=PRIMROSE.=--Anciently the Primrose was called _Paralisos_, after the

name of a handsome stripling, the son of Priapus and Flora, who died

of grief for the loss of his betrothed Melicerta, but was snatched

from the jaws of death by his parents, and metamorphosed into “the

rathe Primrose that forsaken dies.”----The name Primrose anciently

appertained to the Daisy, and is written by Chaucer Primerole, from the

old French _Primeverole_, the first Spring flower; Primerole became

changed to Primrolles, and then to Primrose, the first Rose of Spring;

and it was not until the sixteenth century that it attached itself

to the flower which now bears its name.----In Worcestershire, it is

regarded as exceedingly unlucky in Spring-time to take less than a

handful of Primroses or Violets into a farmer’s house, as a disregard

of this rule is popularly believed to invite destruction of the good

wife’s brood of ducklings and chickens.----In East Norfolk, it is

thought that if a less number of Primroses than thirteen be brought

into a house on the first occasion of introducing any, so many eggs

only will each goose hatch that season.----Henderson, in his ‘Folk-lore

of the Northern Counties,’ gives the following superstitious custom:

“Let a youth or maiden pull from its stalk the flower, and after

cutting off the tops of the stamens with a pair of scissors, lay it in

a secret place where no human eye can see it. Let him think through

the day and dream through the night of his sweetheart; and then, upon

looking at it the next day, if he find the stamens shot out to their

former height, success will attend him in love; if not, he can only

expect disappointment.”----Browne tells us--

“The Primrose, when with six leaves gotten grace,

Maids as a true-love in their bosoms place.”

Shakspeare makes it a funeral flower for youth:--

“With fairest flowers

Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,

I’ll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack

The flower that’s like thy face, pale Primrose.”

In recent times, the Primrose has become associated with the memory

of Lord Beaconsfield, and a society called the “Primrose League”

has been formed, having for its object the dissemination of those

constitutional principles which were so dear to the late Earl.----In

Germany, the Primrose is called the _Schlüsselblume_, or Key-flower,

in reference to the numerous legends of a flower opening the locks of

doors to treasure-caves, &c.; resembling in its magical functions the

Russian _Rasrivtrava_, the _Eisenkraut_ (Vervain), the Fern, Mistletoe,

Hazel, Springwort, and Moonwort.----The goddess Bertha is supposed to

entice children to enter her enchanted halls by offering them beautiful

Primroses.----Astrologers claim the Primrose as a herb of Venus.

PROCESSION FLOWER.--See Milkwort.

=PTERIS ESCULENTA.=--The New Zealand _tohunga_, or priest, professes

the following rite to be a cure for headache. The officiant pulls out

two stalks of the _Pteris esculenta_, from which the fibres of the root

must be removed; and beating them together over the patient’s head, he

offers a prayer to Atua.

PUCK-FIST.--See Toadstool.

=PULSATILLA.=--In the Ukraine, the _Pulsatilla patens_ is called

Sontrava, the Dream-plant. It is believed by the people of the country

that the flowers of this plant, which blossoms in the month of April,

if placed between the pillow and the bed, will cause the sleeper to

dream of what will undoubtedly be accomplished.

=PUMPKIN.=--Among the East Indians, there is a legend that there once

existed a mighty man named Iaïa, whose only son died. The father wished

to bury him, but did not know where. So he placed him in an enormous

Pumpkin, which he conveyed to the foot of a mountain, not far from his

habitation. Impelled by his love for the departed one, he one day had

the curiosity to revisit the spot, and, desirous of once again seeing

his son, he opened the Pumpkin. Immediately whales and other immense

fish jumped out. Iaïa, affrighted, returned home, and told what he had

seen to his neighbours, adding that the Pumpkin appeared to be filled

with water and quantities of fish. Four brothers who had been born

at one time rushed off in haste to the spot indicated, in order to

secure the fish for food. Iaïa followed, to prevent them from injuring

the Pumpkin. The brothers, who had succeeded in lifting the gigantic

vegetable, were frightened at seeing Iaïa approach, and let fall the

Pumpkin, which was, in consequence, cracked in several places. From

the fissures thus made poured forth such a volume of water, that the

whole earth was inundated: and from this circumstance the oceans were

formed.----The Chinese honour the Pumpkin or Gourd as the emperor of

vegetables. The vegetable was considered by the ancients to be an

emblem of abundance, fecundity, prosperity, and good health. To dream

of Pumpkins, however, is considered a very bad omen.

PURIFICATION FLOWER.--See Snowdrop.

=PURSLANE.=--Purslane (_Portulaca_), strewn about a bed, used

in olden times to be considered a sure protection against evil

spirits.----Astrologers classify it among the herbs of the Moon.

=QUINCE.=--The fruit of the Quince-tree (_Cydonia_) was consecrated

to Venus, and was looked upon by Grecian lovers as a love token.

According to Athenæus, the chariot of the goddess of Love was not only

filled with Myrtles and Roses, but also with Quinces, and in many

ancient effigies of the goddess, she is represented with a Quince

in her hand. By a decree of Solon, which gave to an ancient popular

custom the countenance of the law, a Grecian bride, before seeking the

nuptial couch, had to eat a Quince.----The Greeks called the Quince

_Chrysomelon_, or Golden Apple; hence it is not surprising to find it

asserted that the golden fruit of the Hesperides were Quinces, and that

these tempted Hercules to attack the guardian dragon. In confirmation

of this opinion, a statue of the demi-god holding a Quince in his hand

as a trophy is referred to. It is also alleged that it was by means

of Quinces given to him by Venus, that Hippomenes beguiled Atalanta

during his race with her, and so won it.----It was by means of a Quince

that Acontius won his bride: this youth, when at Delos, to attend the

sacrifices of Diana, fell in love with the beautiful Cydippe: fearing

to demand her hand, on account of his obscure origin, the crafty

lover threw into the Temple of Diana, whilst Cydippe was performing

her devotions, a Quince, with this inscription:--“I swear, by the

divinity of Diana, to become the wife of Acontius.” The young girl,

having picked up the Quince, read aloud the inscription, and, being

compelled by the oath she had thus inadvertently taken in the sacred

presence of the goddess, she obtained her parents’ consent to marry

the quick-witted Acontius.----Turner, in his ‘Brittish Physician,’

says that the juice of raw Quince is accounted an antidote against

deadly poison.----To dream of Quinces is stated to be favourable to the

dreamer, denoting speedy release from troubles, sickness, &c.

=QUICKEN-TREE.=--The Mountain Ash, Wild Service, or Rowan-tree (_Pyrus

aucuparia_), is also known by the names of the Quicken or Quick-beam,

Witchen or Wicken, appellations which, from the Rowan-tree having been

long regarded as a preservative against witchcraft, some writers have

erroneously connected with the Anglo-Saxon word _wicce_, a witch.

Evelyn calls this tree the Quick-beam, and says that in Wales it is

planted in every churchyard, and that “on a certain day in the year

everybody religiously wears a cross made of the wood, and it is reputed

to be a preservative against fascination and evil spirits, whence

perhaps we call it _Witchen_; the boughs being stuck about the house,

or the wood used for walking-staves.” (See ROWAN).

=RADISH.=--The Germans have given to a species of wild Radish bearing

blue flowers the name of _Hederich_, and they have an old superstition

that whoever wears a crown composed of Hederich is enabled to detect

witches. A wreath of Hederich is sometimes placed on cows before

leaving their stalls to be milked, in order to protect them from the

effect of the Evil Eye.----In England, to dream of Radishes signifies

the discovery of secrets, domestic quarrels, and misfortune.----In

Germany, they call a certain evil spirit, or Geni of the mountain,

_Rübezahl_, the Counter of Radishes; and the legend relates that on

one occasion this Geni took advantage of the absence of her lover to

pay his odious addresses to a young princess, whom he kept confined

in her castle. As the princess expressed a desire for companions, the

Geni gathered some Radishes, which she touched with a magic wand, and

changed into young girls, who, however, only remained young so long

as the Radishes retained their juice. Then the Geni gave her some

fresh Radishes, one of which, on being touched with the magic wand,

became a bee. The princess, who was jealously guarded by the Geni,

sent off the bee as a messenger to her lover, to inform him that she

was in the Geni’s power. The bee did not return. She touched a second,

which became a cricket, and despatched it in search of her lover. The

cricket never returned. Then the princess desired the Geni to count

the Radishes, and he, to please her, did so. Whilst so occupied, the

princess touched one of the Radishes with her wand, and it became a

horse. In an instant, she sprang on its back, and rode away at full

speed; and fortunately meeting her lover, they both escaped together.

