at being deprived of her favourite priestess,

caused the bridegroom to expire suddenly, and changed the bride into

the Myrtle, which she ordained, as a proof of her affection, should

continue green and odoriferous throughout the year. The Myrtle became,

therefore, an especial favourite with Venus. Reputed to possess the

virtue not only of creating love, but of preserving it, it was,

both by the Greeks and Romans, considered symbolic of love, and was

appropriately consecrated to Venus, the goddess of love, around whose

temples groves of Myrtle were planted. It was behind a Myrtle-bush

in the island of Cythera, that Venus sought shelter when disturbed

at her bath by a band of Satyrs; with Myrtle she caused Psyche to be

chastised for daring to compare her charms with the heaven-born beauty

of her mother-in-law; and with Myrtle the goddess selected to deck her

lovely brows when Paris adjudged to her the golden Apple--the prize

for supremacy of beauty: hence the shrub was deemed odious to Juno and

Minerva. Because she presided over the Myrtle, Venus was worshipped

under the name of Myrtea, and had a temple dedicated to her under

that appellation at the foot of Mount Aventine. It is probable that

the Myrtle was dedicated to Venus because of its fondness for the

sea--from the foam of which the goddess sprang, and was wafted by the

Zephyrs to the shore, where she was received by the Horæ, and crowned

with Myrtle. Myrtle chaplets were worn by her attendants, the Graces,

and by her votaries when sacrificing to her. During her festivals in

April, married couples (her protégés) were decked with Myrtle wreaths.

