Herb, is a plant of ill omen, and one of which witches are reported
to be fond: it is so poisonous in its nature, that Gerarde says: “If
you will follow my counsell, deale not with the same in any case, and
banish it from your gardens, and the use of it also, being a plant so
furious and deadly; for it bringeth such as have eaten thereof into a
dead sleepe, wherein many have died.” Buchanan relates that the Scots,
under Macbeth, being desirous of poisoning the Danes, treacherously
took the opportunity, during a period of truce, to mix the poisonous
Nightshade with the beer with which they had agreed to supply them.
Thus stupefied, Sweno’s army slept soundly, and the Scots, falling
upon their enemies, destroyed them in their helplessness.----According
to Gassendi, a shepherd in Provence produced visions and prophesied,
through the use of Deadly Nightshade.----The Nightshade (_Solanum
Dulcamara_) has poisonous red berries; but the root and leaves have
been applied to several medicinal uses.----The Vale of Furness,
Lancashire, is still known by the name of Valley of Nightshade, on
account of the plant being exceedingly plentiful there. Sprigs of
Nightshade appeared on the ancient seals of the Abbey.
=NIMBU.=--The Nimbu (_Melia Azedarach_) is a native of the warm parts
of Asia, and bears a variety of names in different countries, such as
the Holy Tree, Pride of India, Bead Tree (in allusion to the seeds
being strung for chaplets), Persian Lilac, and Hill Margosa. Bishop
Heber saw it in India, and states that the natives have a profound
reverence for the tree, which they believe has the power to ward off
witchcraft and the Evil Eye.
=NIPA PALM.=--The Nipa, or Susa (_Nipa fruticans_), is the sacred tree
of Borneo, and is the most valuable of all growing things to the Dyaks
of that country. The seeds, it is recorded, lie dormant in the fruit
several years before germination, when the fruit becomes detached from
the plant and is floated off by the tide to establish itself on some
other mudbank. This plant only grows where fever and Mangroves flourish.
NONE-SO-PRETTY, or NANCY-PRETTY.--See London Pride.
NOSEBLEED.--See Yarrow.
=NUTMEGS.=--In the Middle Ages, a curious belief existed that Nutmegs,
Cloves, Cinnamon, and Ginger all grew on the same tree.----The strength
of the Nutmeg in the season is said so to overcome the birds of
Paradise, that they fall helplessly intoxicated.----To dream of Nutmegs
is stated to be a sign of many impending changes.
=NUTS.=--When the Scandinavian god Loki, transformed into a falcon,
rescued Idhunn, the goddess of youthful life, from the power of the
Frost-giants, it was in the shape of a Hazel-nut that he carried her
off in his beak.----The Hazel was sacred to Thor, and was in olden
times regarded as an actual embodiment of lightning: hence it possessed
great virtue as a promoter of fruitfulness, and Hazel-nuts became a
favourite medium in divinations relating to love and marriage.----In
old Rome, Nuts were scattered at marriages, as they are now in Italy
and in Altmark.----In Westphalia and other parts of Germany, a few
Nuts are mixed with the seed-corn to act as a charm in making it
prolific.----In Hertfordshire and other parts of England, as well as in
Germany, a certain relation is believed to exist between the produce of
the Hazel-bushes and the increase of the population; a good Nut year
always bringing an abundance of babies. In Westphalia, the proverb
runs, “Plenty of Nuts, plenty of babies.”----Brand says it is a custom
in Iceland, when a maiden would know if her lover is faithful, to put
three Nuts upon the bar of a grate, naming them after her lover and
herself. If a Nut crack or jump, the lover will prove faithless; if it
begin to blaze or burn, it is a sign of the fervour of his affection.
If the Nuts named after the girl and her swain burn together, they
will be married. This divination is still practised in Scotland on
Hallowe’en, whose mysterious rites Burns has immortalised in his poem,
containing these lines:--
“Some merry friendly countree folks
Together did convene
To burn their Nits and pu’ their stocks,
And haud their Hallowe’en,
Fu’ blithe that night.”
A similar custom has for years existed in Ireland; and Gray, long
before Burns, had evidenced that the superstitions of Hallowe’en or
Nutcrack Night (October 31st) were known and practised in England, as
thus--
“Two Hazel-nuts I threw into the flame,
And to each Nut I gave a sweetheart’s name.
This with the loudest bounce me sore amazed,
That with a flame of brightest colour blazed.
As blazed the Nut, so may thy passion grow;
For ’twas _thy_ Nut that did so brightly glow.”
In Bohemia, on Christmas Eve, girls fix coloured wax lights in the
shells of the first parcel of Nuts they have opened that day, light
them all at the same time, and set them floating in the water, after
mentally giving to each the name of a wooer. He whose lighted bark
first approaches the girl will be her future husband. If an unwelcome
suitor seems likely to be first in, the girl endeavours to retard the
shell by blowing against it, and by this means the favourite’s bark
usually wins. Should, however, one of the lights be perchance blown
out, it is accounted a portent of death.----The instrument used by the
nutter in robbing the Hazel of its fruit seems to have been formerly
regarded as opprobrious, and as suggestive of a thief: thus, in the
‘Merry Wives of Windsor,’ Nym says: “If you run the Nut-hook’s humour
on me,” or, in other words, “If you call me a thief.” Again, in ‘Henry
IV.,’ Part II., Doll Tearsheet cries out to the beadle: “Nut-hook,
Nut-hook, you lie!”----In Sussex, there is a proverb current: “As black
as the De’il’s nutting bag;” and it is held to be dangerous to go out
nutting on Sunday, for fear of meeting the Evil One, who haunts the
Nut-bushes, and sometimes appears to nutters in friendly guise, and
holds down the branches for them to strip.----In bygone times, it was
believed that a spirit of a weird and sinister character inhabited a
Nut-grove.----There is a superstition that the ashes of the shells of
Hazel-nuts have merely to be applied to the back of a child’s head to
ensure the colour of the iris in the infant’s eyes turning from grey
to black.----In Germany, Nuts are placed in tombs, as being emblematic
of regeneration and immortality. Searchers in the old tombs of
Wurtemburg sometimes found Pumpkins and Walnuts, but always a number of
Nuts.----In some countries, Hazel-nuts are supposed to be endowed with
the power of discovering or attracting wealth. Thus, in Russia, there
is a belief that anyone carrying a Nut in his house will make money;
and on this account many of the Russian peasantry invariably carry a
double Nut in their purses. In fairy tales, we often find good fairies
using Nuts as their carriages: as, in ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ Mercutio
speaks of Queen Mab arriving in a Nut-shell.----There is a legend that
St. Agatha every year crosses the sea from Catania to Gallipoli on a
Nut-shell, which she employs as a boat.----Authorities on the subject
say that to dream that you see Nut-trees, and that you crack and eat
their fruit, signifies riches and content gained with toil and pain.
Clusters of Nuts imply happiness and success: to dream of gathering
Nuts is a bad omen; and to dream of finding Nuts that have been hid
signifies the discovery of treasure.
=NYMPHÆA.=--The _Nymphæa cœrulea_ is the Lily of the Nile, the Lotus
of ancient Egypt; but not the Sacred Bean, which was the _Nelumbium
speciosum_. (See LOTUS and NELUMBO).----According to German tradition,
the Undines often conceal themselves from mortal gaze under the form of
Nymphæas.----This beautiful Water-lily was deemed by the Frisians to
have a magical power. Dr. Halbertsma has stated that, when a boy, he
remembers people were extremely careful in plucking and handling them;
for if anyone fell with such a flower in his possession, he became
immediately subject to fits.----The Wallachians have a superstition
that every flower has a soul, and that the Water-lily is the sinless
and scentless flower of the lake, which blossoms at the gates of
Paradise to judge the rest, and that she will enquire strictly what
they have done with their odours.
=OAK.=--Rapin tells us that among the ancients there were many
conjectural reports as to the origin of the Oak, and the country which
first knew the sacred tree: but the popular tradition which met with
most credence, he considers, was as follows:--
“When Jupiter the world’s foundation laid,
Great earth-born giants heaven did invade;
And Jove himself--when these he did subdue--
His lightning on the factious brethren threw.
Tellus her sons’ misfortunes does deplore,
And while she cherishes the yet-warm gore
Of Rhœcus, from his monstrous body grows
A vaster trunk, and from his breast arose
A harden’d Oak; his shoulders are the same,
And Oak his high exalted head became.
His hundred arms, which lately through the air
Were spread, now to as many boughs repair.
A sevenfold bark his now stiff trunk does bind;
And where the giant stood a tree we find.
The earth to Jove straight consecrates this tree,
Appeasing so his injured deity.
Thus Oaks grew sacred, in whose shelter plac’d,
The first good men enjoy’d their Acorn feast.”
To do full justice to the legendary lore connected with the Oak, it
would be necessary to devote a volume to the subject: the largest,
strongest, and as some say, the most useful of the trees of Europe, it
has been generally recognised as the king of the forest,
“Lord of the woods, the long-surviving Oak.”
An emblem of majesty and strength, the Oak has been revered as a symbol
of God by almost all the nations of heathendom, and by the Jewish
patriarchs. It was underneath the Oaks of Mamre that Abraham dwelt a
long time, and there he erected an altar to the Lord, and there he
received the three angels. It was underneath an Oak that Jacob hid the
idols of his children, for this tree was held sacred and inviolable
(Gen. xxxv., 2-4). Under the “Oak of weeping,” the venerable Deborah,
Rebekah’s nurse, was interred. The messenger of the Lord that appeared
to Gideon sat beneath an Oak; and it was a branch of one of these
trees that caught the flowing hair of Absalom, and so caused the death
of King David’s beloved son. The Oaks of Bashan are several times
mentioned in the Bible, and in the sacred volume we are informed that
the Israelites worshipped and offered sacrifices beneath the shadow of
Oaks which they considered as sacred (Hosea iv., 13; Ezekiel vi., 13;
Isaiah i., 29).
The ancient Greeks attributed the deluge of Bœotia to the quarrels
between Jupiter and Juno. After the rain had ceased and the water
subsided, an oaken statue became visible, erected, it is supposed,
as a symbol of the peace concluded between the king of the gods and
his consort. The Oak was thought by the Greeks to have been the first
tree that grew on the earth, and to have yielded for man Acorns and
honey, to ensure nourishment and fecundity. They called it, indeed,
the mother-tree, and they regarded it as a tree from which the human
race had originally sprung--a belief, shared by the Romans, for we find
Virgil speaking
“Of nymphs and fauns, and savage men, who took
Their birth from trunks of trees and stubborn Oak.”
Acorns were the first food of man, and there is an old Greek proverb
in which a man’s age and experience are expressed by saying that he
had eaten of Jove’s Acorns. Some of the classic authors speak of the
fatness of the earliest inhabitants of Greece and Southern Europe,
who, living in the primeval forests, were supported almost wholly upon
the fruit of the Oak; these primitive people were called _Balanophagi_
(eaters of Acorns).
Homer mentions people entering into compacts under Oaks as places of
security, for the tree was highly reverenced by the Greeks, and held a
prominent place in their religious and other ceremonies. The Arcadians
believed that by stirring with an Oak-branch the waters of a fountain
near a temple of Jupiter, on Mount Lycius, rain could be caused to
fall. The Fates and Hecate were crowned with Oak-leaves; and a chaplet
of Oak adorned the brow of the Dodonæan Jove.
The Pelasgic oracle of Jupiter, or Zeus, at Dodona, was situated at
the foot of Mount Tamarus, in a wood of Oaks, and the answers were
given by an aged woman, called Pelias: and as _pelias_, in the Attic
dialect, means dove, the fable arose that the doves prophesied in the
Oak groves of Dodona. Respecting the origin of this oracle, Herodotus
narrates that two priestesses of Egyptian Thebes were carried away by
Phœnician merchants: one of these was conveyed to Libya, where she
founded the oracle of Jupiter Ammon; the other to Greece. The latter
remained in the Dodonæan wood, which was much frequented on account
of the Acorns. There she had a temple built at the foot of an Oak in
honour of Jupiter, whose priestess she had been in Thebes, and here
afterwards the oracle was founded. This far-spreading speaking Oak was
a lofty and beautiful tree, with evergreen leaves and sweet edible
Acorns (the first sustenance of mankind). The Pelasgi regarded this
tree as the tree of life. In it the god was supposed to reside, and the
rustling of its leaves and the voices of birds showed his presence.
When the questioners entered, the Oak rustled, and the Peliades
said, “Thus speaks Zeus.” Incense was burned beneath the tree, and
sacred doves continually inhabited it; and at its foot a cold spring
gushed, as it were, from its roots, and from its murmur the inspired
priestesses prophesied. The ship Argo having been built with the wood
of trees felled in the Dodonæan grove, one of its beams was endowed
with prophetic or oracular power, and counselled the hardy voyagers.
Socrates swore by the Oak, the sacred tree of the oracles, and
consequently the tree of knowledge.
The Romans regarded the Oak as sacred, and the chosen tree of Jupiter,
who was sheltered by it at his birth. Thus Lucan mentions “Jove’s
Dodonæan tree,” and Ovid, in alluding to the primitive food of man,
speaks of Acorns dropping from the tree of Jove. The Oak, says Virgil,
is
“Jove’s own tree
That holds the worlds in awful sovereignty.
* * * * *
For length of ages lasts his happy reign,
And lives of mortal men contend in vain;
Full in the midst of his own strength he stands,
Stretching his brawny arms and leafy hands;
His shade protects the plains, his head the hills commands.”
We have seen how Acorns formed the earliest food of mankind, and in
ancient Rome the substitution of Corn was attributed to the bounty of
Ceres, who, through the instrumentality of Triptolemus, taught the
inhabitants of the earth its use and cultivation.
“The Oak, whose Acorns were our food before
That Ceres’ seed of mortal man was known,
Which first Triptoleme taught how to be sown.”--_Spenser._
To commemorate this gift, Oak was worn in the festivals in honour of
Ceres, as also by the husbandmen in general at the commencement of
harvest. In the Eleusinian mysteries, Oaken chaplets were worn.
“Then crowned with Oaken chaplets, marched the priest
Of Eleusinian Ceres, and with boughs
Of Oak were overshadowed in the feast
The teeming basket and the mystic vase.”--_Tighe._
A Roman who saved the life of another was adjudged a crown of
Oak-leaves: thus Lucan writes:--
“Straight Lælius from amidst the rest stood forth--
An old centurion, of distinguished worth;
The Oaken wreath his hardy temples wore,
Mark of a citizen preserved he bore.”
This civic crown of Oak conferred many notable tokens of honour upon
its possessor, who was exempted from all civil burdens, and enjoyed
many rights. At Roman weddings, boughs of Oak were carried during the
ceremonies as emblems of fecundity.