=RAGGED ROBIN.=--The Ragged Robin, Cuckoo Flower, Meadow Campion, or

Meadow Pink (_Lychnis Flos cuculi_) owes the first of these names to

the finely-cut but ragged appearance of its petals. It is dedicated to

St. Barnabas.

=RAG-WEED.=--The large Rag-weed (_Senecio Jacobæa_) has a traditional

reputation of having been employed by witches as horses when they

took their midnight rides.----To the south of the famed Logan Rock

on the Cornish coast is a high peak of granite known as the Castle

Peak, which is locally reputed to have been for ages the midnight

rendezvous for witches; and thither, according to tradition, witches

were constantly seen flying on moonlight nights, mounted on the stems

of the Rag-weed, and carrying with them the things necessary to make

their charms potent and strong. The Rag-weeds or worts were also called

Stagger-worts because they were found effectual to cure the staggers

in horses. Hence these plants were dedicated to St. James, the patron

of horses, and are still known as St. James’s Worts; they also blossom

about this great warrior and pilgrim saint’s day, July 25th. This

connection of the plant with horses probably explains the tradition of

its having been employed as the witches’ steed.

RAMP.--See Arum.

=RAMPION.=--The Rampion (_Campanula Rapunculus_) was considered by

the ancients as a funereal vegetable or root. In the temple of Apollo

at Delphi, the esculent roots of the Rampion were highly esteemed

as appropriate food, and were carried on golden plates. Among the

Italians, there exists an old superstition that the possession of a

Rampion engenders among children a quarrelsome disposition, and excites

their anger to such a degree, that unless checked, murder would result.

Hence, in ancient dream-books, a dream in which the Rampion is seen is

interpreted as a sure sign of an impending quarrel.

=RANUNCULUS.=--The name Ranunculus (which is the diminutive of _rana_,

a frog) was applied by the Latins to this species of plants because

they were observed to grow in places frequented by frogs.----Rapin

tells us that the flower was originally a young Libyan noted for his

sweet voice:--

“Ranunculus, who with melodious strains

Once charmed the ravished nymphs on Libyan plains,

Now boasts through verdant fields his rich attire,

Whose love-sick look betrays a secret fire;

Himself his song beguiled and seized his mind

With pleasing flames for other hearts designed.”

The Latin herbalists also called the plant _Strumea_, because it was

used as a remedy for a complaint similar to the King’s-evil, termed

_Strumæ_. With one of the species of Ranunculus the ancients were wont

to poison the points of their arrows.----The Buttercup, also known

as King’s Cup, Gold Cup, Gold Knobs, Leopard’s Foot, and Cuckoo-bud,

belongs to the Ranunculus family.----The Crowfoot or Crowflower

(the _Coronopus_ of Dioscorides) is also a Ranunculus: this plant

possesses the power of raising blisters on the skin, and is employed

by mendicants to raise wounds on their limbs, in order to excite

sympathy. Cattle generally refuse the acrid Crowfoot (_R. acris_), but

if they perchance eat it, it will blister their mouths. The Illyrian

Crowfoot (_R. Illyricus_), Gerarde tells us, is thought to be the

_Gelotophyllis_ mentioned by Pliny (Book xxiv.), “which being drunk,

saith he, with wine and Myrrhe, causeth a man to see divers strange

sights, and not to cease laughing till he hath drunk Pine-apple kernels

with Pepper in wine of the Date-tree (I think he would have said until

he be dead), because the nature of laughing Crowfoot is thought to

kill laughing, but without doubt the thing is clean contrary, for

it causeth such convulsions, crampe, and wringings of the mouth and

jaws, that it hath seemed to some that the parties have died laughing,

whereas, in truth, they have died in great torment.”----The Double

Crowfoot, or Bachelor’s Buttons, used formerly to be called St.

Anthony’s Turnip, because of its round bulbous root: this root was

reputed to be very efficacious in curing the plague, if applied to the

part affected. According to Apuleius, it was a sure cure for lunacy,

if hung round the neck of the patient, in a linen cloth, “in the wane

of the Moon, when the sign shall be in the first degree of Taurus or

Scorpio.”----The Persian Ranunculus is the Ranunculus of the garden.

The Turks cultivated it under the name of _Tarobolos Catamarlale_,

for several ages before it was known in other parts of Europe. Their

account of its introduction is, that a Vizier, named Cara Mustapha,

first noticed among the herbage of the fields this hitherto neglected

flower, and decorated the garden of the Seraglio with it. The flower

attracted the notice of the Sultan, upon which he caused it to be

brought from all parts of the East where varieties could be found.

This collection of Ranunculus flowers was carefully preserved in the

Seraglio gardens alone, and only through bribery did at last some few

roots find their way into other parts of Europe.----Astrologers hold

the Ranunculus to be under the rule of Mars.

_RASRIVTRAVA._--The Rasrivtrava is the Russian name of a plant which

has magical powers, enabling it to fracture chains and break open

locks,--properties which appertain also to the _Primula veris_ or Key

of the Spring, to the _Eisenkraut_ or Vervain, the Mistletoe, the

Lunary or Moonwort, the Springwort, the Fern, and the Hazel. The word

_Rasrivtrava_ means literally the “Plant that Opens.”

=RASPBERRY.=--Formerly the Raspberry was very generally known as the

Hindberry; and this name is still retained in some counties.----It is

thought that to dream of Raspberries betokens success, happiness in

marriage, fidelity in a sweetheart, and good news from abroad.

=REED.=--King Midas is said to have expressed the opinion that the

Reed-pipes of the god Pan produced better music than the lyre of

Apollo. The offended god in consequence changed the king’s ears to

those of an ass. Midas concealed his deformity as long as he was able;

but at length a barber discovered his secret, and being unable to keep

it, and at the same time dreading the king’s resentment, he dug a hole

in the earth, and after whispering therein, “King Midas has the ears

of an ass,” he covered up the hole, and in it, as he hoped, the words

divulging the secret. But on that spot grew a number of Reeds, and

when they were agitated by the wind, instead of merely rustling, they

repeated the buried words--“King Midas has the ears of an ass.”--Cato

tells us the Roman country folks, when they had broken an arm or a leg,

split a Reed, and applied it, with certain precautions, to the wounded

part, accompanying the operation with a rustic incantation, such as the

following:--

“_Huat, hanat huat,

Ista pista sista,

Damiabo damnaustra._”

A Devonshire charm for the thrush is:--Take three Reeds from any

running stream, and pass them separately through the mouth of the

infant; then plunge the Reeds again into the stream, and as the current

bears them away, so will the thrush depart from the child.----From the

Reed (_Calamus_) the first pen was invented, and of Reeds arrows were

made. The root of _Calamus aromaticus_ was highly esteemed in eastern

countries: thus we read in Gerarde’s ‘Herbal,’ that “the Turks at

Constantinople take it fasting, in the morning, against the contagion

of the corrupt aire; and the Tartars have it in such esteeme, that

they will not drinke water unlesse they have first steeped some of

the root therein.”----In the Ukraine, is current a version of the

tradition alluded to under the head of OATS. In this version, the Reed

belongs to the Devil, and has, in fact, been his habitation since

the days of Jesus Christ. One day, having met the Saviour, he prayed

Him to give to him as his portion the Oats and Buckwheat, because,

after having assisted the Almighty to create the world, he had never

received for himself any consideration. The Saviour consented, and

the Devil was so delighted, that he skipped off without even thanking

his benefactor. The wolf met him, and seeing him so elated, asked him

why he was jumping and skipping about? This question confused the

Devil, who, instead of replying “because God has given me the Oats and

Buckwheat,” said: “I am skipping because God has given me the Reed and

the Sow-thistle.” From that time, it is said, the Devil never could

recollect the present that God had made him, but always imagined that

it was the Reed and the Sow-thistle.----According to English dream

oracles, for the slumberer to see Reeds betokens mischief between him

and his friends.

=REED-MACE.=--The Bulrush, or Cat’s-Tail (_Typha latifolia_), has

acquired the name of Reed-Mace from the fact that Rubens and the early

Italian painters, in their _Ecce Homo_ pictures, depict the Saviour as

holding in His hands this Reed as a mace or sceptre. The Reed-Mace is,

on certain days, put by Catholics into the hands of statues of Christ.