The Myrtle of which the nuptial crowns were composed was the _Myrtus

latifolia_ of Pliny, called by Cato _Myrtus conjugula_.----The Myrtle

was adopted by Minerva and Mars; the priests of the latter deity being

sometimes crowned with it. The plant was also associated with Hymen,

the son of Venus, and the Muse Erato, whose chaplet was composed

of Roses and Myrtle. It sometimes symbolised unchaste love. In the

festivals of Myrrha, the incestuous mother of Adonis, the married

women crowned themselves with Myrtle. Virgil represents the victims

of love in the infernal regions hiding themselves behind bunches of

Myrtle. At the festival of the Bona Dea at Rome, where all other

flowers and shrubs might be used, Myrtle was forbidden to be placed

on the altar, because it encouraged sensual gratification.----The

Greeks were extremely partial to the Myrtle. At their most sacred

festival, the Eleusinian mysteries, the initiates, as well as the

high priest, who officiated at the altar of Ceres, were crowned with

Myrtle. The Athenian magistrates wore chaplets of the fragrant shrub

in token of their authority; and bloodless victors entwined Myrtle

with their Laurel wreaths. When Aristogiton and Harmodius set forth

to free their country from the tyranny of the Pisistratidæ, their

swords were wreathed with Myrtle.----With the Romans, the Myrtle was a

highly-esteemed plant, and invariably expressive of triumph and joy. It

also symbolised festivity, and, when steeped in wine, was supposed to

impart to it invigorating qualities. On the 1st of April, Roman ladies,

after bathing beneath the Myrtle-trees, crowned themselves with the

leaves, and proceeded to the shrine of Venus to offer sacrifice. The

Roman bridegroom decked himself with Myrtle on his bridal day; and the

hero wore it as a badge of victory, and sometimes interweaved it with

Laurel in honour of Venus and Mars. When the Romans fought to guard the

captured Sabine women, they wore chaplets of Myrtle on their heads,

and, according to Pliny, after the combatants had at length become

reconciled, they laid down their weapons under a Myrtle, and purified

themselves with its boughs. The tree was sacred to the Sabine Mars

Quirinus; and two Myrtles stood before his temple, as two Laurels stood

before the temple of the Roman Mars, symbolising the union of the Roman

and Sabine peoples.----The Romans crowned themselves with Myrtle after

a victory, but only when blood had not been shed.----Pliny relates that

Romulus planted in Rome two Myrtles, one of which became the favourite

of the patricians, the other of the people. When the nobles won, the

people’s Myrtle drooped; when, on the other hand, the people were

victorious, the patricians’ Myrtle withered. As a charm to ensure a

successful journey, Roman pedestrians were accustomed to procure and

wear a Myrtle wreath.----At Temnos, in Asia Minor, there is a statue

in Myrtle-wood consecrated by Pelops to Venus, as a thank-offering for

his marriage with Hippodamia. After the death of Hippolytus, Phædra,

maddened with passionate grief, pricked innumerable small holes in the

leaves of a Myrtle with a hair-pin. The geographer Pausanias states

that this Myrtle was in his time to be seen near the tomb of Phædra

at Trœzen.----The same writer relates that a Myrtle which had been

the hiding place of a hare was selected by Diana to mark the site of

a new city.----With the Jews, the Myrtle is a symbol of peace, and is

often so referred to in the Old Testament, notably by Nehemiah and

the prophets Zechariah and Isaiah. A variety, called the Broad-leaved

Jew’s Myrtle, is held in especial veneration, and is frequently used

in Hebrew religious ceremonies. Branches of this and other Evergreens

are used in the erection of their tents at the Feast of Tabernacles.

At Aleppo, these tabernacles are made by fastening to the corner of a

wooden divan four slender posts as supports to a diaper-work of green

Reeds on all sides, leaving only a space in front for the entrance,

which on the outside is covered with fresh Myrtle. Jewish maidens were

wont to be decked with a bridal wreath of Myrtle; but this wreath

was never worn by a widow, or by divorced women. This custom is

still retained in Germany, where the bride is adorned with a Myrtle

wreath.----The Oriental nations are extremely partial to the Myrtle,

and there is a tradition among the Arabs that, when Adam was expelled

from Paradise, he brought the Myrtle with him, as being the choicest of

fragrant flowers.----It is a popular belief in Somersetshire, that, in

order to ensure its taking root, it is necessary when planting a sprig

of Myrtle, to spread the skirt of your garment, and to look proud. In

the same county, there is a saying that “the flowering Myrtle is the

luckiest plant to have in your window, water it every morning, and be

proud of it.”----In Greece, there is a superstitious notion that no one

should pass near an odoriferous Myrtle without gathering a perfumed

bunch; indifference to the attractions of Myrtle being considered a

sign of impotence and death.----In the allegories of Azz Eddin, the

Rose says that the Myrtle is the prince of odoriferous plants.----Rapin

calls the Myrtle “of celestial race,” and in his poem has the

following lines on it:--

“When once, as Fame reports, the Queen of Love

In Ida’s valley raised a Myrtle grove,

Young wanton Cupids danced a summer’s night

Round the sweet place by Cynthia’s silver light.

Venus this charming green alone prefers,

And this of all the verdant kind is hers:

Hence the bride’s brow with Myrtle wreaths is graced,

When the long-wished-for night is come at last;

And Juno (queen of nuptial mysteries)

Makes all her torches of these fragrant trees.

Hence in Elysian fields are Myrtles said

To favour lovers with their friendly shade,

There Phædra, Procris (ancient poets feign),

And Eriphyle still of love complain,

Whose unextinguished flames e’en after death remain.

Nor is this all the honour Myrtles claim:

When from the Sabine war Tudertus came,

He wreathed his temples from the Myrtle grove,

Sacred to Triumph as before to Love.”

To dream of seeing a fine Myrtle portends many lovers and a legacy. If

a married person dreams of Myrtle, it prognosticates a second marriage.

A similar dream for the second time portends a second marriage to

a person who has also been married before. Myrtle seen in a dream

denotes, as a rule, a numerous family, wealth, and old age.

=NARCISSUS.=--The white, or Poet’s, Narcissus owes its origin to a

beautiful youth of Bœotia, of whom it had been foretold he should

live happily until he beheld his own face. Caressed and petted by the

Nymphs, and passionately loved by the unhappy Echo, he slighted and

rejected their advances; but one day, when heated by the chase, he

stopped to quench his thirst in a stream, and in so doing beheld the

reflection of his own lovely features. Enamoured instantly of his own

beauty, he became spell-bound to the spot, where he pined to death.

Ovid relates how the flower known by his name sprang from the corpse of

Narcissus:--

“As wax dissolves, as ice begins to run,

And trickle into drops before the sun,

So melts the youth, and languishes away;

His beauty withers, and his limbs decay;

And none of those attractive charms remain,

To which the slighted Echo sued in vain.