“With boughs of Oak was graced the nuptial train;
And Hecate (whose triple form surveys
And guards from rapine the nocturnal path)
Entwined with boughs of Oak her spiral snakes.”--_Tighe._
Like the Greeks and Romans, the Scandinavians, in their mythology,
traced the origin of mankind from either the Ash or the Oak. By
the Teutons and Celts the Oak was invested with a mystical sacred
character, and it was connected with the worship of their god Teutates.
Among the German people, who consecrated the Oak to the god Thunar,
the cultus of the sacred tree lingered for a long time, even after
Boniface, the apostle of the Germans, at Geismar, on the Weser, had
caused the Oak consecrated to the god of thunder to be uprooted. After
the establishment of Christianity, the Oak was long supposed to be the
abiding-place of the terrible Northern god, and was, consequently,
regarded with superstitious awe. Bishop Otho, of Bamberg, in the
year 1128, found at Stettin pagan temples, situate near an Oak and a
fountain, which had been objects of worship, and were still regarded
with superstitious awe, as being consecrated to a god. As the good
bishop could not induce the people to cut down these sacred Oaks, he
persuaded them that they were inhabited by evil spirits and demons;
and, in course of time, the people who before had prostrated themselves
before the trees, shunned them in superstitious dread and terror.
The ancient Britons dedicated the Oak to Taranis, their god of thunder;
and the Celts, under the form of an Oak, are by some authorities
stated to have worshipped Baal, the god of fire. On the occasion of
an _auto-da-fé_, we are told that fagots of “grey” Oak were always
selected. The festival of Baal was kept at Yule (Christmas); and on
the anniversary, the Druids are said to have ordained that every fire
should be extinguished, and then re-lighted with the sacred fire,
which, in their sacerdotal character, they always kept burning. In
this rite, it is supposed, may be traced the origin of the Yule-log,
the kindling of which, at Christmas-time, is still kept up in England,
though in this country the log is often of Ash. Among the Germans,
Czechs, Serbs, and Italians, however, the Yule-log is always of Oak.
The Mistletoe which grew on an Oak was regarded by the Druids as
the most holy; it was beneath the shade of venerated Oaks that
they performed their sacred rites; and when they offered up human
sacrifices, the victims, in grim mockery, were crowned with Oak-leaves.
The baskets in which they were immolated were composed of Oaken twigs,
and the brands with which the sacrificial fires were kindled were cut
from Oak-trees. The priests scattered branches of the Oak upon the
altars, and after the sacrifice fresh Oak-leaves were cast upon the
blood-stained stones.
Alluding to the human sacrifices which polluted the recesses of the
Druidic groves of Oak, and caused them to be regarded with shuddering
terror, Tighe says:--
“Such groves in night terrific wrapt the gods
Of Gaul, where fostering nymph dared never tread,
Nor sylvan deity; no bird here couched
Her wing; no beast here slumbered in his lair;
No zephyr woke the silence of the boughs;
Alone at eve the trembling Druid sought
The mystic oracle; alone entranced
Amid the sanctuary stood, whose foul
Expanse in horrors veiled a dreaded god.”
When an Oak died, the Druids stripped off its bark, and shaped it
reverently into the form of a pillar, a pyramid, or a cross, and
still continued to worship it as an emblem of their god. In Anglesea,
the ancient Mona, are still dug up great trunks of Oak, relics of
the Druids’ holy groves. The central Oak was the peculiar object of
veneration. The poet relates how men of old,
“When through the woods the Northern blast
Howled harsh appeased with horrid cries and blood
The Scythian Taranis; or bowed around
The central Oak of Mona’s dismal shade.”
The Druids it is believed revered the form of the cross. It is stated
to have been their custom to seek studiously for a large and handsome
Oak-tree, growing up with two principal arms in the form of a cross
beside the main stem. If the two horizontal arms were not sufficiently
adapted to the figure, they fastened a crossbeam to it. Then they
consecrated it by cutting upon the right branch the word _Hesus_, upon
the middle stem _Taranis_, and upon the left branch _Belenus_, and over
them the word _Thau_. The tree thus inscribed was deemed peculiarly
sacred, and to it they directed their faces when offering prayer.
It was beneath the shade of the Oak that Druidic criminal trials were
held--the judge and jury being seated under the branches, and the
prisoner placed in a circle traced by the wand of the chief Druid. With
the Saxons, the Oak retained its sacred character, and their national
meetings were held beneath its shelter. It was below the Oaks of
Dartmoor that they held their conference with the Britons, whose land
they were invading.
In Great Britain, the Oak remained an object of veneration long after
the establishment of Christianity. It was under an aged Oak that St.
Brigid of Ireland established her retreat for holy women, whence called
Kildara, or cell of the Oak. Here had been burning for many centuries
the sacred fire of the Druids, but by the piety of St. Brigid the light
of Christianity was henceforth to emit its flame from beneath
“The Oak of St. Bride, which demon nor Dane,
Nor Saxon, nor Dutchman could rend from her fane.”
Many of the Druidical sacred Oaks were utilised by the early preachers
of the Christian faith, who from beneath their boughs preached the
gospel of Christ to the pagan inhabitants. Hence these trees became
noted throughout the country as Gospel Oaks, a name which still
appertains to many ancient trees existing at the present time in
England. It is right to say, however, that other authorities consider
the origin of the name to have been the custom of reading the Gospel
of the day at a certain tree, when the priest went round the fields to
bless the crops.
The Sclavonians worshipped Oaks, which they enclosed in a consecrated
court. This spot was the sanctuary of all the country, and had its
priest, its festivals, and its sacrifices. The inner sanctuary,
where grew the sacred Oak, was reserved especially for the priests,
sacrificers, and people in danger of their life, who had sought of the
priests an asylum. It is said that the ancient Russians, upon arriving
at the Isle of St. George, offered up sacrifices beneath a great Oak,
before which the people and priests chanted a _Te Deum_. After the
ceremony, the priest distributed the branches of the Oak among the
people.
It is curious to note how the old Grecian belief in the sacred and
supernatural character of the Oak has lingered in Italy. Prof. de
Gubernatis tells us that in the Campagna of Rome, about seventeen
years ago, a young shepherdess, during a storm, sought shelter under
an Oak, and prayed to the Madonna. Whilst she prayed, a gracious lady
appeared before her, and, thanks to her intercession, no rain fell on
the Oak, and the girl was enabled to reach home without being wetted by
a single drop. Everyone saw it was a miracle; the curé examined her,
and from his representations the young girl was received into a convent
at Rome, where she probably is preparing herself for canonisation.
Under similar circumstances, two centuries ago, a Tuscan shepherdess,
Giovanna of Signa, was canonised. In the district of Signa, near
Ginestra, the villagers still show a sacred Oak, which people kneel
to and adore. The story runs that one day the shepherdess Giovanna,
surprised by a storm, called around her the shepherds and their flocks,
and stuck her shepherdess’s crook into the ground; when, wondrous to
relate, at the same instant shot forth an Oak, which sheltered beneath
its branches shepherds and sheep. No one was wetted by the rain. On
account of this miracle, Giovanna was made a saint, and near the sacred
Oak a little chapel was erected to the Virgin. Strange to say, the tree
throws down anyone climbing into its branches to cut boughs; but people
are permitted to pluck sprays, which are believed to guard themselves
and their houses from the effects of storms, provided that the names of
Jesus and Mary are invoked with certain ceremonies.
Among the Bolognese, who inhabit a district once occupied by the
Celts, and consequently Druidic, the sacred character of Oak-trees was
long acknowledged. In the fourteenth century, there stood in Bologna
an ancient Oak, which was regarded with the greatest reverence, and
beneath its boughs all important gatherings of the people took place.
In their religious processions the children still carry garlands of
the Oak and Olive. In the country districts, images of the Virgin are
often suspended from Oak-trees, and these effigies are called after
the trees, the little Madonnas of the Oak. A legend of Bologna relates
that in a chapel an image of the Virgin had long been neglected, and
overlooked, till, one day, a pious shepherd took it away, and placed it
in the trunk of a Cork-tree (a species of Oak, the _Quercus Suber_).
Henceforth he visited it daily, and to honour the Virgin played on the
flute. The thief having been denounced, the shepherd was seized and
condemned to death; but during the night, through the intervention
of the Madonna, the statue and the shepherd both returned to their
favourite tree, and notwithstanding subsequent efforts to remove them,
they again took up their place beneath its boughs. Then the people
recognised a miracle performed by the Virgin, and falling on their
knees before the statue in the Oak, they asked pardon of the shepherd.
The time-honoured belief in the sacred and supernatural attributes of
the Oak have doubtless caused it to be regarded, even at the present
day, as a tree which would vicariously bear the diseases of men. Thus,
in England, Cross Oaks, which were trees planted at the juncture of
cross-roads, were formerly resorted to by people suffering from ague,
for the purpose of transferring to them their malady: this they did
by pegging a lock of their hair into one of the trees, and then, by a
sudden wrench, transferring the lock from their heads to the Oak, and
with the lock the ague.
In Germany, there still exists a custom of creeping through an Oak
cleft to cure hernia and other disorders. There was, near Wittstock, in
Altmark, a bushy Oak, the branches of which had grown together again at
some distance from the stem, leaving open spaces between them. Whoever
crept through these spaces was freed from his malady, whatever it might
be, and many crutches lay about, which had been thrown away by visitors
to the tree whose ailments had been cured. In Russia, a similar custom
is extant, the favourite tree there being the _Quercus Ilex_.
A belief that Oak-trees were the homes of Dryads, Hamadryads, spirits,
elves, and fairies has existed since the days of the ancient Greeks.
Pindar speaks of a Hamadryad as “doomed to a term of existence coeval
with the Oak.” Callimachus represents Melia “deeply sighing for her
coeval Oak,” and tells us that
“The Dryads laugh when vernal showers return;
O’er Autumn’s fading leaves the Dryads mourn.”
Preston, in his translation of Apollonius, makes a Hamadryad plead in
vain for her existence, threatened by the destruction of the Oak in
which she dwelt:--
“As in the mountain, with repeated stroke,
The churlish fellow felled the stubborn Oak;
Impious, he scorned the Hamadryad’s prayer,
And smote the tree coeval with the fair.
With streaming tears she pleads a suppliant strain
To that unfeeling churl, but pleads in vain.
‘Oh, rustic, stay, nor wound the hallowed rind,
For ages with that stem I live entwined.’”
In Germany, the holes in the trunks of Oaks are thought to be utilised
by the elves inhabiting the trees as means of entry and exit; in our
own country, Oaks have always been reputed as the trees in whose boughs
elves delighted to find shelter. The fairies, too, were fond of dancing
around Oaks: thus Tighe, apostrophising the monarch of the forest,
exclaims:--
“The fairies from their nightly haunt,
In copse, or dell, or round the trunk revered
Of Herne’s moon-silvered Oak, shall chase away
Each fog, each blight, and dedicate to peace
Thy classic shade.”
In these lines allusion is made to a famous tree in Windsor Forest, one
of a long series of celebrated Oaks--“lusty trees,” which, as Robert
Turner writes, England “did once so flourish with, that it was called
Druina by some.” One of these, known as the Cadenham Oak, in the New
Forest, is said, like the Glastonbury Thorn, to mark the birthday of
our Lord by budding on Christmas Day. Another, renowned as the Royal
Oak, is reverenced as having been the hiding-place of Charles II.,
after the battle of Worcester. In this tree, not far from Boscobel
House, the king, and his companion, Col. Careless, or Carless, resorted
when they thought it no longer safe to remain in the house--the family
giving them victuals on a Nut-hook. From this tree Charles gathered
some Acorns, and set them himself in St. James’s Park:--
“Blest Charles then to an Oak his safety owes;
The Royal Oak, which now in songs shall live,
Until it reach to heaven with its boughs--
Boughs that for loyalty shall garlands give.”
In many parts of England, Oak-branches are suspended over doorways, and
gilded Oak-leaves and Oak-Apples are worn, on Royal Oak Day (May 29th),
in celebration of King Charles’s restoration, and his preservation in
the Boscobel Oak, which is still extant.
Seven Oaks have given a name to a village in Kent; and Dean Stanley
has described a row of seven Oaks standing at a particular spot
in Palestine to which the following curious legend is locally
attached:--After Cain had murdered his brother, he was punished by
being compelled to carry the dead body of Abel during the lengthened
period of five hundred years, and then to bury it in this place. Upon
doing so, he planted his staff to mark the grave, and out of this staff
grew up the seven Oak trees.
The aged Oaks of Germany excited the wonder and respect of Tacitus,
who, speaking of one of the giants of the Hercynian forest, exclaims:
“Its majestic grandeur surpasses all belief; no axe has ever touched
it; contemporary with the creation of the world, it is a symbol of
immortality.” Sacred trees, or pillars formed of living trunks of
trees, many of which were Oaks, were to be found in ancient Germany,
called _Irmenseule_. The world-tree of Romowe, the ancient sacred
centre of the Prussians, was an evergreen Oak. The Oak of St. Louis at
Vincennes, and the Oak of the Partisans at St. Ouen, are trees regarded
with reverence by the French.
Evelyn considers that the wood used for our Saviour’s cross was Oak;
founding his belief on the statements made by divers learned men who
had studied the subject, and “upon accurate examination of the many
fragments pretended to be parcels of it.” The same author speaks of
“the fatal præadmonition of Oaks bearing strange leaves”; and tells us
that sleeping under Oak-trees will cure paralysis, and recover those
whom the malign influence of the Walnut-tree has smitten. Paulus, a
Danish physician, averred that one or two handfuls of small Oak-buttons
mingled with Oats given to black horses will change them in a few days
to a fine dapple-grey. Bacon says that there is an old tradition that
if boughs of Oak be put into the earth, they will bring forth wild
Vines; he also remarks that in his day country people had “a kind
of prediction that if the Oake-apple, broken, be full of wormes, it
is a signe of a pestilent yeare.” It is said that when the Oak comes
out before the Ash, it is a sign that there will be fine weather in
harvest. The Kentish people have a saying:--
“Oak, smoke;
Ash squash.”
and that if the Oak comes out before the Ash, the summer will be hot;
but if after the Ash, that it will be wet. Authorities in dream lore
state that it is a very favourable omen to dream of an Oak-tree: if
covered with verdure, it signifies a long and happy life; if devoid of
foliage or withered, it betokens poverty in old age; to see many young
Oaks thriving foretells male children, who will reap distinction by
bravery; Oaks bearing Acorns betoken great wealth; and a blasted Oak
forebodes sudden death.
Astrologers state that the Oak-tree is under the dominion of Jupiter.