RESURRECTION-FLOWER.--See Rose of Jericho.

=RHAMNUS.=--The _Rhamnus Spina Christi_, or Syrian Christ’s Thorn, has

acquired that name because it is supposed by many to have supplied the

crown of Thorns at our Saviour’s crucifixion. An English species,

_Rhamnus Paliurus_, is also called by Miller _Spina Christi_. (See

THORN and BUCKTHORN.)

=RICE.=--Among Orientals, Rice is esteemed the symbol of life,

generation, and abundance. The Dyaks of Borneo and the Karens of

Burmah look upon it as a divinity, and address prayers to it to ensure

a good harvest. In Siam, Rice and honey are offered to trees before

they are felled.----Rice plays an important part in the marriage

ceremonies of India. At the altar, the bride is three times approached

by her friends, who on each occasion place Rice in her hands. They

also scatter Rice on the head of the bridegroom. On the last day of

the nuptial ceremonies, the bride and bridegroom together offer the

sacrifice of Soma, during which they throw in the fire Rice moistened

with butter. The Brahmans, when performing the marriage rites, after

having recited a variety of prayers, consecrate the union of the

couple by throwing a handful of Saffron mixed with the flour of Rice

on their shoulders. Offerings of Rice and Saffron are made by married

women in India to obtain healthy children, and to procure from the

divinity exemption from the maladies of their sex. On the birth of a

son, the Brahman father, after having banished the females from the

apartment, takes the infant and places on its head Rice coloured red:

this is done in order to avert the Evil Eye. Another method is to

envelope small portions of Rice in cloths marked with the names of

women suspected of being witches, and to place the whole in a nest of

white ants. Should the ants devour the Rice in any of these mystic

bundles, the charge of sorcery is thereby established against the woman

whose name it bears. Young girls desirous of husbands offer dressed

Rice to the gods. At the consecration of a Brahmanic disciple, the

father of the candidate carries in his hands a cup filled with Rice,

and the assistants, after the bath, cover the candidate with Rice. Rice

is employed in many of the Hindu sacrifices and religious ceremonies,

and is regarded as sacred: no one would touch it without having first

made his ablutions. At the time of sowing it, certain ceremonies are

solemnly observed.----In China, during the Spring Festival of the

Fire, the priests of Tao march round the brasier, carrying a basket

filled with Rice and salt, of which from time to time they cast a

handful into the fire, to conjure the flame and to obtain an abundant

harvest.----A Japanese legend relates that in ancient times the Bonzes

(priests) of Nikko, like the other natives, lived solely on herbs and

roots, not knowing any other kind of nourishment. One day, however, a

Bonze observed a mouse hiding some Rice and other grains in a corner.

He could not understand where the mouse could have obtained it, so he

set a trap, and having caught the little creature, he tied to one of

its hind legs a silken thread; and then, holding the other end of the

thread in his hand, he set the mouse free, and determined to follow

wherever it should run. The mouse led the priest into a remote and

unknown land, where Rice grew in abundance. The Bonze learnt how

to cultivate it, and speedily introduced it into his own country,

where it proved such a blessing, that the inhabitants worshipped the

mouse as a god, under the name of Daikoku-sama. From that day the

mouse has been held sacred by the Japanese poor, and its effigy is

found suspended in many of their houses as a fetish.----Among the

Arabs, Rice is considered as a sacred food, and tradition runs that

it first sprang from a drop of perspiration which fell from Mahomet

in Paradise. Another tradition current among the Arabs is, that the

national dish, composed of a mixture of Rice with other ingredients,

and called Kuskussu, was revealed to Mahomet by the angel Gabriel

himself.----The Bushmen of Central Africa have the following legend

concerning Rice:--A pretty woman having eaten a certain Bushman-rice,

called “ant’s-egg,” became transformed into a lioness; but after the

spell was broken by reason of her little sister and her brothers also

eating this particular Rice, she regained her original form, and from

that day detested the Bushman-rice. This beautiful woman is supposed to

have been the wife of the star called Heart of the Dawn.----In England,

the Oriental practice of employing Rice at wedding festivities has

of late become very general; and it is customary for showers of Rice

to be thrown after the bride and bridegroom, as the happy pair quit

the bride’s home; this is thought to promote their success and future

happiness.----According to a work on the subject, to dream of eating

Rice denotes abundance of instruction.

=ROCKET.=--This is a name given to several different plants the most

noted of which are the London Rocket (_Sisymbrium Irio_) and the

Dame’s, or Garden Rocket (_Hesperis matronalis_). The former plant is

said to have first appeared in the metropolis in the Spring succeeding

the Great Fire of London, when young Rockets were seen everywhere

springing up among the ruins, where they increased so marvellously,

that in the Summer the enormous crop crowding over the surface of

London created the greatest astonishment and wonder.----The Garden

Rocket (_Hesperis_) boasts of many other old-fashioned names:--Dame’s

Violet, Damask Violet, Queen’s Gilliflower, Rogue’s Gilliflower,

Winter Gilliflower, and Close Sciences (originally Close Sciney).

It is the _Cassolette_ (smelling-bottle), _Julienne_, and _la

Juliana_ of the French; and the _Bella Giulia_ and _Giuliana_ of the

Italians.----According to Pliny, as quoted by Gerarde, “whosoever

taketh the seed of Rocket before he be whipt, shall be so hardened

that he shall easily endure the paines.” Turner remarks that all sorts

of Rockets, but especially the seed, quicken nature and excite the

passions; the seed he recommends as efficacious “against the bitings

of the shrew-mouse and other venomous beasts.” Moreover, if mixed

with vinegar, it is stated to remove freckles and pimples from the

face.----Rocket is held to be under the dominion of Mars.

ROGATION-FLOWER.--See Gang-Flower and Milkwort.

ROOT OF THE HOLY GHOST.--See Angelica.

=ROSE.=--It is worthy of notice how little the name of the Rose

varies amongst different nations. The Greeks call it _Rodon_, the

Latins _Rosa_ (a form adhered to by Italians, Russians, Spaniards,

and Portuguese), the English, French, Germans, and Danes, _Rose_, the

Poles _Roza_, the Dutch _Roos_, and the Swedes _Ros_. Roses embellish

the whole earth, and are natives of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America;

Nature having apparently, in this generous distribution, designed to

offer these flowers to all people, as the type of grace and beauty. The

origin of the queen of flowers is told us by the Jesuit poet Rapin,

according to whose verse--

“She was a Grecian born, gave Corinth laws,

And fame proclaimed her worth with such applause,

That youthful rivals for her favour strove,

And high-born kings were suppliants for her love.”

Of her numerous suitors, Brias, Orcas, and Halesus, a warrior, were the

principal. Provoked at their importunities, she haughtily bade them

“from arms and not entreaties seek a bride;” and then, to rid herself

of them, she entered the temple of Apollo and Diana with her father and

people. The lovers, not to be denied, combined in an attack upon the

temple gates, and the excitement of the combat so enhanced the maiden’s

beauty, that the people shouted, “Let Rhodanthe be a goddess, and let

the image of Diana give place to her!” Rhodanthe being therefore placed

upon the shrine, Phœbus, Diana’s brother, became so incensed at the

insult to his sister, that he turned his scorching rays against the

would-be goddess, who bitterly repented that she had ever appeared a

deity; for--

“Fast in the shrine her foot takes hold and cleaves,

Her arms stretch’d out are cover’d o’er with leaves;

Tho’ chang’d into a flower, her pomp remains,

And lovely still, and still a queen she reigns.

The crowd for their offence this doom abide.

Shrunk into thorns to guard her beauty’s pride.”

Her too ardent lovers were transformed respectively into a worm, a

drone, and a butterfly.

This account bears a general resemblance to the legend recounted by Sir

John Maundevile, who visited Bethlehem in the fourteenth century, and

found there the field Floridus, wherein, he tells us, a fair maiden

who had been unjustly accused of wrong was doomed to be burned; and,

after praying devoutly to God that, inasmuch as she was not guilty, He

would help her, and make her innocence known to all men, “she entered

the fire, and immediately the fire was extinguished, and the faggots

that were burning became red Rose-bushes full of Roses, and those that

remained unkindled became white Rose-bushes; and these were the first

Rose-trees and Roses, both white and red, that ever any man saw.”