She saw him in his present misery,

Whom, spite of all her wrongs, she grieved to see;

She answered sadly to the lover’s moan,

Sighed back his sighs, and groaned to every groan.

‘Ah, youth belov’d in vain!’ Narcissus cries;

‘Ah, youth beloved in vain!’ the Nymph replies.

‘Farewell!’ says he;--the parting sound scarce fell

From his faint lips but she replied, ‘Farewell!’

Then on th’ unwholesome earth he gasping lies,

Till death shuts up those self-admiring eyes.

To the cold shades his flitting ghost retires,

And in the Stygian waves itself admires.

For him the Naiads and the Dryads mourn,

Whom the sad Echo answers in her turn.

And now the sister-nymphs prepare his urn;

When, looking for his corpse, they only found

A rising stalk, with yellow blossoms crown’d.”--_Addison._

The cup in the centre of the flower is fabled to contain the tears of

Narcissus. Virgil alludes to this (Georgic IV.) when, in speaking of

the occupations of bees, he says: “Some place within the house the

tears of Narcissus.” Milton also refers to this fancy in the following

lines, when introducing the Narcissus under its old English name of

Daffodil:--

“Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed,

And Daffodillies fill their cups with tears,

To strew the laureat hearse where Lycid lies.”

The Daffodil is supposed to be one of the flowers which Proserpine

was gathering when she was seized and carried off by Pluto (Dis). The

Earth, at the instigation of Jupiter, had brought forth the lovely

blossom for a lure to the unsuspecting maid. An old Greek hymn contains

the tale:--

“In Sicilia’s ever-blooming shade,

When playful Proserpine from Ceres strayed,

Led with unwary step, the virgin train

O’er Ætna’s steeps and Enna’s flow’ry plain

Pluck’d with fair hand the silver-blossom’d bower,

And purpled mead,--herself a fairer flower;

Sudden, unseen, amidst the twilight glade,

Rushed gloomy Dis, and seized the trembling maid.”

Shakspeare, in ‘A Winter’s Tale,’ alludes to the same story:--

“O Proserpina,

For the flowers now that, frightened, thou let’st fall,

From Dis’s waggon! Daffodils

That come before the swallow dares, and take

The winds of March with beauty.”

Other accounts of a similar legend, slightly varied, state that it

was at the instigation of Venus that Pluto employed the Narcissus to

entice Proserpine to the lower world.----Ancient writers referred to

the Narcissus as the flower of deceit, on account of its narcotic

properties; for although, as Homer assures us, it delights heaven and

earth by its odour and beauty, yet, at the same time, it produces

stupor, madness, and even death.----It was consecrated both to Ceres

and Proserpine, on which account Sophocles poetically alludes to

it as the garland of the great goddesses. “And ever, day by day,

the Narcissus, with its beauteous clusters, the ancient coronet of

the ‘mighty goddesses,’ bursts into bloom by heaven’s dew” (_Œdipus

Coloneus_).----The Fates wore wreaths of the Narcissus, and the Greeks

twined the white stars of the odorous blossoms among the tangled locks

of the Eumenides. A crown composed of these flowers was wont to be

woven in honour of the infernal gods, and placed upon the heads of the

dead.----The Narcissus is essentially the flower of Lent; but when

mixed with the Yew, which is symbolical of the Resurrection, it becomes

a suitable decoration for Easter:--

“See that there be stores of Lilies,

Called by shepherds Daffodillies.”--_Drayton._

Herrick, Shakspeare, Milton, Wordsworth, all sing the praises of

the Narcissus, or Lent Lily, the Daffodil and Daffadowndily of our

forefathers,--names which they formed from the still older one of

Affodilly, a corruption of _Asphodelus_.

=NASTURTIUM.=--According to Rapin, the Nasturtium was once a young

Trojan huntsman; but the Jesuit poet gives no details of the

metamorphosis, merely stating that

“Shield-like Nasturtium, too, confusedly spread,

With intermingling Trefoil fills each bed--

Once graceful youths; this last a Grecian swain,

The first an huntsman on the Trojan plain.”

The shield-like form of the Nasturtium’s leaves and its

curiously-shaped flowers, which resemble golden helmets, have obtained

for the plant the Latin name of “_Tropæolum_” (trophy). Its old English

names were Yellow Lark’s-heels and Indian Cress.----The seed of the

Nasturtium, according to Macer Floridus, possess a great power to repel

serpents.----Linnæus has recorded that his daughter Elizabeth Christina

observed the flowers of the Nasturtium emit spontaneously, at certain

intervals, sparks like electric ones, visible only in the evening.