=OATS.=--Oats did not enjoy a good reputation among the ancient Romans,
and Pliny writes of them:--_Primum omnium frumenti vitium Avena est._
In old English books, the Oat is called Haver or Hafer corn, and to
this day in Wales it is still called Hever. In Scandinavian mythology,
the “Hafer” of the evil genius Loki is synonymous with Oats of the
Devil, a term originally applied to all herbs hurtful to cattle.----The
Danes call the plant _Polytrichum commune_ Loki’s Oats; and in the
tradition that the diabolic God of the North is wont mischievously to
sow weeds among the good seed is probably to be found the origin of the
English saying, “He is sowing his wild Oats.”----In the Ukraine, there
is a tradition that on one occasion the Devil besought the Almighty to
make him a present. God responded: “What is there that I can give you?
I cannot part with the Rye, or the Barley, or the Millet: I must give
you the Oats.” The Devil, well pleased, withdrew, crying, “Hurrah! the
Oats, the Oats, are mine!” Then God inquired of St. Peter and St. Paul:
“What can I do, seeing that I have handed them over to him?” “Verily,”
said Paul, “I will at once go and get them from him.” “How will you
manage that?” “Leave that to me,” replied Paul. “Very well--go!” St.
Paul passed the Devil, and hid himself beneath a bridge. Presently
the Devil came along shouting “Oats! Oats!” St. Paul commenced to
shriek. The Devil stopped short. “Why have you thus frightened me?”
he asked. “God has given me a plant, and now you have made me quite
forget its name.” “Was it Rye?” “No,” “Wheat?” “No.” “Could it have
been the Sow-thistle?” “Ah! that was it, that was it!” exclaimed the
Devil, and he ran off shouting, “Sow-thistle, Sow-thistle.”----The
contortions of the Animal Oat (_Avena sterilis_) are very noticeable:
the strong beards, after the seeds have fallen off, are so sensible
of alteration in the atmosphere, that they maintain an apparently
spontaneous motion, resembling that of some grotesque insect. In olden
times, conjurors and wizards predicted events and told fortunes by
means of the awns of these Oats, which they caused to wriggle about by
holding them in a damp hand, or breathing upon them. In these jugglers’
hands the Wild Oat became a magical plant, figuring at their will as
the leg of an enchanted spider, Egyptian fly, or some other wonderful
insect.----To dream of a field of ripe Oats just ready for the sickle
is a most favourable omen, under all circumstances.
OLD MAN.--See Southernwood.
=OLEANDER.=--The banks of the Meles, the rivulet sacred to Homer,
are in some parts thickly set with _Nerium Oleander_, a plant which
bears a funereal and sinister character, and in Italy is considered
as ill-omened and as bringing disgrace and misfortune. In Tuscany and
Sicily, it is customary to cover the dead with Oleander-blossoms,
and in India chaplets of these flowers are placed on the brows of
the departed: the blossoms are also in that country much used in the
decoration of temples. The Hindus call the shrub the “Horse-killer,”
from a notion that horses inadvertently eating of its foliage are
killed by it. The Italians bestow a similar name on the plant--_Ammazza
l’Asino_, Ass-bane. Gerarde remarks that the flowers and leaves prove
fatal to many quadrupeds, and that sheep and goats drinking water
wherein the leaves have fallen are sure to die. In England, the plant
is known as the Rose Bay and Laurel Rose. In Tuscany, it is called
_Mazza di San Giuseppe_ (St. Joseph’s Staff), and there is a legend
that this staff commenced to blossom directly St. Joseph took it in his
hands.
=OLIVE.=--The legend runs, that in the days of Cecrops, king of Attica,
the two rival deities, Neptune and Minerva, strove for the worship
of the Athenians. Each claimed priority of right: Neptune, by a salt
spring, which his trident had opened in the rock of the Acropolis;
Minerva, by pointing to the Olive-tree, which at her command had sprung
from the soil. The gods in council decided that the latter was the
earlier, as well as the more useful, gift; and so Minerva became the
tutelary deity of the city, and the early Athenian rulers endeavoured
to turn the attention of the citizens from warlike and seafaring
pursuits, to the cultivation of the soil and the peaceful arts. On the
coins of Attica, before the time of Pericles, an Olive-branch appeared
with the moon and owl. Goats were sacrificed to Minerva, because they
were thought to do special injury to the Olive-tree, and the goddess is
styled by Virgil _Oleæ inventrix_. There was a deeper meaning attached
to this Attic legend, the realisation of which appears as far off as
it was in the days of Cecrops: still the Olive-branch remains the
emblem of that period of peace and plenty which the world still hopes
for.----The most sacred of the Athenian Olives grew in the temple of
Minerva since the time of the dispute between Minerva and Neptune: it
was burnt by Xerxes with the temple; but it was stated to have shot up
again suddenly, after having been destroyed. The Athenians punished
with great severity those who damaged their venerated Olive, which to
them appears to have been emblematic of peace. It indicated liberty,
hope, chastity, pity, and supplication; and special directions for
the mode of planting the sacred tree had place among the institutes
of Solon. Pliny asserts that the identical Olive-tree, called up by
Minerva, was standing in his time.----The Olive is frequently mentioned
in the Bible, both in a literal and figurative manner. The dove sent
forth by Noah from the Ark, brought back an Olive-leaf (probably from
Assyria, a country famous for Olive-trees), which the bird probably
selected because the leaves would continue green beneath the water.
As an emblem of peace, a garland of Olive was given to Judith when
she restored peace to the Israelites by the death of Holofernes. The
tree is still with the Jew the emblem of peace and plenty, with an
added significance of holiness; and the association of it with the
last days of Christ has made it also sacred to sorrow.----As an emblem
of peace and reconciliation, the Olive is figured on the tombs of the
early martyrs. As the attribute of peace, it is borne by the angel
Gabriel, and St. Agnes, and St. Pantaleon. By Romanists the Olive is
deemed a fitting emblem of the Virgin Mary, as the mother of Christ,
who brought peace on earth, and who was the Prince of Peace.----In
regard to the Olive-trees of the Garden of Gethsemane, eight of which
are still stated to exist, Dean Stanley says: “In spite of all the
doubts that can be raised against their antiquity, or the genuineness
of their site, the eight aged Olive-trees, if only by their manifest
difference from all others on the mountain, have always struck even
the most indifferent observers. They are now, indeed, less striking
in the modern garden enclosure, built round them by the Franciscans,
than when they stood free and unprotected on the rough hillside; but
they will remain so long as their already protracted life is spared,
the most venerable of their race on the surface of the earth. Their
gnarled trunks and scanty foliage will always be regarded as the most
affecting of the sacred memorials in or about Jerusalem.”----According
to the Jewish legend of Abimelech, the trees, once upon a time,
desiring a king, addressed themselves first of all to the Olive, who
refused the honours of royalty. The trees next in turn invited the
Fig, the Vine, and other trees to become their monarch, but they all
declined. At last the crown was offered to the Oak, who accepted
it.----Grecian mythologists relate that the club of Hercules, which was
made of Olive-wood, took root, and became a tree. In the Olympic games,
instituted by Hercules, the victor was rewarded with a crown of Olive.
The club of Polyphemus was the green trunk of an Olive-tree.----The
caps of the priests of Jupiter were surmounted with a twig of Olive.
The Olympian Jove is represented as wearing a wreath of Olives.
Herodotus recounts that Xerxes, before his Grecian expedition,
dreamed that he was crowned with an Olive wreath, the sprays of which
turned towards the sun; but that a moment afterwards, this crown had
disappeared.----The Athenians went to consult the Delphic oracle,
holding in their hands branches of Olive, and asking for a favourable
response in the name and through the favour of the Olive-trees; and
Tigranes, when before Xerxes, reproached Mardonius with having carried
on a war against a people who, in their Olympian games, were content
with a crown of Olives as the reward of victory, and who fought not
for plunder and riches, but for love of country and glory.----There
stood in the Forum of Megara a wild Olive, on which it became the
custom to hang the arms of local heroes. In course of time the bark of
the Olive grew over these arms, and they were forgotten. An oracle,
however, had declared that when the tree had brought forth arms, its
destruction would take place. When the tree was cut down, the arms and
helmets alluded to were discovered; and it was seen that the oracle
had been fulfilled.----The Provençaux, at harvest time, sing a curious
song, called the Reapers’ Grace, the first part of which narrates how
Adam and Eve were put into the Garden of Eden; Adam is forbidden to
eat of the fruit of life; he eats thereof, and the day of his death
is foretold him. He will be buried under a Palm, Cypress, and Olive,
and out of the wood of the Olive the cross was made.----According to a
German tradition, from the tomb of Adam, the father of the human race,
sprang an Olive: from this Olive was plucked the branch that the dove
from the ark carried to Noah, the regenerator of the human race; and
from the same Olive was made the cross of the Redeemer--the spiritual
redeemer of the human race.----A tradition very general relates
that the cross was formed of the Olive, Palm, Cedar, and Cypress,
representing the four quarters of the globe.----In Central Europe, the
Olive is everywhere regarded as the emblem of peace. It is planted in
the midst of fields to ensure a good harvest and to protect the crops
from hail: and in Venetia a branch is placed on the chimney-piece
during thunder-storms as a preservative from lightning--a prayer
being offered up at the same time to St. Barbara and St. Simon.----In
some parts of Italy, young girls employ an Olive-branch as a means of
divination. Having moistened a spray of Olive with their lips, they
throw it in the fire; if the leaf jumps three times or darts out of
the fire, they will find a husband; but if it burns without moving,
it is a sure sign of celibacy. In Rome and Tuscany, the superstitious
peasants imagine that no witch or sorcerer will enter a house where an
Olive-branch that has been blessed is kept, and in order to ascertain
whether they are suffering from the dire effects of an Evil Eye,
they drop some Olive-oil in water, and from the appearance satisfy
themselves on the point.----To dream of Olive-trees or Olives is
considered a good omen, denoting happiness, prosperity, and success,
and a speedy marriage to the lover; but to dream of plucking Olives is
unpropitious, announcing trouble and vexation. To dream of Olive-trees
bearing Olives denotes peace, delight, concord, liberty, dignity, and
fruition of your desires. To dream that you beat the Olives down is
lucky for all but servants.
=ONION.=--By the ancient Egyptians the Onion was regarded as a plant
partaking of a sacred character and as a symbol of the Universe. With
them it was a common object of worship, and their veneration for this
and other vegetable products is ridiculed by the satirist Juvenal--
“How Egypt, mad with superstition grown,
Makes gods of monsters, but too well is known:
’Tis mortal sin an Onion to devour,
Each clove of Garlic hath a sacred power;
Religious nation sure, and blest abodes,
When every garden is o’errun with gods!”
The Onions of Egypt, which were of large size and exquisite flavour,
were remembered with regretful longings by the discontented Israelites
in the wilderness; and although the priests of ancient Egypt were
forbidden to partake of them, yet they were admitted among the
offerings placed on the altars of the gods.----Mythologists relate
that the goddess Latona, having, during an indisposition, lost her
appetite, regained it by eating an Onion, and thenceforth adopted this
vegetable, which was accordingly consecrated to her.----The disciples
of Pythagoras abstained from eating Onions, ostensibly because they
grew during the falling moon, but probably because, like Beans, they
were considered too stimulating in their effects. Among the Greeks,
it would seem that the Onion was considered symbolic of generation,
since we find that at the nuptials of Iphicrates with the daughter of
King Cotys, he received, among other presents, a jar of snow, a jar
of Lentils, and a jar of Onions.----It is thought that, as with the
Egyptians, or with the English Druids, the Onion was an emblem of the
deity, and to this day it is a custom in some parts of England for
girls to divine by it. Barnaby Googe, in ‘Ye Popish Kingdome,’ tells
us:--
“In these same days young wanton gyrles that meet for marriage be
Doe search to know the names of them that shall their husbands be;
Four Onyons, five, or eight they take, and make in every one
Such names as they do fancie most, and best to think upon.
Then nere the chimney them they set, and that same Onyon then
That firste doth sproute doth surely bear the name of their good man.”
In olden times, country lasses used to resort to a method of divination
with an Onion named after St. Thomas: this they peeled and wrapped in a
clean kerchief; then, placing it under their heads, they repeated the
following lines:--
“Good St. Thomas, do me right,
And let my true-love come to-night,
That I may see him in the face,
And him in my fond arms embrace.”
In the South of England this species of divination is still extant,
but the procedure is different. When the Onions are bought, the
purchaser must take care to go in by one door of the shop and come out
by another--a shop being selected that has two doors. These Onions,
placed under your pillow on St. Thomas’s Eve, are sure to bring visions
of your true-love, your future husband.----According to astrologers,
the Onion is under the dominion of Mars.----To dream of Onions is
considered of evil augury, portending sickness and misfortune.
“To dream of eating Onions means
Much strife in thy domestic scenes;
Secrets found out or else betrayed,
And many falsehoods made and said.”
=ORANGE.=--Both Spenser and Milton held the opinion that the Orange
is the veritable “golden Apple” presented by Juno to Jupiter on the
day of their nuptials; hence, perhaps, the association of the Orange
with marriage rites. This golden fruit grew only in the garden of
the Hesperides, situated near Mount Atlas in Africa, where they were
carefully tended by the three daughters of Hesperus--Ægle, Arethusa,
and Erythia--and guarded by an ever-sleeping dragon. It was one of
the labours of Hercules, to obtain some of these golden Apples. After
slaying the dragon, he succeeded in plucking the auriferous fruit, and
took them to Eurystheus, but they were afterwards carried back to the
garden of the Hesperides by Minerva, as they could not be preserved
elsewhere. Milton alludes to the Orange as a tree
“Whose fruit, burnished with golden rind,
Hung amiable, Hesperian fables true,
If true, here only, and of delicious taste.”
These, again, were the golden Apples given by Venus to the subtle
Hippomenes, and by means of which he cunningly contrived to wrest
victory in his race with the swift-footed Atalanta. Perhaps, also,
Spenser’s opinion is correct, and the Orange may be the fruit, the
bestowal of which upon Venus was the origin of the Trojan war. Spenser
states his opinion in the following stanzas of his ‘Faërie Queene’:--
“Next thereunto did grow a goodly tree,
With branches broad dispread and body great,
Clothèd with leaves, that none the wood might see,
And laden all with fruit, as thick as thick might be.
“The fruit were golden Apples glistering bright,
That goodly was their glory to behold;
On earth no better grew, nor living wight
E’er better saw, but they from hence[17] were sold;
For those which Hercules, with conquest bold,
Got from great Atlas’ daughters, hence began,
And planted there, did bring forth fruit of gold,
And those with which th’ Eubœan young man wan [won]
Swift Atalanta, when, through craft, he her outran.
“Here also sprang that goodly golden fruit
With which Acontius got his lover true,
Whom he had long time sought with fruitless suit;
Here eke that famous golden Apple grew,
The which among the gods false Até threw,
For which th’ Idæan ladies disagreed,
Till partial Paris deem’d it Venus’ due,
And had of her fair Helen for his meed,
That many noble Greeks and Trojans made to bleed.”
[17] The garden of Proserpina.