“Thus,” concludes Sir John, “was this mayden saved be the grace of

God. And therfore is that feld clept the Feld of God florysscht: for it

was fulle of Roses.” Southey, in his poem on the Rose, has commemorated

this old story in the following lines:--

“The stake

Branches and buds, and spreading its green leaves,

Embowers and canopies the fair maid,

Who there stands glorified; and Roses, then

First seen on earth since Paradise was lost,

Profusely blossom round her, white and red.

In all their rich variety of hues.”

According to a Roumanian tradition, the Rose was originally a young and

beauteous princess, who, while bathing in the sea, so dazzled the Sun

with the radiance of her loveliness, that he stood still to gaze upon

her, and covered her with kisses. Then for three days he forgot his

duty, and obstructed the progress of night. Since that day the Lord of

the Universe has changed the princess into a Rose, and this is why the

Rose always hangs her head and blushes when the Sun gazes on her.

Anacreon gives the following poetic account of the origin of the Rose,

connecting it with the goddess of love and beauty:--

“Oh! whence could such a plant have sprung?

Attend, for thus the tale is sung:

When, humid from the silvery stream,

Effusing beauty’s warmest beam,

Venus appeared, in flushing hues,

Mellowed by ocean’s briny dews;

When, in the starry courts above,

The pregnant brain of mighty Jove

Disclosed the nymph of azure glance,

The nymph who shakes the martial lance;

Then, then, in strange eventful hour,

The earth produced an infant flower,

Which sprung with blushing tinctures drest,

And wantoned o’er its parent’s breast.

The gods beheld this brilliant birth,

And hailed the Rose, the boon of earth.”--_Moore._

Bion describes the Rose as springing from the blood of the slain

Adonis; and the Mahometans have a legend that it was produced from a

drop of perspiration which fell from the brow of Mahomet.

Relative to the colour of the Rose, we find a number of stories left us

by the ancients. Catullus tells us, that the Rose is red from blushing

for the wound it inflicted on the foot of Venus as she hastened to the

assistance of Adonis; Claudian, when Venus plucks a Rose, says it is

in remembrance of Adonis; an ancient epigram mentions her wishing to

defend Adonis from Mars, when

“Her step she fixes on the cruel thorns;

And with her blood the pallid Rose adorns.”

Anacreon tells us that the flower was dyed with nectar by the gods:--

“With nectar drops, a ruby tide,

The sweetly orient buds they dyed

And bade them bloom--the flowers divine

Of Him who sheds the teeming Vine.”--_Moore._

Still another legend is to the effect that Cupid, whilst leading a

dance in heaven, stumbled and overset a bowl of nectar, which, falling

upon the earth, stained the Rose.

The Rose--the flower of love, poetry, and beauty--was specially

dedicated to Venus, who is sometimes represented crowned with Roses,

and sometimes with a sceptre terminated with that flower. One of the

Three Graces--the attendants of Venus--usually carried a Rose in her

hand. Cupid is often depicted crowned with Roses, and the chaplet of

Hymen consisted generally of Marjoram or Roses, which latter flowers

were used in his feasts. The Thracians crowned Bacchus (Sabazius) with

Roses, and, in the vicinity of Pangæus, held a feast called _Rosalia_.

In the procession of the Corybantes, the goddess Cybele was pelted with

white Roses.

The Rose was a domestic flower sedulously cultivated by the ancients,

but especially by the Romans. It is said to have early flourished

at Rhodes, and possibly gave its name to that island. The Roses of

Campania, Miletus, Præneste, Malta, Cyrene, and Sybaris were all

noted; but especially celebrated were those of Pæstum: to this day the

insignia of Pæstum--a Syren holding a Rose--remains sculptured on the

ruined arch of one of its gates.

Among the ancients, it was customary to crown brides and bridegrooms

with a chaplet of red and white Roses. The Roman bride was decorated

with a wreath of Roses and Myrtle. The shrines of the gods and of

illustrious men in Rome were surmounted with wreaths of Roses. The

triumphal arches were adorned with these flowers, and garlands of Roses

were thrown into the chariots. At the public games, wreaths of Roses

were presented to the senators, and sometimes to the performers and

spectators. At the private entertainments of the ancients, the guests

wore wreaths of blooming Roses. The Romans thought to impart additional

relish to their feasts by the aid of the fragrance of the Rose. Pacutus

relates that “even in the time of the Republic, people were not

satisfied unless the cup of Falernian wine were swimming with Roses.”

The Spartan soldiers, after the battle of Cirrha, were so fastidious as

to refuse wine that was not perfumed with Roses. At the famed regatta

of Baiæ, the whole surface of the Lucrine Lake used to be strewn with

these flowers. At some of his banquets, Nero caused showers of Roses

to be rained down upon his guests from apertures in the ceiling.

Heliogabalus carried this practice to such an absurd extent, as to

cause the suffocation of some of his guests, who could not extricate

themselves from the heap of flowers. Cleopatra, in the entertainment

she gave in honour of Antony, spent an immense sum in Roses, with which

she had the floor of the banqueting chamber covered to the depth of an

ell, and over the flowers a thin net was drawn. The Romans were at

great expense to procure Roses in the Winter. Suetonius affirms that

Nero spent upwards of four million sesterces (about £30,000) for Roses,

at one supper. Horace, alluding to this custom, says: “Seek not for

late-blowing Roses; I ask no other crown than simple Myrtle.” In those

days, Rose-wine was celebrated, and we learn that Heliogabalus was wont

to indulge largely in this drink, and bathed himself in it. He even

caused a large swimming-bath to be filled with the costly liquid.

Milto, a fair young maiden, of obscure birth, was wont to deposit every

morning garlands of fresh flowers in the temple of Venus, as she was

too poor to make costlier offerings. Her rare beauty was once in danger

of being destroyed by a tumour which grew on her chin, but in a dream

she one night beheld the goddess, who told her to apply to it some of

the Roses from her altar. Milto obeyed; the tumour soon disappeared,

and she grew more lovely than ever; eventually attracting the notice of

the younger Cyrus, whose favourite wife she became. From that time the

medicinal properties of the Rose met with general recognition, and the

flower formed the basis of many lotions.

In classical times, the Rose was regarded as the emblem of joy, and

Comus, the god of feasting, is represented as wearing a garland of

bedewed Roses. As, during the intoxication of mirth, the mouth is apt

to run over when the heart is full, the ancients feigned that Cupid

presented a Rose to Harpocrates, the grave god of silence, as a bribe

not to betray the amours of Venus. The flower thus became a symbol of

secrecy and silence, and as such, a Rose was formerly suspended over

the guest table, that the sight of it might remind the guests that the

conversation should not be repeated elsewhere. More recently, a Rose

was painted on the ceiling of dining-rooms, and in our own time the

plaster ornament in the centre of the ceiling is still called a Rose.

This custom gave rise to the saying “Under the Rose”--an injunction of

secrecy. Hence it fell out that the Jacobins adopted the white Rose as

a political symbol of the Pretender, since his adherents were compelled

to help him “under the Rose.”

The Rose held an important place in early ecclesiastical history. As

an emblem of love and beauty, the queen of flowers was especially

dedicated by the Romish Church to the Virgin Mary: she is the Rose

of Sharon, the Mystic Rose (_Rosa mystica_), as well as the Lily of

the Valley. In old Italian paintings of the Madonna, a plantation,

garden, or hedge of Roses is often introduced, enclosing the principal

figure. In mediæval days, the Rose had a Sunday of its own at Rome,

and the reigning Pope officiated at the ceremony of the blessing of

the Golden Rose upon Mid-Lent Sunday. A Golden Rose is, even in our

own enlightened times, annually blessed by the Pope and sent as a mark

of signal pontifical favour to some royal personage. Ecclesiastical

tradition affirms that Roses and Lilies were found in the tomb of the

Virgin Mary after her assumption into heaven, and Roses were conveyed

by St. Dorothy, at the instance of Theophilus, from the heavenly

garden. Roses replaced the alms of Elizabeth of Hungary, when her apron

was rudely torn from her grasp by those who shared not her charitable

zeal for the poor. A legend of the twelfth century, quoted in a German

work by Wolf, relates how Iosbert, a pious monk, having fallen dead,

whilst worshipping at a shrine of the Virgin Mary (in honour of whom he

had been accustomed to recite five psalms every day), there sprang from

his mouth, from his eyes, and from his ears, five Roses. The bishop, on

his arrival, plucked one of the miraculous flowers, and solemnly placed

it upon the altar. No sooner had he done so, however, than the other

four Roses instantly faded away. In old paintings of the saints, Roses

are sometimes introduced in allusion to the saint’s name. St. Rosalia,

of Palermo, St. Rosa di Viterbo, St. Rosa di Lima, all wear the crown

of Roses, or it is presented by an angel. The last-named saint, who is

the patroness of America, was canonised by Clement X. According to the

Peruvian legend, the pope, when entreated to canonise her, absolutely

refused, exclaiming: “Indian and saint! as likely as that it should

rain Roses!” whereupon a miraculous shower of Roses began to fall in

the Vatican, and ceased not until the incredulous pontiff acknowledged

himself convinced of her sanctity. A legend of St. Francis of Assisi

relates that as the saint was one day shivering in his cell, in the

depth of Winter, a demon whispered in his ear suggestions of ease and

luxury. He repelled the temptations by going out and rolling himself in

the snow on a heap of Thorns. From the Thorns sprinkled with his blood

sprang Roses of Paradise, which he piously offered up to Christ and the

Madonna.