=NEEM.=--The Neem-tree (_Azardirachta Indica_) is considered by the

Indians a sacred tree, and is described by their poets as the type of

everything bitter. Its bark is used as a substitute for Cinchona in

cases of fevers.

=NELUMBO.=--The Nelumbo, Sacred Lotus, or Padma (_Nelumbium

speciosum_), was the Sacred Bean of Egypt, the Rose Lily of the

Nile spoken of by Herodotus. The beauty of its blossoms, which are

sometimes of a brilliant red colour, but rarely white, hanging over

broad peltated leaves considerably above the surface of the water,

render this the most lovely and graceful of all the Water Lilies; and

at the same time it is the most interesting on account of its remote

historical associations. Four thousand years ago the Nelumbo was the

emblem of sanctity in Egypt amongst the priests of a religion long

since defunct; and the plant itself has long been extinct in that

country, though in India and China the flowers are held especially

sacred, and the plant is commonly cultivated. The Chinese call this

sacred flower the _Lien-wha_, and prize it above all others. Celebrated

for its beauty by their poets, and ranked for its virtues among the

plants which, according to Chinese theology, enter into the beverage of

immortality, this _Lien-wha_ is to the Chinese what the Gul or Rose is

to the Persians; and a moonlight excursion on a tranquil river covered

with its yellow blossoms is numbered by the inhabitants of the Flowery

Land among the supreme delights of mortal existence. (See also LOTUS

and NYMPHÆA).

=NETTLE.=--The Nettle is one of the five plants which are stated by

the Mishna to be the “bitter herbs” ordered to be partaken of by the

Jews at the Feast of the Passover.----In Ireland, the Nettle of Timor

is known as _Daoun Setan_, or the Devil’s Apron; and in the southern

parts of the island it is a common practice for schoolboys, once a

year, to consider themselves privileged to run wildly about with a

bunch of Nettles, striking at the face and hands of their companions

or of such other persons as they fancy they may venture to assault

with impunity.----The Roman Nettle (_Urtica pilulifera_) is the most

venomous of British Nettles, and is found abundantly about Romney, in

Kent, where, according to Camden, the Roman soldiers brought the seed

with them, and sowed it for their own use, to rub and chafe their limbs

when, through extreme cold, they should be stiff and benumbed; having

been told before they came from home that the climate of England was

so cold that it was not to be endured without having recourse to some

friction to warm their blood and to stir up natural heat.----Among

the various remedies once prescribed for the “trembling fever,” or

ague, by Catherine Oswald, a noted herbalist, was one which related

to plucking up a Nettle by the root three successive mornings before

sunrise. In bygone times, Nettle and Milfoil carried about the person

used to be believed to drive away fear, and to be a certain charm

against malignant spirits.----The Scotch say that to cure the sting of

a Nettle, the person stung must rub the leaves of a Dock over the part

affected, repeating at the same time: “Nettle in, Dock out; Dock rub

Nettle out.” This charm was known to Chaucer, who uses it as a common

saying, implying lovers’ inconstancy, in ‘Troilus and Cresside’:--

“But canst thou playen racket to and fro,

Nettle in, Dock out, now this, now that, Pandure?”

In German mythology, the Nettle was consecrated to the god Thor.----In

the Tyrol, during thunderstorms, the mountaineers throw Nettles on the

fire to avert danger, and more especially to guard themselves from

lightning; this custom also prevails in some parts of Italy.----In

Germany, there exists a superstition that Nettles gathered before

sunrise will drive away evil spirits from cattle.----The god Thor was,

among the ancient Germans, regarded as the guardian deity of marriage;

hence it is, perhaps, that in Germany Nettle-seed is believed to excite

the passions and to facilitate births.----In dream lore, to fancy you

are stung by Nettles indicates vexation and disappointment; to dream of

gathering Nettles denotes that someone has formed a favourable opinion

of you; and if the dreamer be married, then that the domestic circle

will be blessed with concord and harmony.----Astrologers place Nettles

under the dominion of Mars.