At Brighton, there exists a curious custom of bowling or throwing
Oranges along the high-road on Boxing-day. He whose Orange is hit by
that of another, forfeits the fruit to the successful hitter.----An
Andalusian tradition, given by De Gubernatis, relates that the Virgin
Mary, journeying with the infant Jesus and with Joseph, came to the
Orange-tree, which was guarded by an eagle, and begged of it one of
the Oranges for the holy child. The eagle miraculously fell asleep,
and the Virgin thereupon plucked not one but three Oranges, one
of which she gave to the infant Jesus, another to Joseph, and the
third she kept for herself. Then, and not till then, the eagle that
guarded the Orange-tree awoke.----According to Evelyn, the first
China Orange-tree which reached Europe was sent as a present to
the old Conde Mellor, then Prime Minister to the King of Portugal.
Writing in 1697, the Jesuit Le Comte states that “the first and
unique Orange-tree, from which it is said all others have sprung, is
still preserved at Lisbon, in the house of Count St. Laurent.”----In
Sicily, statues of the Madonna are decorated with branches of the
Orange; at Avola, in Sicily, on Easter Sunday, two posts are set up,
and decorated with Orange-boughs.----The Orange is one of those rare
trees which produce at the same time fruit, flowers, and foliage;
hence it is in some countries considered as typifying great fulness,
and has thus become connected with wedding ceremonies. The practice
of wearing Orange-blossoms and wreaths by brides has been derived
from the Saracens, amongst whom the Orange-flower was regarded as
emblematic of a happy and prosperous marriage. In Crete, the bride and
bridegroom are sprinkled with Orange-flower-water. In Sardinia, it is
customary to attach Oranges to the horns of oxen which draw the nuptial
carriage.----To dream of Oranges would appear to be at all times a very
unfavourable omen.
=ORCHIS.=--From mythology we learn that the Orchis owes its origin to
the wanton son of the satyr Patellanus and the nymph Acolasia, who
presided at the feasts celebrated in honour of Priapus. The headstrong
Orchis, being present at the celebration of the feast of Bacchus,
laid violent hands on one of the priestesses of that god; and this
sacrilegious conduct so incensed the Bacchanals against the youth,
that they forthwith set upon him, and in their fury literally tore
him in pieces. His father adjured the gods, but the only remedy he
could obtain was that his son’s mangled corpse should be transformed
into a flower, which should ever after bear the name of Orchis, as a
blot upon his memory.----Among the early Romans, the Orchis was often
called Satyrion, because it was believed to be the food of the satyrs,
and as such excited them to those excesses which were characteristic
of the attendants of Bacchus. Hence, the Orchis-root not unnaturally
became famous as a powerful stimulating medicine, and is so described
by all herbalists from the time of Dioscorides.----A very old tradition
exists that Orchids sprang from the seed of the thrush and the
blackbird.----Bishop Fleetwood writes of these curious flowers that
they represent apes, birds, wasps, bees, flies, butterflies, gnats,
spiders, grasshoppers, and other insects; “but the most curious sort
is that which is called _Anthropophora_, because it represents a man
or a woman very exactly.” He further tells us “this flower, resembling
a man, appears in the beginning of Autumn; but that which represents
women comes in May. These two Orchids were, in 1671, engraved by order
of the _Academia Curiosorum Naturæ_, and were described as _Orchis
Anthropophorus Mas._, and _O. A. Fœmina_.”----A tradition is attached
to the English species, _Orchis mascula_, which usually has its leaves
marked with deep purple spots. It is said that these spots are the
stains of the precious blood which flowed from our Lord’s wounded body
on the cross at Calvary, as this species of Orchis is reported to
have grown there. In Cheshire, the plant is called Gethsemane.----The
sweet-scented Orchis, _Gymnadenia conopsea_, is the Northern goddess
Frigg’s Grass.
=ORPINE.=--On Midsummer Eve, Orpine (_Sedum Telephium_), Fennel,
Lilies, and Hypericum used formerly to be hung over doors and windows.
The plant is commonly called ‘Midsummer Men’ and ‘Livelong,’ from a
custom of country lasses to try their lovers’ fidelity with it on
Midsummer Eve: this they do by setting up two plants of Orpine--one
representing themselves, and another their lovers--upon a slate
or trencher, and afterwards judging of the state of their lover’s
affections by his plant living and turning to their own, or not. Wives,
also, place over their heads the Orpine-plant, and by the bending of
the leaves to the right or to the left divine whether husbands are true
or false. (See LIVELONG.)
=OSMUND ROYAL.=--The stately flowering Fern _Osmunda Regalis_ is said
to derive its name from the following legend:--A waterman, named
Osmund, once dwelt on the banks of Loch Fyne, with his wife and
daughter. One day a band of fugitives, bursting into his cottage,
warned Osmund that the cruel Danes were fast approaching the ferry.
Osmund heard them with fear; he trembled for those he held dearer
than life. Suddenly the shouts of furious men roused him to action.
Snatching up his oars, he rowed his trembling wife and child to a small
island covered with this beautiful Fern; and helping them to land, he
bade them lie down beneath the shady foliage for protection. Scarcely
had the ferryman returned to his cottage, ere a company of fierce
Danes rushed in, but knowing that he could be of service to them, they
did him no harm. During the day and night, Osmund was occupied in
ferrying the troops across the lake. When the last company had landed,
Osmund kneeled beside the bank, and returned thanks to Heaven for the
preservation of his wife and child. Often in after years did he speak
of that day’s peril; and his daughter called the Fern by her father’s
name. Gerarde, in describing the stem of the _Osmunda_, which, on being
cut, exhibits a white centre, calls this portion of the Fern the “heart
of Osmund, the waterman,” probably in allusion to the above tradition.
OUR LADY’S PLANTS.--See Lady’s Plants.
OX-EYE.--See Moon Daisy.
=PALASA.=--Palasa is a Sanscrit word, meaning “leaf,” but in course
of time it became applied to the _Butea frondosa_ as well as the name
Parna, which also signifies a leaf. The modern Indian name of the
tree is Dhak. The Palasa is in India a sacred tree, and has a special
cultus; as such, it is held to be imbued with the immortalising Soma,
the beverage of the gods. According to the Vedas, it owed its origin to
a feather dropped by a falcon who, when the gods were pining for the
precious Soma fluid, succeeded in stealing some from the demons who
had charge of it. In flying off with its prize, the falcon was wounded
by an arrow shot by one of the demons, which wounded it and caused a
feather impregnated with the divine fluid to fall to earth, where it
took root and became a Palasa-tree (called also Parna), which has a
red sap and scarlet blossoms--emblems of the sacred fire. The falcon
was a transformed god--some say Indra--hence the tree which sprang
from the god-bird’s feather was in its nature divine.----The Palasa
was much employed by the Hindus in religious ceremonies, particularly
in one connected with the blessing of calves to ensure them proving
good milkers. To this end, at the time of the sacrifice offered in the
new moon (the season of increase), the priest, on behalf of the Hindu
farmer, selected a Palasa-branch that grew on the north-east, north,
or east side of the tree, and cut it off, saying, “For strength cut
I thee.” Then, having stripped off the leaves, he struck both calves
and dams with it, blessing the latter and bidding them be good milkers
and breeders, and profitable animals to their masters. This done, he
stuck up the Palasa rod eastward of the holy fire, and bade it protect
the cattle. The object in thus touching the cattle was that the divine
Soma contained in the rod might pass into and enrich the udders of the
beasts. The Palasa is triple-leaved, and hence was deemed to typify,
like the trident, the forked lightning, an appropriate attribute,
inasmuch as it originally sprang from a god of the lightning. In this
respect, it resembled the rod of Mercury (a fire-god), the Sami, and
the Rowan rod.----The staff of the Brahman ought to be made of Palasa
wood. (See DHAK.)
=PALM.=--The Palm-tree is symbolic of victory, of riches, and of
generation. It was considered by the ancients also an emblem of light,
and was held sacred to Apollo. The Palm of Delos was supposed to have
existed from the time of the god Apollo himself. Among the Greeks,
there existed a legend that the Palm, like the Olive, was brought
into Greece by Hercules, on his return from the infernal regions. The
Orphics venerated the Palm as an immortal tree, which never grew old;
hence, as a symbol of immortality, and especially of the immortality of
glory, it was associated with the goddess Victoria, called also _Dea
Palmaris_.----In India, as amongst the Arabs, the Palm is considered
a sacred tree.----According to an Indian legend, the Palm of the Lake
of Taroba, in Central India, was only visible during the day; in the
evening it re-entered the earth. It is related that a rash pilgrim
climbed one morning to the top of the Palm, but the tree grew to such
a height above the earth’s surface, that the pilgrim was scorched to
death by the sun’s rays, and the Palm itself was reduced to tinder. On
the spot where the miraculous Palm is said to have once grown stands
the idol of the Geni of the Lake, called Taroba.----Christian legend
has associated the Palm with the history of Jesus. According to the
Apocryphal Gospel, the Virgin Mary, whilst journeying, became fatigued
and oppressed with the great heat; in passing by a great desert, she
saw a large and beautiful Palm-tree, beneath which she wished to seek
rest and shelter; so she asked Joseph to drive the ass upon which she
was seated towards the tree. When she reached the foot of the tree,
she dismounted, and, looking up, noticed that the tree was laden with
fruit. Then she said to Joseph: “I wish to have some of the fruit of
this tree, for I am hungry.” To this, Joseph replied: “Mary, I marvel
that you should desire to eat of this fruit.” Then Jesus Christ, who
was seated in his mother’s lap, ordered the Palm to bend down, so that
his mother might partake of its fruit at pleasure. And forthwith the
tree bent down to the Virgin Mary, and she partook of its fruit, and
still the Palm remained bent downwards. Then, Jesus perceiving this,
ordered the Palm to resume its natural position, and it immediately
did so. This legend has been widely diffused in Italy and elsewhere,
sometimes with the following addendum: “Jesus, after this act of
devotion on the part of the Palm, gave the tree his benediction, chose
it as the symbol of eternal salvation for the dying, and declared that
he would make his triumphant entry into Jerusalem with a Palm in his
hand.”----The Palm was early assumed by the Christian Church as the
universal symbol of martyrdom, in accordance with Revelation vii., 9:
“And after this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude stood before the
throne, clothed with white robes, and with Palms in their hands.... And
he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation.”
Hence, in early Italian paintings of the saints, as well as on the
sculptured effigies of Christian heroes, the Palm is represented as
borne by those who suffered martyrdom; and, in some instances, by
those conspicuous for their victory over pain and temptation.----In
old religious paintings, St. Christopher (who lived in the middle of
the fourth century) is represented as a man of Herculean proportions,
who uses, as a supporting staff, an entire Palm-tree with leaves
and branches. The legend is, that having, when still unconverted,
entreated a hermit to show him Christ, the holy man admonished him
that he must do some good and acceptable work, and recommended him to
go to the banks of a deep and swollen river, and by his great strength
assist travellers to cross over it. Christopher readily undertook the
task, and went and dwelt by the side of the river. Having rooted up a
Palm-tree, he used it as a staff to guide and support his steps, and
aided all who were overcome by the stream, and carried the weak on his
shoulders across it. After he had spent many days at this toil, he,
one night, whilst lying resting in his hut, heard a voice calling him
from the shore. He arose and looked out, but saw nothing. So he lay
down again, and the same thing occurred to him a second and third time.
Then he took his lantern and searched about the river bank, and at last
discovered a little child, who plaintively said to him: “Christopher,
carry me over this night.” Thereupon the stalwart young man lifted the
little child on his shoulders, and grasping his Palm-staff, entered
the stream. As he struggled across, the waters kept rising higher and
higher; the waves roared, and beat against him, and the winds blew.
The infant on his shoulder became heavier and still heavier, till
Christopher felt that he must sink under the excessive weight, and
began to feel afraid: nevertheless, taking fresh courage, and staying
his tottering steps with his Palm-staff, he at length reached the
opposite bank. Gently placing the child down, he looked at him with
astonishment, and asked, “Who art thou, child, that hast placed me in
such extreme peril? Had I carried the whole world on my shoulders, the
burthen had not been heavier.” Then the child replied: “Wonder not,
Christopher, for thou hast not only borne the world, but Him who made
the world, upon thy shoulders. Me wouldst thou serve in this thy work
of charity; and, behold, I have accepted thy service; and in testimony
that I have accepted thy service and thee, plant thy staff in the
ground, and it shall put forth leaves and fruit.” Christopher did so,
and the dry Palm-staff flourished as a Palm-tree in the season, and was
covered with clusters of Dates. But the miraculous child had vanished.
Then Christopher fell on his face, and confessed and worshipped
Christ.----According to the legend of the death of the Virgin Mary, she
was, one day, filled with an inexpressible longing to behold her Son
again, and whilst weeping, an angel suddenly appeared, and said: “Hail,
O Mary! I bring thee here a branch of Palm, gathered in Paradise;
command that it be carried before thy bier in the day of thy death;
for in three days thy soul shall leave thy body, and thou shalt enter
into Paradise, where thy Son awaits thy coming.” After conversing with
the Holy Mother, the angel departed into heaven, and the Palm-branch
which he had left behind him shed light from every leaf, and sparkled
as the stars of the morning. At the same instant, the apostles, who
were dispersed in various parts of the world, were miraculously caught
up and deposited at Mary’s door. Then, having thanked the Lord, she
placed in the hands of St. John the shining Palm, and desired him
to bear it before her at the time of the burial--an office which he
faithfully discharged.----Some authorities mention the Palm as one of
the four trees which furnished the wood of which the Redeemer’s Cross
was composed; this notion is derived from Canticles vii., 8: “I will go
up to the Palm-tree,” &c. Hence the old rhyme:--
“Nailed were His feet to Cedar, to Palm His hands--
Cypress His body bore, title on Olive stands.”
The praises of the Palm have been sung by Hebrew, Indian, Persian, and
Arabian poets of all ages. According to Strabo, a Persian hymn, but
according to Plutarch a Babylonian hymn, records the three hundred and
sixty benefits conferred on mankind by this noble tree; whilst a poem
in the Tamil language, although enumerating eight hundred and one uses
of the Palmyra Palm, does not exhaust the catalogue.----In the Indian
_Vishnu Purâna_, the fruitfulness of the Date Palm is alluded to. The
youthful Bala Râma slays the monster Dhenuka, and casts the carcase at
the foot of a Date Palm: then the Dates fell upon him just as rain,
beaten by the winds, patters down on the earth.----In India, the Palm
has given rise to a proverb on account of the facility with which it
takes root: the natives say of a vile and despised enemy, that he
takes root as a Palm.----To dream of a Palm-tree is a very good omen,
particularly if it is in full blossom, in which case it predicts much
success and good fortune.