The Rosary was introduced by St. Dominick, in commemoration of his

having been shown a chaplet of Roses by the blessed Virgin. It

consisted formerly of a string of beads made of Rose-leaves tightly

pressed into round moulds, when real Roses were not strung together.

The use of a chaplet of beads as a minute of the number of prayers

recited is of Eastern origin, and dates from the time of the Egyptian

anchorites. Beads were also used by the Benedictines, and are to this

day in use among Mahometan devotees. St. Dominick invented a novel

arrangement of the chaplet, and dedicated it to the honour and glory of

the Virgin Mary. A complete Rosary consists of fifteen large and 150

small beads, the former representing the number of _Paternosters_, the

latter the number of _Ave-Marias_. The Indian Buddhists use a Rosary

of 99 beads: the Chinese and Japanese Buddhists one of 108 beads,

corresponding to the daily prayers offered against the 108 possible

sins.

In the sixth century, St. Médard, Bishop of Noyon, France, instituted a

festival at Salency, his birth-place, for adjudging a prize to the girl

who should be acknowledged the most amiable, modest, and beautiful.

The prize consisted of a simple crown of Roses, and the founder of

the festival had the gratification of crowning his own sister as the

first Rose Queen of Salency, in which obscure village this pleasant

institution still exists. At the present time, however, the _Rosière_

has a douceur of three hundred francs presented to her. Of late years

the institution of the _Rosière_ has been introduced into this country

by a Roman Catholic priest who labours in the east of London. The

Academy of Floral Games at Toulouse, founded in 1322, and still in

existence, was wont to give a Rose as a prize for the best poem. From

1288 to 1589 the French dukes and peers of all degrees were obliged

in the Spring which followed their nomination to present a tribute of

Roses to Parliament.

The association of the flower with our own country dates from a very

early period; and we find Pliny doubting whether the name Albion

referred to the white cliffs of our island or the white Roses which

grew there in abundance. In Edward the Third’s reign a gold coin was

struck called the “Rose noble,” which bore the figure of a Rose on one

of its faces. As the badge of the rival houses of York and Lancaster,

the flower became celebrated in English history--the White Rose being

the hereditary cognisance of the house of York, and the Red Rose that

of Lancaster. Shakspeare (in Henry VI.) represents the feud between the

two houses as having originated in the Temple Gardens, where after a

fierce altercation, Warwick addresses Plantagenet thus:--

“In signal of my love to thee,

Will I upon thy party wear this Rose:

And here I prophesy, this brawl to-day,

Grown to this faction in the Temple Garden,

Shall send, between the Red Rose and the White

A thousands souls to death and deadly night.”

Like the Gilliflower, the Rose was occasionally taken as a quit-rent;

thus we find in 1576 that the then Bishop of Ely granted to Sir

Christopher Hatton the greater portion of Ely House, Holborn, for

a term of twenty-one years, on consideration of the tenant paying

annually a red Rose for the garden and gate-house, and giving the

Bishop free access to the gardens, with the right of gathering twenty

bushels of Roses every year.

In the East, the Rose is an object of peculiar esteem. The Oriental

poets have united the beauteous Rose with the melodious nightingale;

and the flower is fabled to have burst forth from its bud at the song

of the warbler of the night. The poet Jami says--“You may place a

handful of fragrant herbs and flowers before the nightingale; yet he

wishes not in his constant heart for more than the sweet breath of his

beloved Rose.”

“Though rich the spot

With every flower this earth has got,

What is it to the nightingale,

If there his darling Rose is not?”--_Moore._

Persia is the veritable land of Roses: nowhere does the queen of

flowers reign in such glorious majesty. Zoroaster himself, the apostle

of the Persians, and the introducer of the worship of the sacred fire,

is connected in a legend with the Rose. An astrologer having predicted

the birth of a child who would dethrone the King of Babylon, the

monarch at once gave orders for the assassination of all women who

were about to become mothers. Thousands were slain; but one gave birth

secretly to the future prophet. This having come to the King’s ear,

he sent for the child, and tried to kill him with his own hand, but

his arm was withered on the spot. Alarmed, and furious with rage, he

had the babe placed on a lighted stake, but the burning pile changed

into a bed of Roses, on which the little one lay quietly sleeping.

Some persons present saved a portion of the fire, which has been kept

up to the present day in memory of this great miracle. The king made

two other attempts to destroy Zoroaster, but his temerity was punished

miraculously by a gnat, which entered his ear and caused his death. A

festival is held in Persia, called the Feast of the Roses, which lasts

the whole time they are in bloom.

“And all is ecstacy, for now

The valley holds its feast of Roses;

That joyous time, when pleasures pour,

Profusely round, and in their shower

Hearts open, like the season’s Rose,--

The flowret of a hundred leaves,

Expanding while the dew-fall flows,

And every leaf its balm receives!”--_Moore’s ‘Lalla Rookh.’_

Pelting with Roses is still common in Persia during the time of the

blooming of the flowers. A band of young musicians repair to the places

of public entertainment to amuse the guests, and on their way through

the streets they pelt the passengers whom they meet with Roses. The

Persians regard the _Rosa centifolia_ as the flower of an archangel.

Zoroaster affirmed that the Rose was free from thorns until the

entrance into the world of Ahrimanes (the evil spirit).

The “bed of Roses” is not altogether a poetic fiction. In ancient

days, the Sybarites used to sleep upon mattresses that were stuffed

with Rose-leaves. A similar luxury was afterwards indulged in, both in

Greece and Rome. Men would sit at their meals upon cushions, and sleep

by night on beds of Roses. The tyrant Dionysius had couches stuffed

with Roses, on which he lounged at his revels. Verres used to travel on

a litter reclining on a mattress stuffed with Roses. He wore, moreover,

garlands of Roses round his head and neck, and had Rose-leaves

intertwined in a thin net, which was drawn over the litter. It was a

favourite luxury of Antiochus to sleep in a tent of gold and silver on

a mattress stuffed with Roses.

The Indians have a tradition respecting the discovery of the mode of

preparing the far-famed Attar of Roses, a perfume perhaps unrivalled

in its refreshing qualities. To gratify the voluptuous Jehanghir,

his favourite sultana is said to have had the royal bath in the

palace garden filled with Rose-water. The action of the sun speedily

concentrated the oleaginous particles floating on the surface, and

the careful attendant, fearing lest the Rose-water should have become

corrupt, hastened to skim it in order to remove the oily flakes. The

globules burst whilst this operation was being performed, and emitted

such an exquisite odour, that the idea of preparing the delicious

attar was at once suggested. Avicenna, an Arabian doctor of the tenth

century, was the first to extract from Roses their fragrant perfume by

distillation. He selected the _Rosa centifolia_ for his experiments,

and succeeded in producing the delicious liquid known as Rose-water,

which is held in such repute in the East, that when a stranger enters a

house, it is considered a mark of distinction and welcome to sprinkle

him over with Rose-water. When Saladin entered Jerusalem in 1187, he

had the floor and walls of Omar’s mosque entirely washed with this

delicate perfume.

At all times, in all countries, Roses have been employed for planting

and strewing upon graves. The dying Antony begged Cleopatra to scatter

perfumes on his tomb and cover it with Roses; and both Greeks and

Romans were desirous of having their graves bedecked every year with

the fragrant flowers. So religiously did they observe the practice of

planting Roses round graves, that they annexed codicils to their wills,

as appears by an old inscription at Ravenna, and another at Milan, by

which Roses are ordered to be yearly strewed upon the graves. In the

German portions of Switzerland, churchyards are called “Rose gardens.”

A Rose is sculptured on the tombs of maidens in Turkey. In Poland, the

coffins of little children are covered with Roses, and Roses are thrown

from the windows as the funeral procession passes along the streets.

In the South of England, a chaplet of white Roses is borne before the

corpse of a maiden, by a young girl of the same age as the deceased,

and afterwards hung up over her accustomed seat in church. In South

Wales, and in many parts of England, it was formerly customary to strew

Roses and plant Rose-trees on graves, and, indeed, the custom is still

extant. Camden says that at Ockley, in Surrey, the custom of planting

Rose-trees on graves had been observed “time out of mind.”

The Rose is one of the plants used for love divinations on Midsummer

Eve. In Cornwall, Devon, and other counties, if a young lady will, on

Midsummer Eve, walk backwards into the garden, and pluck a Rose, she

is reputed to have the means of knowing who is to be her husband. The

Rose must be cautiously sewn up in a paper bag, and put aside in a dark

drawer, there to remain until Christmas morning, when the bag must be

carefully opened in silence, and the Rose placed by the lady in her

bosom. Thus she must wear it to church. Some young man will either

ask her for the Rose or take it from her without asking; and that

young man is destined eventually to become the lady’s husband. Herrick

probably refers to this charm in the ‘Hesperides,’ when, in allusion to

a bride, he says:--

“She must no more a-maying,

Or by Rosebuds divine

Who’ll be her Valentine.”

There is a curious old divination rite to be employed on the 27th

of June, according to which maidens are enjoined on that morning to

gather secretly a full-blown Rose, between three and four o’clock. The

flower is then to be held for about five minutes over the smoke of a

chafing-dish containing some brimstone and charcoal; then, before the

Rose gets cool, it is to be placed on a sheet of paper, on which is

inscribed the maiden’s name and that of the swain she loves, together

with the date of the year, and the name of the morning star. This

paper, having been folded and thrice sealed, is to be buried at the

foot of the Rose-tree from which the flower was plucked, and allowed

to remain there until the 6th of July, when it is to be taken up,

and placed beneath the maiden’s pillow, with the result that, before

morning, she will, in a dream, have her fate revealed. The Rose is

utilised as a love-charm in Thuringia; there a maid who has several

lovers will name a Rose-leaf after each, and then scatter them upon the

water; that which sinks the last representing her future husband.

It was a common belief formerly, that when Roses or Violets flourished

in Autumn, there would be a plague or some pestiferous disease during

the ensuing year. Lord Bacon points out that a profusion of Roses in

their season predicts a severe Winter, and the belief is still extant.

“The Thorns and Briars, vermilion hue,

Now full of Hips and Haws are seen;

If village prophecies be true,

They prove that Winter will be keen.”

A writer in the _Gardener’s Chronicle_ tells us, that “in some parts of

Germany it is customary to throw Rose-leaves on a coal-fire as a means

of ensuring good luck. In Germany, as well as in France and Italy, it

is believed that if a drop of one’s blood be buried under a Rose-tree,

it will ensure rosy cheeks. The Rose is also associated in Westphalia

with a charm against nose-bleeding and other hæmorrhages. This charm

consists in the repetition of the words: ‘In Christ’s Garden stand

three Roses, one for the good God, the other for God’s blood, the third

for the angel Gabriel: blood, I pray you, cease to flow.’ In Suabia,

it is somewhat different: ‘On our Lord’s grave spring three Roses; the

first is Hope, the second is Patience, the third is the will of God:

blood, I pray you be still.’”

Strangely enough, the Rose has the reputation of being a death portent.

In England, it is on that account deemed very unlucky to scatter the

leaves of a red Rose on the ground. In Italy, this flower is deemed an

emblem of an early death; and it is thought an evil omen if its leaves

perchance fall to the ground. In Ireland, there is a legend of a sick

man who saw a Rose pass across the panes of the window of his room: it

was a death warning, and the man died. Roses not only act as portents

of death, but in some cases they spring up as memorials of the dead.

Thus, at Roncevalles, where Roland and the _douze pairs_ stained the

soil with their blood, Roses are popularly believed to have sprung up:--

“When Roland brave and Olivier,

And every paladin and peer,

On Roncevalles died.”

And again, in our own country, a tradition relates that after the

battle of Towton, there sprang up in the field where the Yorkists and

Lancastrians fell, a peculiar kind of wild Rose, only there to be

found, and which will not bear being transplanted from “the bloody

meadow.”

“There still wild Roses growing,

Frail tokens of the fray;

And the hedgerow green bears witness

Of Towton field that day.”

A white Provins Rose was the emblem of the Stuarts upon the accession

of the Duke of York to the throne of England as James II. It was

said to come into flower on the 10th of June, a day interesting to

Jacobites, as being the birthday of the Chevalier St. George.

“Of all the days that’s in the year,

The tenth of June I love most dear,

When sweet White Roses do appear,

For the sake of James the Rover.”

Under the title of _Roisin dubh_, the “Little Black Rose,” we find

Ireland symbolised in a song composed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

“There’s no flower that e’er bloomed can my Rose excel,

There’s no tongue that e’er moved half my love can tell.

Had I strength, had I skill the wide world to subdue,

Oh, the queen of that wide world should be Roisin dubh!”

Dream oracles tell us that nothing can be more favourable than to

dream of Roses, as they are certain emblems of happiness, prosperity,

and long life. To a lover, they foretell he will marry the object of

his choice, and that happiness and joy will result from the union.

To the farmer and sailor, the appearance of these flowers in a dream

is said to predict great prosperity and ultimate independence. To

dream of withered Roses, however, is ominous of decay of fortune and

disappointment.

Astrologers state that red Roses are under the government of Jupiter,

Damask Roses under Venus, and white Roses under the rule of the Moon.

=ROSE-BRIAR.=--The Rose-briar, or _Rosa canina_, according to

tradition, is the plant from which was formed the crown of Thorns

placed on our Saviour’s brow at the Crucifixion. It has attached to

it the legend that when the sacred drops of blood trickling from the

wounded Saviour fell to the ground, they blossomed into Roses.

“Men saw the Thorns on Jesus’ brow,

But angels saw the Roses.”

The Wild, or Dog, Rose, it has also been supposed, composed the thicket

in which Abraham caught the ram, as well as the bush in the midst of

which the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire, and

from which God addressed him. It is probably the plant alluded to in

the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the desolation of Jerusalem (v.,

6): “I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned or digged; but there

shall come up Briars and Thorns.” Chandler tells us that he saw no

other tree nor shrub within the walls of the Holy City when he visited

it.----The Rose-briar is connected with an incident in the life of St.

Benedict. This godly man, in his early life, lived for three years a

solitary existence among the rocks of Subiaco, a wilderness forty miles

from Rome. During this time he underwent many temptations, and on one

occasion was so disturbed by the recollection of a beautiful woman whom

he had seen in Rome, that he was well-nigh quitting his retreat and

returning to the city. He felt, however, that the temptation proceeded

from the devil, and, tormented by his distracting desires, he rushed

from his cave, and flinging himself into a thicket of Briars, he rolled

himself in them until the blood flowed freely from his lacerated flesh;

then the fiends left him, and he was never again assailed by the same

temptation. In the garden of the monastery at Subiaco they show the

Rose-bushes which have been propagated from those very briars.

=ROSEMARY.=--_Rosmarinus_, the botanical name of Rosemary, signifies

the “dew of the sea,” and has been applied to the plant on account of

its fondness for the sea-shore. Formerly it was called _Rosmarinus

coronarius_ because of its use in chaplets and garlands, with which

the principal guests at feasts were crowned. In place of more costly

incense, the ancients often employed Rosemary in their religious

ceremonies, and especially at funeral rites. The Romans ornamented

their Lares, or household gods, with this plant, and at the Palilia,

or festival held in honour of Pales, the purification of the flocks

was made with the smoke of Rosemary. But the plant is essentially

funereal in its character: its aroma serves to preserve the corpse of

the departed, and its leaves, ever green, symbolise immortality: hence,

like the Asphodel and Mallow, it was frequently planted near tombs:--

“Come funeral flower! who lov’st to dwell,

With the pale corse in lonely tomb,

And throw across the desert gloom

A sweet decaying smell.”--_Kirke White._

In the Northern counties, mourners at funerals often carry a branch

of Rosemary, and it is still customary in some rural districts to

distribute sprigs of the plant at funerals, in order that those

attending may cast them into the grave. Gay refers to this custom in

his ‘Shepherd’s Week’:--

“Sprigg’d Rosemary the lads and lasses bore,

While dismally the parson walked before.