=PANSY.=--The Pansy (_Viola tricolor_) derives its name from a
corruption of the French word _pensées_, thoughts: thus poor Ophelia
says:--
“Pray you love, remember,
And there’s Pansies,--that’s for thoughts.”--_Shakspeare._
Spenser designated the flower “the pretty Pawnce;” Milton spoke of it
as the “Pansy freak’d with jet;” and Drayton sings:--
“The pretty Pansy then I’ll tye,
Like stones some chain enchasing;
The next to them, their near ally,
The purple Violet placing.”
Rapin writes of the flower as _Flos Jovis_--the flower of Jove:--
“With all the beauties in the valleys bred,
Spearmint, that’s born with Myrtle crowns to wed.
And Jove’s own flower, in which three colours meet,
To rival Violets, though without their sweet.”
In addition to this grandiose title, the little flower rejoices in
a multiplicity of epithets bestowed on it by rural admirers. It is
Heart’s-ease, Forget-me-not, Herb Trinity, Three-Faces-under-a-Hood,
Love-and-Idle, Love-in-idleness, Live-in-Idleness, Call-me-to-you,
Cuddle-me-to-you, Jump-up-and-kiss-me, Kiss-me-ere-I-Rise,
Kiss-me-at-the-Garden-Gate, Tittle-my-Fancy, Pink-of-my-John, and
Flamy, because its colours are seen in the flame of wood. In the
North-east of Scotland, and in Scandinavia, the flower is with a spice
of irony called Step-mother. In ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ Shakspeare
gives the Heart’s-ease magical qualities. Oberon bids Puck procure for
him “a little western flower” on which Cupid’s dart had fallen, and
which maidens called “Love-in-Idleness.” Says the fairy king:--
“Fetch me that flower--the herb I showed thee once;
The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid,
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.”
The poet Herrick tells us, in regard to the origin of these favourite
flowers, that--
“Frolick virgins once there were,
Over-loving, living here.
Being here their ends denied,
Ran for sweethearts mad, and died.
Love, in pity of their tears,
And their loss in blooming years,
For their restless here-spent hours,
Gave them Heart’s-ease turned to flowers.”
The Pansy was the accidental cause of Bertram, the first American
botanist, devoting himself to the study of botany. The stamens and
pistil of this flower have something grotesque in their appearance
when disclosed, resembling to a fanciful mind an animal with arms, and
a head projecting and stooping forward. Bertram, who was originally
a farmer, while superintending his servants in the field, and giving
them directions, gathered a Pansy that was growing at his feet, and
thoughtlessly pulled off its petals one after another. Struck with
the stamens and pistil, Bertram conveyed it home, that he might
examine it more carefully. Its examination created in him that thirst
for the knowledge of the construction and habits of plants which
afterwards rendered him so famous, and won for him the friendship of
Linnæus.----The Heart’s-ease is said to be sacred to St. Valentine. As
the _Herba Trinitatis_, or Herb Trinity, it is the special flower of
Trinity Sunday.----It is considered to be a herb of Saturn.
=PAPYRUS.=--Plutarch tells us that the vessel on which the Egyptian
goddess Isis embarked on her voyage to search for the remains of
Osiris, was constructed of the Reeds of the Papyrus (_Papyrus
antiquorum_), and that the crocodiles, out of respect and fear of
the goddess, dared not approach the bark.----The Papyrus is the Rush
described in the Hebrew Scriptures by the word _Gôme_, and in an ark
of _Gôme_ the mother of the infant Moses put her babe, and laid it
in the Flags by the brink of the river Nile. The ancient Egyptians
plaited the stems of the Papyrus not only into little boats, but into
sails, mats, and sandals. The fabrication in particular of little
boats appears to have been practised by them to an immense extent,
and to have commenced in the very earliest days of the nation. M. de
Castelnau says that the Reed-boats still in use amongst the Peruvians
exactly resemble the pictured representations of the Egyptian ones, as
preserved on the walls of the tomb of Rameses III. at Thebes. Bundles
of Papyrus-stems furnished models for the shafts of some of the pillars
of the ancient Egyptian temples, and the bases of these were ornamented
with representations of the sheaths that encircle the foot of the
flower-stalk. The Papyrus-plant supplied the material of which the
famous paper, both rough and fine, was manufactured in ancient times.
Papyrus paper made 2000 years B.C., or anterior to the time of Abraham,
is still in existence. It was an article of commerce long before the
time of Herodotus, and it remained in use till the seventh century.
This Papyrus paper was prepared from the white pith of the stoutest
stems of the Reeds which grew in great abundance in the pools caused by
the overflowing of the Nile.----Plutarch relates, that when Agesilaus
visited Egypt, he was so delighted with the chaplets of Papyrus sent
him by the king, that he took some home when he returned to Sparta.
=PARSLEY.=--Hercules is said to have selected Parsley to form the first
garlands he wore. The Greeks held Parsley (_Petroselinum_) in great
reputation. A crown of dried and withered Parsley was given to the
victor at the Isthmian games; and one of green Parsley to the conqueror
at the Nemean games, in memory of the death of Archemorus, the infant
son of Lycurgus, who, laid down by his nurse on a sprig of Parsley, was
killed by a serpent.----A branch of Laurel and a crown of Parsley were
given to the god of banquets. At Greek banquets the guests wore crowns
of Parsley, under the belief that the herb created quiet and promoted
an appetite.----Greek gardens were often bordered by Parsley and Rue;
hence arose the saying, when an undertaking was in contemplation,
but not really commenced: “Oh, we are only at the Parsley and Rue!”
Parsley, again, was in great request for the purpose of decorating
graves; and the Greeks were fond of strewing sprigs of the herb over
the bodies of the dead. A despairing lover cries:--
“Garlands that o’er thy doors I hung,
Hang withered now and crumble fast;
Whilst Parsley on thy fair form flung,
Now tells my heart that all is past!”
From these funereal associations the herb acquired an ominous
significance; and “to be in need of Parsley” was a proverbial
expression meaning to be on the point of death. Plutarch tells of a
panic created in a Greek force marching against the enemy by their
suddenly meeting some mules laden with Parsley, which the soldiery
looked upon as an ill omen. In our own country, to this day, there is
an old saying among the people of Surrey and Middlesex, that “Where
Parsley’s grown in the garden, there’ll be a death before the year’s
out.”----There are several other English superstitions connected with
Parsley. Children are often told that newly-born infants have been
found in a Parsley bed. The seed of this herb is apt to come up only
partially, according as the Devil takes his tithe of it. If, after
having bruised some sprigs of Parsley in her hands, the housewife
should attempt to raise her glasses, they will generally snap, and
suddenly break. In some parts of Devonshire, the belief is widely
spread that to transplant Parsley is an offence to the spirit who is
supposed to preside over Parsley beds, entailing sure punishment either
on the offender himself or some members of his family within a year.
The peasants of South Hampshire will on no account give away Parsley,
for fear of misfortune befalling them; and in Suffolk there is an old
belief that to ensure the herb coming up “double,” Parsley-seed must be
sown on Good Friday.----In the Southern States of America, the negroes
consider it unlucky to transplant Parsley from an old home to a new
one.----To dream of cutting Parsley is said to indicate a cross in
love; to dream of eating it foretels good news.----The herb is held to
be under Mercury.
=PASQUE-FLOWER.=--The _Anemone Pulsatilla_ is the Paschal or
Pasque-flower, especially dedicated to the Church’s Easter festival,
The petals of the flower yield a rich green colour, which in olden
times was used for the purpose of staining the eggs to be presented,
according to custom, as Easter gifts. (See ANEMONE.)
=PASSION-FLOWER.=--The Passion-flower (_Passiflora cœrulea_) is a
wild flower of the South American forests, and it is said that the
Spaniards, when they first saw the lovely bloom of this plant, as it
hung in rich festoons from the branches of the forest trees, regarded
the magnificent blossom as a token that the Indians should be converted
to Christianity, as they saw in its several parts the emblems of the
Passion of our Lord.----In the year 1610, Jacomo Bosio, the author of
an exhaustive treatise on the Cross of Calvary, was busily engaged
on this work when there arrived in Rome an Augustinian friar, named
Emmanuel de Villegas, a Mexican by birth. He brought with him, and
showed to Bosio, the drawing of a flower so “stupendously marvellous,”
that he hesitated making any mention of it in his book. However, some
other drawings and descriptions were sent to him by inhabitants of
New Spain, and certain Mexican Jesuits, sojourning at Rome, confirmed
all the astonishing reports of this floral marvel; moreover, some
Dominicans at Bologna engraved and published a drawing of it,
accompanied by poems and descriptive essays. Bosio therefore conceived
it to be his duty to present the _Flos Passionis_ to the world as the
most wondrous example of the _Croce trionfante_ discovered in forest or
field. The flower represents, he tells us, not so directly the Cross
of our Lord, as the past mysteries of the Passion. It is a native of
the Indies, of Peru, and of New Spain, where the Spaniards call it
“the Flower of the Five Wounds,” and it had clearly been designed by
the great Creator that it might, in due time, assist in the conversion
of the heathen among whom it grows. Alluding to the bell-like shape
assumed by the flower during the greater part of its existence (_i.e._,
whilst it is expanding and fading), Bosio remarks: “And it may well be
that, in His infinite wisdom, it pleased him to create it thus shut up
and protected, as though to indicate that the wonderful mysteries of
the Cross and of his Passion were to remain hidden from the heathen
people of those countries until the time preordained by His Highest
Majesty.”----The figure given of the Passion-flower in Bosio’s work
shows the crown of thorns twisted and plaited, the three nails, and
the column of the flagellation just as they appear on ecclesiastical
banners, &c. “The upper petals,” writes Bosio in his description, “are
tawny in Peru, but in New Spain they are white, tinged with rose. The
filaments above resemble a blood-coloured fringe, as though suggesting
the scourge with which our blessed Lord was tormented. The column
rises in the middle. The nails are above it; the crown of thorns
encircles the column; and close in the centre of the flower from which
the column rises is a portion of a yellow colour, about the size of a
reale, in which are five spots or stains of the hue of blood, evidently
setting forth the five wounds received by our Lord on the Cross. The
colour of the column, the crown, and the nails is a clear green. The
crown itself is surrounded by a kind of veil, or very fine hair, of a
violet colour, the filaments of which number seventy-two, answering to
the number of thorns with which, according to tradition, our Lord’s
crown was set; and the leaves of the plant, abundant and beautiful,
are shaped like the head of a lance or pike, referring, no doubt, to
that which pierced the side of our Saviour, whilst they are marked
beneath with round spots, signifying the thirty pieces of silver.”
Such is Bosio’s description of what he designates the “stupendous
flower,” and the stir which his writings caused among the botanists
and theologians of Italy soon brought about the introduction of the
plant itself, which, before the year 1625, had established itself
and blossomed in the garden of Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, at Rome.
Aldinus, who was both the Cardinal’s physician and the controller
of his garden, has left his description of the Passion-flower, and
says of it:--“This is the famous plant sung by poets and celebrated
by orators, the plant reasoned about by philosophers with the utmost
subtlety, praised by physicians for its marvellous virtues, sought for
eagerly by the sick, wondered at by theologians, and venerated by
all pious Christians.” In his description of the flower Aldinus sets
forth “what theologians may really find in it.” He says: “The nails
on the top are represented so exactly, that nothing more perfect can
be imagined.... In the open flower they are twisted and marked with
dark blood-like spots, as if they had been already removed from the
Cross. The small undeveloped seed-vessels may be compared to the sponge
full of vinegar offered to our Lord. The star-form of the half-opened
flower may represent the star of the Wise Men; but the five petals,
fully opened, the five wounds. The base of the ovary is the column of
the flagellation. The filaments represent the scourges spotted with
blood, and the purple circle on them is the crown of thorns, blood
covered. The white petals symbolise the purity and brightness of Our
Lord, and His white robe. The _corniculata folia_, the sub-petals,
white inside and green without, figure hope and purity, and are sharply
pointed, as if to indicate the ready eagerness with which each one of
the faithful should embrace and consider the mysteries of the Passion.
The leaves of the whole plant are set on singly, for there is one God,
but are triply divided, for there are Three Persons. The plant itself
would climb toward heaven, but cannot do so without support. So the
Christian, whose nature is to climb, demands constant assistance. Cut
down, it readily springs up again; and whoever holds the mysteries
of the Passion in his heart cannot be hurt by the evil world. Its
fruit is sweet and delicate, and the Passion of our Lord brings sweet
and delectable fruit to us.” In his ‘_Paradisus Terrestris_,’ John
Parkinson, writing in 1629, speaks of the “Virgin Climer,” as “a brave
and too-much-desired plant,” with flowers which “make a tripartite shew
of colours most delightfull,” and are “of a comfortable sweet sent,
very acceptable.”----The plant’s native Indian name was _Maracot_; from
the likeness of the fruit to a small Pomegranate, it was sometimes
called _Granadilla_; the Mexican Jesuits named it _Flor de las cinca
llagas_; but in Italy, it was usually known as _Fior della Passione_,
the name which it has retained throughout Europe.
[Illustration: TO FACE PAGE 487.]
The Granadilla, or Passion Flower.
_From Zahn’s ‘Speculæ Physico-Mathematico-Historicæ.’_]
=PAULOWNIA.=--The noble hardy tree, _Paulownia imperialis_, was so
named in 1840 in honour of the Hereditary Princess of the Netherlands,
a daughter of the Emperor of Russia. The Paulownias are famous
throughout Japan for the hardness and beauty of their wood: they attain
a height of about thirty feet, and produce dark lilac flowers, which
are borne in three spikes upon a tri-lobed sinuous leaf. These flowers,
which resemble the blossom of the Catalpa, constitute one of the crests
of the Mikado of Japan.
=PAVETTA INDICA.=--A race of Malays, called the Aruans, when burying
their dead, carry the body into the forest, and hoist it upon the
summit of four posts. A tree, usually the _Pavetta Indica_, is then
planted near it, and at this final ceremony none but nude females are
allowed to be present.
=PEA.=--The priests of ancient Egypt were not allowed to partake of
Peas.----The Pea, like most trailing and climbing plants, has always
traditionally been connected with celestial fire. According to a
mediæval legend, the ancient Midsummer or St. John’s Day fires were
kindled at the season of the Summer solstice for the purpose of scaring
away pestilential dragons; and these dragons carried Peas in their
flight, which they cast down in such quantities as to fill up the
wells, and their smell was so foul that the cattle refused to eat them:
these Peas represent lightning, and their smell is the sulphurous fume
that clings to everything struck by it. The ancient German Zwergs, who
are dwarfs closely connected with the thunder-god Thor, and who forged
for him his lightning hammer, are exceedingly fond of Peas, and often
plunder the Pea-fields. Peas were consecrated to Thor himself, and to
this day in Berlin Peas with Saurkraut are a standing dish on Thor’s
Day (Thursday). The Pea was the favourite vegetable of Thor himself,
and St. Nicholas, who in some countries has replaced him, is sometimes
represented as being clad in Peas-straws. In the North of England,
if a lass’s lover has proved unfaithful to her, she is, by way of
consolation, rubbed with Peas-straw by neighbouring lads. A Scottish
ballad says:--
“If you meet a bonnie lassie
Gie her a kiss, and let her gae;
If you meet a dirty hussey,
Fie, gae rub her o’er wi’ strae!”