Upon her grave the Rosemary they threw,

The Daisy, Butter-flower, and Endive blue.”

Sprigs of Rosemary were, however, in olden times, worn at weddings, as

well as at funerals. Herrick says:--

“Grow for two ends, it matters not at all,

Be’t for my bridal or my burial.”

Shakspeare and others of our old poets make frequent mention of

Rosemary as an emblem of remembrance, and as being worn at weddings,

possibly to signify the fidelity of the lovers. Thus Ophelia says:--

“There’s Rosemary for you, that’s for remembrance;

pray you, love, remember.”

Sprigs of Rosemary mingled in the coronal which bound the hair of the

unfortunate Anne of Cleves on the occasion of her nuptials with King

Henry VIII. In olden times, Rosemary garlanded the wassail bowl, and at

Christmas the dish of roast beef, decked with Rosemary and Bays, was

ushered in with the carol beginning--

“The boar’s head in hand bring I,

With garlands gay and Rosemary.”

The silvery foliage of this favourite plant mingled well with the

Holly, Mistletoe, and Bays employed in decking rooms, &c., at

Christmas-tide--a custom which may perhaps be accounted for by a

Spanish tradition that the Rosemary (like the Juniper in other legends)

afforded shelter and protection to the Virgin Mary during her flight

with the infant Saviour into Egypt. The plant is said to flower on

the day of the Passion of our Lord because the Virgin Mary spread on

a shrub of Rosemary the under linen and little frocks of the infant

Jesus; and according to tradition, it brings happiness on those

families who employ it in perfuming the house on Christmas night.----In

Germany, there exists a curious custom of demanding presents from

women on Good Friday, at the same time striking them with a branch of

Rosemary or Fir.----It is a common saying in Sicily, that Rosemary is

the favourite plant of the fairies, and that the young fairies, under

the guise of snakes, lie concealed under its branches.----In the rural

districts of Portugal, it is called _Alecrim_, a word of Scandinavian

origin (_Ellegrim_), signifying Elfin-plant.----Rosemary occupied

a prominent place in monastic gardens, on account of its curative

properties, and in Queen Elizabeth’s time, its silvery foliage grew

all over the walls of the gardens at Hampton Court. Now-a-days the

plant is rarely seen out of the kitchen garden, and indeed a common

saying has arisen that “Rosemary only grows where the mistress is

master.” The plant was formerly held in high estimation as a “comforter

of the brain,” and a strengthener of the memory. In England, Rosemary

worn about the body is said to strengthen the memory, and to afford

successful assistance to the wearer in anything he may undertake.----In

an ancient Italian recipe, the flowers of Rosemary, Rue, Sage,

Marjoram, Fennel, Quince, &c., are recommended for the preservation of

youth. In Bologna, there is an old belief that the flowers of Rosemary,

if placed in contact with the skin, and especially, with the heart,

give gaiety and sprightliness. Spirit of wine distilled from Rosemary

produces the true Hungary water. By many persons Rosemary is used as

tea for headaches and nervous disorders.----An Italian legend, given

in the _Mythologie des Plantes_, tells that a certain queen, who was

childless, one day, whilst walking in the palace gardens, was troubled

with a feeling of envy whilst contemplating a vigorous Rosemary-bush,

because of its numerous branches and offshoots. Strange to relate, she

afterwards gave birth to a Rosemary-bush, which she planted in a pot

and carefully supplied with milk four times a day. The king of Spain,

nephew of the queen, having stolen this pot of Rosemary, sustained

it with goat’s milk. One day, whilst playing on the flute, he saw to

his astonishment a beautiful princess emerge from the Rosemary-bush.

Captivated by her beauty, he fell desperately in love with this strange

visitor; but being obliged to depart to fight for his country, he

commended the Rosemary-bush to the special care of his head gardener.

In his absence, his sisters one day amused themselves by playing on the

king’s flute, and forthwith the beautiful princess emerged once more

from the Rosemary. The king’s sisters, tormented by jealousy, struck

her; the princess forthwith vanished, the Rosemary began to droop,

and the gardener, afraid of the king’s wrath, fled into the woods. At

the midnight hour, he heard a dragon talking to its mate, and telling

her the story of the mystic Rosemary-bush. The dragon let fall the

fact, that if the Rosemary was to be restored, it could only be by

being fed or sprinkled with dragons’ blood: no sooner did the gardener

hear this, than he fell upon the male and female dragons, slew them,

and carrying off some of their blood, applied it to the roots of the

king’s Rosemary. So the spell was broken: the king returned, and soon

after married the charming Princess Rosa Marina.----A curious charm, or

dream-divination, is still extant in which Rosemary plays an important

part; the mode of procedure is as follows:--On the eve of St. Magdalen,

three maidens, under the age of twenty-one, are to assemble in an upper

room, and between them prepare a potion, consisting of wine, rum, gin,

vinegar, and water, in a ground-glass vessel. Into this each maid is

then to dip a sprig of Rosemary, and fasten it in her bosom; and after

taking three sips of the potion, the three maids are silently to go to

sleep in the same bed. As a result, the dreams of each will reveal

their destiny. Another elaborate spell for effecting the same result on

the first of July, consists in the gathering of a sprig of Rosemary, a

red Rose, a white Rose, a blue flower, a yellow flower, nine blades of

long Grass, and a sprig of Rue, all of which are to be bound together

with a lock of the maiden’s hair who wishes to work the spell. This

nosegay is to be sprinkled with the blood of a white pigeon and some

salt, and laid beneath the maid’s head when she retires to rest. Her

dreams will then portend her fate.----Rosemary is deemed a herb of the

Sun.

=ROSE OF JERICHO.=--From the Casa Nuova Convent of Jerusalem pilgrims

bring away little dried-up plants, which after a time appear to be

quite dead, but if they are placed in water their branches will

soon be covered with fresh bursting buds. These are the Roses of

Jericho, or Resurrection Flowers, which grow among the sands of Egypt,

Palestine, and Syria, and are also found in Barbary. The _Anastatica

Hierochuntina_ is cruciform; and when its flowers and leaves have

withered and fallen off, the branches as they dry curl inwards, and

form a round mass, thence called a Rose. The roots die; the winds tear

the plant up, and blow it about the sands till it lodges in a moist

spot, or is wetted with the rain; then the curled-up globe expands, and

suffers the seeds to escape from the seed vessel in which they were

enclosed, and becoming embedded in the sands, they germinate anew;

hence its name _Anastatica_--Resurrection. The Holy Rose of Jericho is

regarded with peculiar reverence in Palestine and other places in the

East, and is supposed to be the plant alluded to in Ecclesiasticus: “I

was ... as a Rose-plant in Jericho.” The Arabs call this plant _Kaf

Maryam_ (_i.e._, Mary’s hand); it is also known as _Rosa-Mariæ_ (Rose

of the Virgin). The pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchre fancied it sprang

up wherever the Holy Family rested in their flight into the Egypt, and

called it the _Rosa Hierosolymitana_. There is a cherished legend that

it first blossomed at our Saviour’s birth, closed at the crucifixion,

and opened again at Easter, whence its name of Resurrection Flower.

The tradition that it blossomed at the moment when our Lord was born,

and was endowed with qualities propitious to nativity, caused the

plant to be greatly esteemed by the Eastern women, who, when occasion

requires, are anxious to have one of these dried plants expanding in a

vase of water beside them, firmly believing it has a salutary effect.

In like manner, the matrons of Bologna, who call the plant the Rose of

the Madonna, believe in its efficacy at the birth of children. They

place the plant in water at the bedside with the conviction that at the

moment when it has fully expanded itself the expected infant will first

see the light.----In Germany, a similar belief exists, and the Rose of

Jericho is called (after its Arabic name) Mary’s Hand, in allusion to

the office assigned to the Madonna of patroness of matrons.