Similarly when a Cambrian youth has been jilted, and his sweetheart
marries a rival, the same operation is performed upon him, as a solace,
by the village lasses. In the North of England, Carling Sunday (the
fourth in Lent) is universally celebrated by feasts of Peas and butter.
The use of Peas in divination concerning love affairs probably arises
from the fact that they are sacred to the patron of marriage. In
Bohemia, the girls go into a Pea-field, and there make a garland of
five or seven kinds of flowers, all of different hues. This garland
they use as a pillow, lying down with their right ear upon it, and then
they hear a voice from underground, which tells them what manner of
man they will have for a husband. A curious custom, known as “Peascod
wooing,” was formerly extant in many country places; it was performed,
according to Brand, by selecting one growing on the stem, snatching it
away quickly, and if the good omen of the Peas remaining in the husk
was preserved, then presenting it to the chosen lady. A girl shelling
Peas will, if she should chance to find a pod containing nine, place it
on the lintel of the kitchen door, and the first single man who enters
is considered to be marked out for her future husband. Gay alludes to
this custom in the following lines:--
“As Peascod once I plucked, I chanced to see
One that was closely filled with three times three;
Which, when I cropped, I safely home conveyed,
And o’er the door the spell in secret laid.
The latch moved up, when who should first come in,
But in his proper person--Lubberkin.”
The village girls in Hertfordshire lay the pod with nine Peas under a
gate, and believe they will have for husband the man who first passes
through, or, at any rate, one whose Christian name and surname have
the same initials as his.----It is always considered a good augury to
dream of Peas.----In Suffolk, there is a legend that the _Lathyrus
Maritimus_, or Everlasting Pea of the sea-side, sprang up on the coast
there for the first time in a season when greatly needed; and Fuller
says of this particular Pea that “in a general dearth all over England,
plenty of Peas did grow on the sea-shore, near Dunmow, in Suffolk,
never set or sown by human industry, which, being gathered in a full
ripeness, much abated the high price in the markets, and preserved many
hungry families from perishing.”
=PEACH.=--There is an old tradition that the falling of the leaves of
a Peach-tree betoken a murrain.----There is a superstitious belief
in Sicily, that anyone afflicted with goître, who on the night of
St. John, or of the Ascension, eats a Peach, will be cured, provided
only that the Peach-tree dies at the same time; the idea being that
the tree, in dying, takes the goître away with it, and so delivers
the sufferer from the affliction. In Italy, as a charm to cure warts,
Peach-leaves are carefully buried in the earth, so that as they perish
the wart may disappear.----To dream of Peaches in season denotes
content, health, and pleasure.
=PEAR.=--Among the ancients, the Pear was specially consecrated to
Venus. Columella knew a species called _Pyrus Venerea_, the Pear of
Love. The Scots claim that “fair Avalon,” the Celtic “Isle of the
Blest,” is an island in Loch Awe, Argyleshire; and the Gaelic legend
changes the mystical Apples into the berries of the _Pyrus cordata_,
a species of wild Pear, found both in the island of Loch Awe, and in
Aiguilon.----On the Continent, there is a belief that orchards are
infested by malignant spirits, which attack the fruit-trees, and in
the Département de l’Orne, to drive away the demons which attack Pears
and Apples, the peasants burn the Moss on the trunk and branches,
singing the while an appropriate rhyme or incantation. In Aargau,
Switzerland, when a boy is born, they plant an Apple-tree; when a girl,
a Pear.----To dream of ripe Pears betokens riches and happiness; if
unripe, adversity; if baked, great success in business; to a woman a
dream of Pears denotes that she will marry above her in rank.
=PEEPUL.=--The _Ficus religiosa_, the _Asvattha_ or _Pippala_ of the
Hindus, is a tree held in the highest sanctity by the Buddhists, near
whose temples it is always found. It is this tree--the Bodhidruma,
the Tree of Wisdom--under which Buddha sat absorbed in a species of
intellectual ecstacy, and which his followers regard as the tree of
creation, life, wisdom, and preparation for Paradise, as well as
the yielder of ambrosia and rain. From ancient Vedic tradition the
Buddhists have inherited the worship of this sacred tree: they say
that at the hour of Buddha’s nativity, whilst around Kapilavastu
suddenly arose magnificent woods, an enormous Asvattha, or Bo-tree,
sprang from the very centre of the universe.----Hiouen-thsang, the
Chinese pilgrim, professed to have found the Bodhidruma, or some tree
that passed for it, twelve hundred years after Buddha’s death, at a
spot near Gaya Proper, in Bahar, where still may be seen an old temple
and ruins.----De Gubernatis tells us that there is represented in the
_Kâthaka Upanishad_ a heavenly cosmogonic Asvattha under precisely
the same form as the Indian Bo-tree. “The eternal Asvattha, it is
said, has its roots above, its branches below; it is called the Germ,
Brahma, Ambrosia; beneath it all the worlds repose, above it nothing
exists.” With its wood and that of the _Acacia Suma_ (_Sami_) the
sacred fire is lighted--the Asvattha representing the male, the _Sami_
the female. The Asvattha, in rubbing the Sami, engenders the fire, and
thus becomes an emblem of generation. From its heavenly origin and from
its maintaining the fire of purification, the Bo-tree is credited with
marvellous medicinal properties. Into a vase made of Asvattha-wood
the priests pour the divine drink Soma.----In the _Atharvaveda_,
says De Gubernatis, we are told that the Asvattha grows in the third
heaven, and produces the Ambrosia under the name of Kushtha, or flower
of the Amrita. He who eats the ambrosial food becomes intelligent.
The cosmogonic tree of the Vedas is also the Tree of Intelligence,
hence Buddha, the apostle of intelligence, sought refuge beneath its
shade.----In a book of travels by two Chinese Buddhist pilgrims,
translated by Mr. Beal, we find it stated that the only spot indicated
by the gods as propitious to the acquirement of supreme wisdom is
beneath the tree Peito, which the translator identifies with the
Peepul, Bo-Tree, or _Ficus religiosa_. In the same narrative we learn
that the gods constructed from the tree _Sal_ (_Shorea robusta_) to the
tree Bo a splendid road, three thousand cubits wide. The young Prince
Buddha traverses the road during the night, surrounded by the Devas,
the Nâgas, and other divine beings. Under the tree Peito Buddha walked
from east to west, and was worshipped by the gods for the space of
seven days; after that the gods constructed, north-west of the tree, a
palace of gold, where Buddha stayed for seven days. Then he repaired to
the lake Mukhalinda, where he sought the shadow of the tree Midella.
Then the rain fell for seven days, and so the Nâga Mukhalinda came
forth from the lake and sheltered Buddha with his hood. As showing
the extreme fondness of Buddha for the Bo-tree, it is related by
the Chinese that at the commencement of his conversion, he withdrew
habitually beneath the tree Peito to meditate and fast. The Queen
became exceedingly uneasy, and, in the hope of bringing back Buddha
to his home, she gave orders for the Peito to be cut down. But at
the sight of his beloved Bo-tree razed to the earth, so bitter became
the grief of the seer, that he fell in a swoon to the ground. They
sprinkled him with water, and when, after considerable trouble, he was
restored to consciousness, he sprinkled on the roots one hundred jars
full of milk; then prostrating himself with his face to the earth, he
pronounced this vow:--“If the tree does not revive, I shall never arise
again.” The tree at the same moment shot forth branches, and little
by little raised itself until it attained its present height, which
is about 120 feet. The number of Bo-trees which have become objects
of veneration among the Hindus, and especially the Buddhists, is
infinite, and the worship of the sacred Bodhidruma is still extant in
India.----The Bo-tree is also specially consecrated to Vishnu, who is
often portrayed as seated on its heart-shaped and pointed leaves. It is
represented in the Vedas as being frequented by various birds, who eat
its sweet Figs.----In the sacred city of Anurâdhapura, in Ceylon, is a
Bo-tree, which is supposed to be one of the oldest trees in existence,
and its age is not merely legendary, but substantiated by authentic
records. Kings have dedicated their dominions to it, in testimony of
their belief that it sprang from a branch of the identical tree under
which Buddha reclined for seven years whilst undergoing his apotheosis.
The precious branch was taken to Ceylon by the king Asoka, and the tree
of which it was the parent was planted by the king Tissa, in the year
288 B.C. When planting it Tissa prophesied that it should flourish
eternally, and that it should be an evergreen. It is too sacred to be
touched by a knife, but the leaves, as they fall, are eagerly gathered
and treasured by Buddhist pilgrims.----In Java, the Bo-tree is also
held sacred, and a species of Mistletoe which grows on its branches is
supposed to afford much gratification to the shades of the departed
which revisit earth. The Buddhists of Thibet call the sacred Bo-tree
the bridge of safety--the bridge by which mortals pass from the shores
of the world to the shores of the immortal land.
=PENNYROYAL.=--The Pennyroyal (_Mentha Pulegium_) used formerly to
be called Puliol Royal, and derived its name from the Latin word
_pulices_, fleas--insects it was thought to be specially efficacious
in destroying. In most of the Western Counties the plant is known as
Organ-herb, and is much prized by old-women herbalists as a blood
purifier. According to an ancient recipe, Organ broth was used in
witchcraft to make people see double.----In Sicily, children put
Pennyroyal in their cots on Christmas Day, under the belief that at
the exact hour and minute when the infant Jesus was born this plant
puts forth its blossom. The same wonder is repeated on Midsummer
Night. In Sicily, also, Pennyroyal is given to husbands and wives who
quarrel.----According to astrologers, Pennyroyal is a herb of Venus.
=PEONY.=--The Peony, or healing plant (_Pæonia_), commemorates the
Homeric god Pæon, the first physician of the gods, who healed the
divinities Ares and Hades of their wounds. Tradition asserts that the
Peony is the floral descendant of Pæon, who was a pupil of the great
Æsculapius. Pæon first received the flower on Mount Olympus, from
the hands of the mother of Apollo, and by its means he cured Pluto
of a wound he had received from Hercules; but this cure created so
much jealousy in the breast of Æsculapius, that he secretly caused
the death of Pæon. Pluto, however, retained a grateful sense of his
service, and so transformed his body into the flower which to-day bears
his name.----Rapin has a totally different tale to tell as to the
origin of the blooming Peony, although from what source he derived his
information we are unable to discover. According to the French poet,
Pæonia is a nymph whose crimson hue is not the blush of modesty, but
the tell-tale witness of the sin of a shepherdess of Alcinous, King
of Phæacia, who seems to have been unable to withstand the amorous
advances of the Sun-god.----In the emblematic language of flowers, the
Peony is the representative of bashful shame.----Speaking of the Peony,
Rapin says:--
“Erect in all her crimson pomp you’ll see
With bushy leaves the graceful Piony,
Whose blushes might the praise of virtue claim,
But her vile scent betrays they rise from shame.
Happy her form, and innocent her red,
If, while Alcinous’ bleating flock she fed,
An heavenly lover had not sought her bed;
’Twas Phœbus’ crime, who to his arms allured
A maid from all mankind by pride secured.”
The ancient Greeks held the Peony in great repute, believing its origin
to have been divine. It was thought to have been an emanation from the
moon, and that the flower shone during the night, chased away evil
spirits, and protected the dwellings of those who cultivated it. Hence,
in later days, it came to be ranked as a miraculous plant; and it was
thought that evil spirits would shun the spot where it was planted, and
that even a small piece of the root, worn round the neck as an amulet,
would protect the wearer from all kinds of enchantment. To this day, in
Sussex, necklaces of beads turned from the Peony-root are worn by young
children, to prevent convulsions and assist them in teething. Apuleius
states that the Peony is a powerful remedy for insanity. Lord Bacon
tells us, in his ‘Natural History,’ that “it hath beene long received,
and confirmed by divers trialls, that the root of the male Piony dried,
tied to the necke, doth help the falling sicknesse, and likewise the
incubus, which we call the Mare. The cause of both these diseases,
and especially of the epilepsie from the stomach, is the grossenesse
of the vapours, which rise and enter into the cells of the braine;
and therefore the working is by extreme and subtill alternation,
which that simple hath.”----In Germany, the Peony is the Pentecostal
Rose.----Astrologers say that both male and female Peonies are herbs of
the Sun, and under the Lion.
=PERIWINKLE.=--In France, the Periwinkle is considered the emblem of
the pleasures of memory and sincere friendship, probably in allusion
to Rousseau’s recollection of his friend Madame de Warens, occasioned,
after a lapse of thirty years, by the sight of the Periwinkle in
flower, which they had once admired together.----In Italy, garlands of
Periwinkle are placed upon the biers of deceased children, for which
reason the plant has acquired the name of the Flower of Death; but
in Germany it becomes the symbol of immortality.----Culpeper, in his
‘Herbal,’ says that the Periwinkle is owned by Venus, and that the
leaves eaten together by man and wife, cause love between them.
=PESTILENCE WEED.=--The Butterbur Coltsfoot (_Tussilago Petasites_)
obtained the name of Pestilence Weed from its having in olden times
been held in great repute as a sovereign remedy for the plague and
pestilent fever.
=PHYTOLACCA.=--A species of _Phytolacca_ found by M. Lévy in Nicaragua
in 1876, and named by him _P. electrica_, may well be called the
electrifying plant. The discoverer, when gathering a branch,
experienced a veritable electric shock. Experimenting with a compass,
he found the needle was agitated at a distance of eight paces, and
became more so the nearer he approached; the action changing to a rapid
gyratory motion when he finally placed the compass in the midst of the
shrub. There was nothing in the soil to account for what may be termed
the “shocking” proclivities of the shrub, which are slight in the
night-time, becoming gradually intensified until about two o’clock p.m.
In stormy weather, the intensity of action is increased, and the plant
presents a withered appearance until the fall of rain. Neither insect
nor bird was seen by M. Lévy to approach this terrible shrub.
PICK-PURSE, or PICK-POCKET.--(See Shepherd’s Purse).
=PIMPERNEL.=--The scarlet Pimpernel (_Anagallis arvensis_) is well
known as the Poor Man’s Weather-glass, or Shepherd’s Barometer; both
names having been given on account of the plant invariably closing its
petals before and during rain. Darwin alludes to this peculiarity of
the Pimpernel in the following lines:--
“Closed is the pink-eyed Pimpernel;
In fiery red the sun doth rise,
Then wades through clouds to mount the skies;
’Twill surely rain--we see’t with sorrow,
No working in the fields to-morrow.”
Besides being a barometrical, the Pimpernel is a horological, plant,
opening its petals about 7 a.m., and closing them about 2 p.m. The
plant was also considered a surgical plant, inasmuch as the old
herbalists ascribed to it the power of drawing out arrows which were
embedded in the flesh, as well as thorns and splinters, or “other such
like things.” The bruised leaves were believed to cure persons bitten
by mad dogs, and the juices of the plant were considered efficacious
in complaints of the eyes, and in hypochondriacal cases. Its manifold
virtues have passed into a proverb:--
“No ear hath heard, no tongue can tell,
The virtues of the Pimpernell.”
Pliny records that sheep avoided the blue, and ate the scarlet,
Pimpernel, and that if, by mistake, they ate the blue, they immediately
sought for a plant which is now unknown. In Dyer’s ‘English Folk Lore,’
it is stated that, according to a MS. on magic, preserved in the
Chetham Library, Manchester, “the herb Pimpernell is good to prevent
witchcraft, as Mother Bumby doth affirme.” The following lines may be
used when it is gathered:--
“Herbe Pimpernell, I have thee found,
Growing upon Christ Jesus’ ground:
The same guift the Lord Jesus gave unto thee,
When He shed His blood on the tree.
Arise up, Pimpernel, and goe with me,
And God blesse me,
And all that shall were thee. Amen.”
“Saying this fifteen dayes together, twice a day, morning earlye
fasting, and in the evening full.”----Pimpernel is considered to be a
herb of the Sun.
=PINE.=--The Pine was called the tree of Cybele (or Rhea), the mother
of the gods. She was passionately fond of Atys, a Phrygian shepherd,
and entrusted him with the care of her temple, under a vow that he
should always live in celibacy. This vow, however, Atys violated by
an amour with the nymph Sangaris, upon which he became delirious, and
mutilated himself with a sharp stone. Then, as he was about to lay
violent hands upon himself, Cybele transformed him into a Pine-tree.
Ovid records that--
“To Rhea grateful still the Pine remains,
For Atys still some favour she retains;
He once in human shape her breast had warmed,
And now is cherished to a tree transformed.”
Rapin considers the Pine to have been regarded by the ancients as a
sacred tree. He says--
“Old Cybele changed her Atys to a Pine,
Which, sacred there to her, was held divine.”
After the metamorphosis of Atys into the Pine, Cybele sought refuge
beneath the tree’s branches, and sat mourning there the loss of her
faithless lover, until Jupiter promised that the Pine should remain
ever green. It was tied to a Pine-tree, that Marsyas, the Phrygian
flute-player, met his death. He became enamoured of Cybele, and
journeyed with her as far as Nysa. Here
“He Phœbus’ self, the harmonious god, defied,
And urged to have their skill in music tried.
Phœbus accepts the challenge, but decreed,
The boaster vanquished should alive be flayed;
And Marsyas vanquished (so the poet sung)
Was flayed alive, and on a Pine-tree hung.”--_Rapin._
The Pine was dedicated to Bacchus, and at the Dionysian festivals the
votaries sometimes wore garlands of its foliage: its cone is frequently
represented surmounting the god’s thyrsus, possibly as being symbolic
of fecundity and reproduction. The connection of the Pine with Bacchus
is still maintained by the Greeks, who place the cones in their wine
vats, to preserve and flavour the wine by means of the resin. The
Pine-cone was considered a symbol of the heart of Zagræus, who was
destroyed by the Titans, and whose ashes were given to Semele, the
mother of Bacchus.----We find the Pine also dedicated to Pan, because
Pitys, one of the many nymphs whom he loved, was changed into that
tree, to escape the importunities of Boreas.----The wood of the Pine
was employed in the construction of the first boats: hence the tree was
also sacred to the sea-god Neptune.----Ovid introduces Pan as “crowned
with a pointed leaf of Pine-leaf,” in reference to the sharpness of its
narrow leaves. The length and straightness of its trunk, and freedom
from branches, rendered it a suitable walking staff for the giant
Polyphemus (Æn. iii.); and Turnus (from the resinous nature of this
tree) is represented as raising a flaming brand of Pine-wood to set on
fire the ships of the Trojans.----In Assyrian monuments, we find the
Pine-cone offered to the god guarding life.----According to a Roman
legend, two lovers who had died of love and were buried in the same
cemetery, were changed, the one into a Pine, the other into a Vine,
and were thus enabled to continue their fond embraces.----Prof. De
Gubernatis remarks that, despite the legend of St. Martin, written by
Sulpicius, who represented the Pine as a diabolic tree, Christianity
itself has consecrated it. The town of Augsburg, which has for its
badge a Pine-cone, is under the protection of St. Afra. In Sicily,
they believe that the form of a hand is to be seen in the interior of
the fruit--the hand of Jesus blessing the Pine which had saved Him
during the flight into Egypt by screening Him and His mother from
Herod’s soldiers.----At Ahorn, near Coburg, a frightful wind sent
by a sorceress had bent the church steeple, which thus became an
object of derision to the inhabitants of the surrounding villages. A
shepherd, to save his village from such a standing reproach, attached
a short rope to a Pine, which the inhabitants still pointed out in
Nork’s time, and by dint of invocations and magical imprecations
succeeded in straightening the steeple. Nork adds that in the year
1300, at Krain, near a convent, a statue of the Madonna, concealed in
the trunk of a Pine, miraculously made itself heard by a priest: on
that account a church has been erected in honour of the Virgin, in
the immediate vicinity.----King Crœsus threatened the inhabitants of
Lampsacus that the destruction of their town should be as complete as
a felled Pine, which, once cut down, never sprouts out again. The
comparison was particularly apt, inasmuch as the town of Lampsachus was
reputed to have been formerly called Pityusa--“the place planted with
Pines.”----In a Pompeian design, we find a rural Cupid with a crown of
Pine. Ovid crowns the Fauns with Pine. Virgil calls the Pine _Pronuba_,
because the torches used at weddings were made of Pine-wood.----In
the hymn of Callimachus to Diana, virgins are represented as wearing
chaplets of Pine.----The Pine-cone unopened symbolised virginity.----In
Podolia, in Little Russia, the bride-cake is ornamented with sprigs
of Pine.----In Japan, the Pine has become a symbol of constancy and
conjugal fidelity, because it is always verdant, even beneath the
snow.----The Pine is a funereal tree, and, as is the case with all
others of its class, it symbolises immortality and generation. Like the
Cypress and the Fir, on account of the durability of its wood and its
evergreen foliage, it represents the perpetuity of life,--a symbol that
appears singularly in keeping with the funereal rites of a people who
believed in the immortality of the soul.----In Russia, when the coffin
is being carried to the cemetery, it is covered with branches of Pine
or Fir.----The Fijian believes that, after death, the spirit, with
his war-club and a whale’s tooth, journeys to the world’s end: there
grows the sacred Pine, and at it the spirit hurls his whale’s tooth.
If he strikes it, he proceeds on his way rejoicing, but if he misses
his mark, his further progress is stopped.----Crowns of Pine were worn
by victors at the Isthmian games.----The Pine was one of the trees
ordered to be used by the Jews in erecting their tents at the Feast of
the Tabernacles.----According to tradition, the Pine seen in a dream
portends dissolution.
=PINK.=--The Pink (_Dianthus_) has been said to derive its name from
the Dutch word _Pinkster_--Whitsuntide--the season at which a species
called of old the Whitsuntide Gilliflower, is in flower. In Bologna,
however, the flower is held sacred to St. Peter, who is believed
to have been partial to it above all others; the 29th of June is
there considered to be the day of Pinks.----In an old work quoted by
Alphonse Karr, the author recommends the water distilled from Pinks
as an excellent remedy against epilepsy, and adds: “but if a conserve
be composed of it, it is the life and delight of the human race.” A
vinegar made of Pinks was formerly prized for its efficacy against the
plague.
PIXIE-STOOL.--See Toadstool.
=PLANE.=--The Plane-tree (_Platanus orientalis_) was specially
venerated in Greece. In the school of Plato, the philosophers
used to walk and converse under the shadow of these delightful
trees.----Pausanias mentions a Plane tree of extraordinary size and
beauty in Arcadia, supposed to have been planted by Menelaus thirteen
hundred years before.----The Plane was held sacred to Helen, the wife
of Menelaus.----Evelyn gives an account of the passion conceived by
Xerxes for a Plane-tree. Whilst marching through Lydia, he is said
to have stopped his vast army of 1,700,000 soldiers, that he might
admire the beauty of one of these trees, and became so enamoured of
it, that, spoiling both himself, his concubines, and great persons, of
all their jewels, he covered it with gold, gems, necklaces, scarfs,
bracelets, and infinite riches. For some days, neither the concerns of
his portentous army, nor the objects of his expedition, could divert
his thoughts from the stately tree, and when at length he was forced to
leave it, he caused the figure of it to be stamped on a medal of gold,
which he continually wore about him.----In Greece, when lovers are
obliged to separate, they exchange, as a gage of fidelity, the halves
of a leaf of the Plane. When they meet again, each one produces the
half-leaf, and they then fit them together.
=PLANTAIN.=--According to Grimm, the Plantain or Waybread (like the
Endive or Succory--the German _Wegewarte_) is said to have been once
a maiden, who, worn out with constantly watching the roadway for her
lover, was changed into a plant, that still clings to a position by the
wayside. In Devonshire, they say that once in seven years it becomes
a bird--either the cuckoo or its helpmate, known as the “dinnick,”
which is said to follow the cuckoo wherever it goes.----In Aargau,
the Plantain is called _Irrwurzel_, and the peasantry there ascribe
to it the power of disordering the wits.----The Greeks called the
plant “Lamb’s-tongue,” and no less a personage than Alexander the
Great ascribed to it magical properties, and asserted that its root
was marvellously potent in the cure of headaches. According to Macer
Floridus, a root suspended round the neck prevented scrofula; and
Dioscorides affirmed that the water derived from three roots cured the
tertian, and from four the quartan ague.----In England, the Plantain
or Waybread has always had a high reputation as a vulnerary. Chaucer
notices it as an application to wounds, and Shakspeare makes Romeo,
when referring to a broken shin, say, “Your Plantain-leaf is excellent
for that.” Clare, in his ‘Shepherd’s Calendar,’ recounts the following
rustic divination common among the Midland country-folk:--
“Or, trying simple charms and spells,
Which rural superstition tells,
They pull the little blossom threads
From out the Knotweed’s button heads,
And put the husk, with many a smile,
In their white bosoms for awhile.
Then, if they guess aright the swain,
Their love’s sweet fancies try to gain,
’Tis said that ere it lies an hour,
’Twill blossom with a second flower,
And from the bosom’s handkerchief,
Bloom as it ne’er had lost a leaf.”
In Henderson’s ‘Folk Lore of the Northern Counties’ is an account of a
curious rustic divination practised in Berwickshire by means of kemps
or spikes of the Ribwort Plantain. Two spikes--one to represent the
lad, the other the lass--are plucked when in full bloom, and after all
the blossom has been carefully removed, the kemps should be wrapped
in a Dock-leaf and laid under a stone. If the spikes shall have again
blossomed when visited the next morning, the popular belief is that
there will be “Aye love between them twae.”----Plantain is held by
astrologers to be under the rule of Venus.
=PLUM.=--The Japanese, once a year, hold a popular festival in honour
of the Plum-tree.----To dream of Plums is said to augur but little
good to the dreamer: they are the forerunners of ill-health, and
prognosticate losses, infidelity, and sickness, and much vexation in
the married state.
=POLYPODIUM.=--According to a German tradition, the _Polypodium
vulgare_ sprang from the milk that the goddess Freyja, and after her
the Virgin Mary, let fall on the earth.
=POMEGRANATE.=--The fruit of the Pomegranate has always been highly
prized in the East. Rapin says of it:--
“Succeeding fruit attend the blossoms’ fall,
Each represents a crown upon a ball;
A thousand seeds with Tyrian scarlet dyed,
And ranged by nature’s art in cells they hide.”
The Pomegranate was one of the plants assigned to Bacchus, and the
origin of the tree is said to be due to a nameless nymph, beloved by
Bacchus, to whom a priest had foretold that she should wear a crown.
Bacchus kept the letter, but not the spirit of this prophecy, for,
instead of espousing the betrayed maiden, he transformed her into a
Pomegranate-tree, and twisted up the calyx of the blossom into the
crown-like form it has ever since retained. Rapin relates the story as
follows:--
“The story’s short how first this fruit obtained
A graceful crown, and was with purple stained.
A royal nymph there was of Tyrian race,
A Moor, indeed, but formed with every grace,
Her native colour knew; yet fate denied
Indulgence equal to her beauty’s pride.
Filled with ambitious thoughts she pressed to know
What gifts the gods would on her charms bestow.
Ravished she heard the ambiguous priest declare
She should a crown and purple garments wear;
Fancied that hence a kingdom must arise,
Deceived by words and flattering prophecies.
For when the god of wine in triumph came,
Laden with Indian spoils to court the dame,
He soon beguiled her with a husband’s name.
Baulked of her hopes, her virgin honour stained,
By favour of her god at last she gained
To be transformed to this imperial plant--
The only honour which the prophet meant.”
Oppian gives another legend as to the origin of the Pomegranate,
according to which, a man having lost his first wife, became enamoured
of his daughter Side (Greek for Pomegranate-tree): to escape his cruel
persecution, the unfortunate young girl killed herself; but the gods,
compassionating her, metamorphosed Side into the Pomegranate-tree,
and her unnatural father into a sparrow-hawk: so, according to
Oppian, the sparrow-hawk will never alight upon the Pomegranate, but
always persistently shuns the tree.----According to M. Lenormant,
the Pomegranate sprang from the blood of Adgestis. The name Rimmon
(Pomegranate) was that given in certain parts of Syria, near Damascus,
to the young god, who died but to spring into a new life--reminding
one of the story of Adonis.----The great number of seeds which the
fruit of the Pomegranate contains has caused it to become the symbol of
fecundity, generation, and wealth. Probably on this account the plant
was sacred to Juno, the patroness of marriage and riches. In the Isle
of Eubœa, there was formerly a statue of this goddess, holding in one
hand a sceptre, and in the other a Pomegranate. Prof. De Gubernatis
suggests that the uterine form of the opened Pomegranate is the reason
why Pausanias, after having said that Juno held a Pomegranate in
her hand, adds, that she did not wish to divulge the mystery which
appertained to this symbolic fruit. This is also the reason why
(according to Cicero) Proserpine did not wish to leave the infernal
regions without having eaten the Pomegranate which she plucked from a
tree growing in the Elysian Fields. Ceres, inconsolable for the loss
of her daughter, had begged Jupiter to release her from the power of
Pluto. Jupiter decreed that if Proserpine had not tasted any food in
the infernal regions, she might be restored to her mother; but, as Ovid
tells us, by an unfortunate mischance,
“As in the garden’s shady walk she strayed,
A fair Pomegranate charmed the simple maid,
Hung in her way, and tempting her to taste,
She plucked the fruit and took a short repast.
Seven times, a seed at once, she eat the food:
The fact Asculaphus had only viewed.
He saw what passed, and, by discovering all,
Detained the ravished nymph in cruel thrall.”
Ceres, enraged, would not permit the earth to yield any fruits till
her daughter was restored to her, and Jupiter at last decided that
Proserpine should spend six months of the year with her mother, but
as she had partaken of the Stygian Pomegranate, she was to stay the
other six months with Pluto.----A legend states that from having been
planted on the grave of King Eteocles, the fruit of the Pomegranate
has ever since exuded blood. Another account relates that the blood
of the Pomegranate had its origin in the life-blood of the suicide
Menœceus. On account of this blood which seems to flow from its fruit,
the Pomegranate has acquired a somewhat sinister signification.
As a rule, however, the sanguineous juice and innumerable seeds
of the Pomegranate are considered a happy augury of fecundity and
abundance.----There is a tradition that the fruit of the Tree of Life
presented by Eve to Adam was the Pomegranate. It is also the opinion
of some, that Paris adjudged a Pomegranate to Venus, and not an
Apple; and that nearly always where the latter fruit is alluded to in
legends or popular customs relating to marriage, the Pomegranate is
meant.----In Turkey, the bride throws a Pomegranate on the ground, and
from the number of seeds which exude from the broken fruit judges of
the extent of her future family.----In Dalmatia, it is the custom for
a young man, when asking the hand of his bride from her parents, to
speak figuratively, and so he vows to transplant into his own garden
the beautiful red flowers of the Pomegranate which are then flourishing
in the paternal parterre.----In Sicily, they use a branch of the
Pomegranate-tree as a divining-rod to discover hidden treasures: it is
reported to be unfailing provided that it is manipulated by an expert
or by some one who knows the mystical formulary.----Many references
to the Pomegranate are to be found in the Bible, where it is usually
associated with the idea of fruitfulness. Moses described the promised
land as a land of Wheat and Barley, and Vines, and Fig-trees, and
Pomegranates; a land of oil-Olive and honey. Solomon speaks of “an
orchard of Pomegranates with pleasant fruits.” It was used to flavour
wine and meats, and a wine was made from its juice: “I would cause thee
to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my Pomegranate” (Canticles
viii., 2). The Jews employed the fruit in their religious ceremonials.
The capitals of the pillars in the Temple of Jerusalem were covered
with carved Pomegranates. On the hem of Aaron’s sacred robe were
embroidered, in blue, in purple, and in scarlet, Pomegranates,
alternating with golden bells. A similar adornment of the fringes of
their robes was affected by the ancient Kings of Persia, who united
in their own person the regal and sacerdotal offices.----In Christian
art, the Pomegranate depicted as bursting open, and the seeds visible,
was an emblem of the future--of hope in immortality. St. Catherine,
as the mystical _Sposa_ of Christ, is sometimes represented with a
Pomegranate in her hand; and the infant Saviour is often depicted
holding this fruit and presenting it to the Virgin.----Moore speaks
of the “charmed leaf of pure Pomegranate,” in allusion to the Persian
idea as to its purifying attributes. In the ceremonies of the Ghebers
(fire-worshippers) round their sacred fire, the Darvo gives them water
to drink and Pomegranate-leaf to chew in their mouth, to cleanse them
from inward uncleanness.----The Pomegranate was the device of Henry
IV., who took it from the Moorish kings of Grenada, with the motto,
“Sour, yet sweet.” The crown-like shape of its calyx probably induced
Anne of Austria to adopt it, with the motto, “My worth is not in my
crown.” The Pomegranate was the emblem of Katherine of Arragon, and
in one of the masques held in honour of her marriage with our Henry
VIII., a bank of Roses and Pomegranates typified the union of England
and Spain. Her daughter, Queen Mary, took the Pomegranate and white and
red Roses.----Parkinson tells us that from the rind of the Pomegranate
is made writing-ink “which is durable to the world’s end.”----The
Athenian matrons, during the Thesmophoria (festivals in honour of
Ceres), were expressly forbidden to eat Pomegranates.----To dream
of Pomegranates is a fortunate augury, foretelling good fortune and
success; to the lover such a dream implies a faithful and accomplished
sweetheart, and to the married an increase of riches and children, and
great success in trade.
POOR MAN’S PARMACETTY.--See Shepherd’s Purse.
=POPLAR.=--In allusion to the reputed origin of this tree, René Rapin,
in his poem on Gardens, says:--
“Nor must the Heliads’ fate in silence pass,
Whose sorrow first produced the Poplar race;
Their tears, while at a brother’s grave they mourn,
To golden drops of fragrant Amber turn.”
The Heliades, sisters of the rash Phaëthon (who had yoked the horses
to the chariot of the Sun before his fatal drive), on finding his tomb
upon the banks of the river Po, became distracted with grief, and
for four days and nights kept mournful watch with their disconsolate
mother around the grave. Tired out with their exhausting vigil, they
endeavoured at length to obtain some repose for their weary limbs, when
to their dismay they found them rooted to the ground. The gods, pitying
their intense grief, had changed the seven sisters into Poplars, and
their tears into Amber. Ovid thus narrates the incident:--
“Each nymph in wild affliction, as she grieves,
Would rend her hair, but fills her hand with leaves;
One sees her limbs transformed, another views
Her arms shot out and branching into boughs,
And now their legs, and breasts, and bodies stood
Crusted with bark and hardening into wood.
* * * * *
Then the bark increased,
Closed in their faces, and their words suppressed.
The new-made trees in tears of Amber run,
Which, hardened into value by the sun,
Distil for ever on the streams below;
The limpid streams their radiant treasure show,
Mixed in the sand; whence the rich drops conveyed
Shine in the dress of the bright Latian maid.”--_Addison._
The species of Poplar into which the Heliades were transformed was the
Black Poplar (_Populus nigra_). This Poplar was consecrated to the
goddess Proserpine. The White Poplar was considered to be an antidote
to the bite of a serpent, and was dedicated to Hercules, who sometimes
wore a crown of Poplar-leaves. When the demi-god destroyed Cacus in a
cavern on Mount Aventine, which was covered with Poplars, he bound a
branch of one round his brow in token of his victory. On his return
from Hades, he wore a crown of Poplar-leaves, the outer portions of
which were turned black by the smoke of the infernal regions, whilst
the inner surface was blanched by the perspiration from the hero’s
brow. At all ceremonies and sacrifices to Hercules, his worshippers
wore garlands of Poplar-leaves, as did those who had triumphed
in battle, in commemoration of the demi-god’s victory. Groves of
Poplar-trees were frequently planted and dedicated to Hercules.----The
White Poplar was also dedicated to Time, because its leaves were
constantly in motion, and, being dark on one side and light on the
other, they were emblematic of night and day.----Of the wood of this
tree the Romans made bucklers, on account of its lightness, and covered
them with ox-hides: hence, Pliny says, _Populus apta scutis_.----The
prophet Hosea is thought to have referred to the White Poplar when
he accused the Children of Israel of sacrificing and burning incense
under Poplars “because the shadow thereof is good” (Hosea iv.)----The
similarity of sound, in Latin and French, between the words for
“Poplar” and “People” seems to be the reason which has led to the
tree being regarded as a republican emblem. In the French Revolution
of 1848, Poplars were transplanted from gardens, and set up in the
squares of Paris, where they were glorified as Trees of Liberty, and
hung with wreaths of Everlasting Flowers. Napoleon III. had them all
uprooted and burnt.----Under the head of ASPEN will be found several
legends respecting the quivering foliage of the _Populus tremula_--the
“Quiggen-epsy” of the good folk of Ulster. Mrs. Hemans, in her ‘Wood
Walk,’ thus alludes to one of these old traditions, in which the Cross
of Christ is represented as having been made of the wood of this
species of Poplar:--
“FATHER.--Hast thou heard, my boy,
The peasant’s legend of that quivering tree?
“CHILD.--No, father; doth he say the fairies dance
Amidst its branches?
“FATHER.--Oh! a cause more deep,
More solemn far, the rustic doth assign
To the strange restlessness of those wan leaves.
The Cross he deems--the blessed Cross, whereon
The meek Redeemer bow’d His head to death--
Was formed of Aspen wood; and since that hour
Through all its race the pale tree hath sent down
A thrilling consciousness, a secret awe
Making them tremulous, when not a breeze
Disturbs the airy Thistle-down, or shakes
The light lines from the shining gossamer.”
Among the Highlanders, there is a tradition that the Cross of Christ
was made of the wood of the White Poplar, and throughout Christendom
there is a belief that the tree trembles and shivers mystically in
sympathy with the ancestral tree which became accursed.----The Greeks
regarded the Poplar as a funereal tree. In the funeral games at
Rhodes, the victor was crowned with Poplar leaves consecrated to the
Manes.----Like several other funereal trees, the Poplar has become a
symbol of generation. Thus, in Bologna, at the birth of a girl, the
parents, if able, will plant one thousand Poplar-trees, which they
religiously tend till the maiden marries, when they are cut down,
and the price given as a marriage portion to the bride. Alphonse
Karr says that a similar custom exists in certain northern countries
among the better class of farmers.----In Sicily, and especially at
Monterosso, near Modica, on Midsummer Eve, the people fell the highest
Poplar, and with shouts, drag it through the village. Numbers of the
villagers mount the trunk during its progress, beating a drum. Around
this great Poplar, symbolising the greatest solar ascension and the
decline which follows it, the crowd dance and sing an appropriate
refrain.----Astrologers state that the Poplar is under the dominion of
Saturn.
=POPPY.=--The origin of the Poppy (_Papaver_) was attributed by the
ancient Greeks to Ceres, who, despairing of regaining her daughter
Proserpine, carried off by Pluto, created the flower, in order that
by partaking of it she might obtain sleep, and thus forget her great
grief. Browne thus speaks of this legend:--
“Sleep-bringing Poppy, by the plowman late,
Not without cause to Ceres consecrate.
* * * * *
Fairest Proserpine was rapt away,
And she in plaints the night, in tears the day,
Had long time spent: when no high power could give her
Any redresse, the Poppy did relieve her:
For eating of the seeds, they sleep procured,
And so beguiled those griefs she long endured.”
The ancients considered the _Papaver Rhæa_, or Corn-Rose, so necessary
for the prosperity of their Corn, that the seeds of this Poppy were
offered up in the sacred rites of Ceres, whose garland was formed
with Barley or bearded Wheat interwoven with Poppies. The goddess is
sometimes depicted holding Poppies in her hand. The somniferous and
quieting effects of the Poppy, which were well known to the Greeks,
probably led them to represent the deities Hypnos (Sleep), Thanatos
(Death), and Nyx (Night), either as crowned with Poppies, or holding
Poppies in their hands.----Rapin, speaking of the effects of the Poppy
as a narcotic, says:--
“The powerful seeds, when pressed, afford a juice.
In med’cine famous, and of sovereign use,
Whether in tedious nights it charm to rest,
Or bind the stubborn cough and ease the lab’ring breast.”
It was customary with the Romans, to offer Poppies to the dead,
especially to those whose names they were desirous of appeasing.
Virgil, in his ‘Georgics,’ calls the flower the Lethean Poppy, and
directs it to be offered as a funeral rite to Orpheus. The Grecian
youths and maidens were wont to prove the sincerity of their lovers
by placing in the hollow of the palm of the left hand a petal or
flower-leaf of the Poppy, which, on being struck with the other hand,
was broken with a sharp sound: this denoted true attachment; but if the
leaf failed to snap, unfaithfulness. From Greece, this usage passed to
Rome, and finally to modern Italy, where, as well as in Switzerland, it
is still extant.
“By a prophetic Poppy leaf I found
Your changed affection, for it gave no sound,
Though in my hand struck hollow as it lay,
But quickly withered like your love away.”--_Theocritus._
A superstitious belief exists that the red Poppies which followed the
ploughing of the field of Waterloo after Wellington’s victory sprang
from the blood of the troops who fell during the battle.----According
to a Bengali legend, the origin of Opium was as follows:--There once
lived on the banks of the holy river Ganga a Rishi, or sage, in whose
hut, made of Palm-leaves, there was a mouse, which became a favourite
with the seer, and was endowed by him with the gift of speech. After
awhile, the mouse, having been frightened by a cat, at his earnest
solicitation, was changed by the Rishi into a cat; then, alarmed by
dogs, into a dog; then into an ape; then into a boar; then into an
elephant; and finally, being still discontented with its lot, into a
beautiful maiden, to whom the holy sage gave the name of Postomani,
or the Poppy-seed lady. One day, whilst tending her plants, the king
approached the Rishi’s cottage, and was invited to rest and refresh
himself by Postomani, who offered him some delicious fruit. The King,
however, struck by the girl’s beauty, refused to eat until she had told
him her parentage. Postomani, to deceive the king, told him she was a
princess whom the Rishi had found in the woods and had brought up. The
upshot was that the king made love to the girl, and they were married
by the holy sage. She was treated as the favourite queen, and was very
happy; but one day, whilst standing by a well, she turned giddy, fell
into the water, and died. The Rishi then appeared before the king, and
begged him not to give way to consuming grief, assuring him that the
late queen was not of royal blood. Said he: “She was born a mouse,
and, according to her own wish, I changed her successively into a cat,
a dog, a boar, an elephant, and a lovely girl. Let her body remain
in the well; fill up the well with earth. Out of her flesh and bones
will grow a tree, which shall be called after her Posto, that is, the
Poppy-tree. From this tree will be obtained a drug called Opium, which
will be celebrated through all ages, and which will be either swallowed
or smoked as a wondrous narcotic till the end of time. The Opium
swallower or smoker will have one quality of each of the animals to
which Postomani was transformed. He will be mischievous like a mouse,
fond of milk like a cat, quarrelsome like a dog, filthy like an ape,
savage like a boar, and high-tempered like a queen.”----According to
astrologers, the Poppy is a flower of the Moon.
=POTATO.=--Although introduced into Europe as late as 1584, the Potato
(_Solanum tuberosum_) has been made the subject of several popular
superstitions. In Birmingham and many other districts, it is believed
that a Potato carried in the trousers pocket is a sure charm against
rheumatism so long as the tuber is kept there; and the Dutch believed
that a Potato begged or stolen is a preservation against the same
malady.----In Germany, they take precautions against the Potato demon
or wolf (_Kartoffelwolf_): after the last Potatoes have been dug up,
the peasants dress up a puppet which they call _Erdapfelmann_, and
carry the figure in procession to the house of their master, where
they recite a doggrel verse. A luminosity, powerful enough to enable a
bystander to read by, issues from the common Potato when in a state of
putrefaction; this was particularly remarked by an officer on guard at
Strasburg, who thought the barracks were on fire in consequence of the
light that was emitted from a cellar full of Potatoes.
PRICK MADAM.--See Stonecrop.
PRIEST’S PINTLE.--See Arum.