=ROSE OF SHARON.=--The Hebrew word rendered in Canticles ii., 1, and

Isaiah xxxv., 1, as “Rose,” is thought by some to signify “Tulip.”

Interpreters, indeed vary between Rose, Lily, Narcissus, and Tulip;

so that it is impossible to say with any certainty what flower we are

to understand by the Rose of Sharon. According to travellers, the

Narcissus, or Jonquil (_Narcissus Jonquila_), grows abundantly on the

plain of Sharon, yet so low that it may be unobserved among more showy

plants; and again we find it stated that, in the season, the plain is

literally covered with Tulips. Though Palestine abounds in flowers, it

is doubtful whether the Rose of our gardens is alluded to in the Bible.

In the Apocrypha (Wisdom xi., 8), it may, perhaps, be intended, but

more probably the Oleander is there referred to.

=ROWAN-TREE, or MOUNTAIN-ASH.=--The Mountain Ash (_Pyrus Aucuparia_),

called also by the old names of Rodden, Rowan-tree, Quicken-tree, and

Witchen-tree, is a tree of good omen. In Scandinavian mythology, it

is Thor’s Helper, because it bent to his grasp when he was crossing

the river Vimur, on his way to the land of the Frost Giants. The wood

of the Rowan was also used to preserve the Norse ships from Ran, who

delighted in drowning mariners. The Rowan is generally considered to

have been one of the sacred trees of the Druids. Stumps of the Mountain

Ash have frequently been found within or near the circle of a Druid

temple, thus proving that the tree must have been an object of great

veneration with the Druids, who doubtless practised their sacred rites

beneath its shade. This connection of the tree with Druidic customs

affords some explanation of the many superstitious ideas appertaining

to the Mountain Ash which are still extant. Lightfoot tells us that

the Rowan-tree is discovered in the Druidic circles of North Britain

more frequently than any other, and that even now pieces of it are

carried about by superstitious people as charms to protect them from

witchcraft. Like the Indian Mimosa (a tree of the same genus and of a

similar character), or the Palasa, which it resembles in its graceful

foliage and berries, the Mountain Ash has for ages been held in high

repute as a preservative against magic and sorceries. Thus we find in

Jamieson’s ‘Scottish Dictionary,’ that “the most approved charm against

cantrips and spells was a branch of the Rowan-tree planted and placed

over the byre. This sacred tree cannot be removed by unholy fingers.”

The Scotch peasantry considered the Rowan a complete antidote against

the effects of witchcraft and the Evil Eye, and, in consequence, a twig

of it was very commonly carried in the pocket; but that it might have

complete efficacy, it was necessary that it should be accompanied by

the following couplet, written on paper, wrapped round the wood and

secured by a red silk thread:--

“Rowan Ash and red thread

Keep the devils frae their speed.”

Another version of this charm renders it thus:--

“Roan-tree and red thread,

Haud the witches a’ in dread.”

Pennant remarks that the Scotch farmers carefully preserve their cattle

against witchcraft by placing branches of Honeysuckle and Mountain

Ash in the cowhouses on the 2nd of May; the milkmaids of Westmoreland

often carry in their hands or attached to their milking-pails a branch

of the Rowan-tree, from a similar superstitious belief; the dairymaids

of Lancashire prefer a churn-staff of Rowan-wood to that of any other

tree, as it saves the butter from evil influences; and in the North of

England a branch of “Wiggin” (Mountain Ash) is frequently hung up in

stables, it being deemed a most efficacious charm against witchcraft.

Formerly, in some parts of the country, it was considered that a branch

or twig held up in the presence of a witch was sufficient to render

her deadliest wishes of no avail.----In an ancient song, called the

“Laidly Worm of Spindlestone Heughs” is an allusion to this power of

the Rowan-tree over witches:--

“Their spells were vain; the hags return’d

To the queen in sorrowful mood,

Crying that witches have no power

Where there is Roan-tree wood.”

In Cornwall, the Mountain Ash is called “Care,” and if there is a

suspicion of a cow being bewitched or subjected to the Evil Eye, the

herdsmen will suspend a branch over her stall, or twine it round

her horns. Evelyn says that the Mountain Ash was reputed to be a

preservative against fascination and evil spirits, “whence, perhaps,

we call it ‘Witchen;’ the boughs being stuck about the door or used

for walking-staves.” In Wales, this tree was considered so sacred in

his time, that there was not, he tells us, a churchyard without one

of them planted in it.----At the present time, in Montgomeryshire, it

is customary to rest the corpse on its way to the churchyard under a

Mountain Ash, as that tree is credited with having furnished the wood

of the Cross.----In olden times, collars of the wood of the Rowan-tree

were put upon the necks of cattle, in order to protect them from spells

or witchcraft. In many parts of England, it was formerly the custom in

cases of the death of animals supposed to be bewitched, to take out the

heart of one of the victims, stick it over with pins, and burn it to a

cinder over a fire composed of the wood of a Rowan-tree, which, as we

have seen, has always been considered a terror and dread to witches.

“Black luggie, lammer bead,

Rowan-tree and red thread,

Put the witches to their speed.”

A witch touched with a branch of this sacred tree by a christened

man was deemed doomed to be the victim carried off by the Devil,

when he next came to claim his tribute.----Like the Hazel, Thorn,

and Mistletoe, it was deemed, according to Aryan tradition, to be

an embodiment of the lightning, from which it sprang, and was,

moreover, thought to possess the magical power of discovering hidden

treasure.----In the days of the Fenians, according to the Gaelic

legend, of ‘The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne,’ there grew in Ireland

a celebrated Mountain Ash, called the Quicken-tree of Dubhros, which

bore some wonderful berries. The legend informs us that, “There is in

every berry of them the exhilaration of wine, and the satisfying of old

mead, and whoever shall eat three berries of them, has he completed

a hundred years, he will return to the age of thirty years.” These

famed berries of the Quicken-tree of Dubhros were jealously guarded by

one Searbhan Lochlannach, “a giant, hideous and foul to behold,” who

would allow no one to pluck them: he was, however, slain by Diarmuid

O’Duibhne, and the berries placed at the disposal of his wife Grainne,

who had incited her husband to obtain them for her.----At Modrufell,

on the north coast of Ireland, is or was a large Rowan, always on

Christmas Eve stuck full of torches, which no wind could possibly

extinguish; and one of the Orkneys possessed a still more mysterious

tree with which the fate of the islands was bound up, since, if a leaf

was carried away, they would pass to some foreign lord.

=RUDRÂKSHA.=--De Gubernatis tells us, that _Rudrâksha_, which means

literally the Eye of Rudra (Siva), or the Tear of Rudra, is a name

given, in India, to the fruit of the _Eleocarpus_, of which the natives

manufacture their Rosaries, which are specially used in the worship

of the god Siva. It is said that during the war of the gods with the

Asuras, or demons, Siva burnt three towns; but he was grieved, and wept

went he was told that he had also burnt the inhabitants. From the tears

he then shed, and which fell to the earth, sprang the climbing plants

whose fruits are to this day called by the faithful, _Rudrâkshas_.

=RUE.=--It has been conjectured that the Moly, which, according to

Homer, Mercury gave to Ulysses as an antidote to the enchantress

Circe’s beverage, was the root of the wild Rue. In olden times, Rue

(_Ruta graveolens_) was called Herb of Grace, from the fact that the

word _rue_ means also “repentance,” which is needful to obtain the

grace of God. It was also known as the Serving-men’s Joy, but was

specially held in high repute by women, who attributed to it all sorts

of miraculous qualities. R. Turner states that “it preserves chastity,

being eaten; it quickeneth the sight, stirs up the spirits, and

sharpeneth the wit.... It is an excellent antidote against poisons and

infections; the very smell thereof is a preservation against the plague

in the time of infection.” Its virtues as a disinfectant are noted in

the quaint rhyme of old Tusser:--

“What savour is better, if physicke be true,

For places infected, than Wormwood and Rue?”

Dioscorides recommended the seed as a counterpoison against deadly

medicines, the bitings of serpents, scorpions, wasps, &c.: and Gerarde

adds, “It is reported that if a man bee anointed with the juice of Rue,

these will not hurt him, and that the serpent is driven away at the

smell thereof when it is burned: insomuch that when the weasell is to

fight with the serpent, shee armeth her selfe by eating Rue, against

the might of the serpent.”----The famous counter-poison of Mithridates,

King of Pontus, was composed of twenty leaves of Rue, two Figs, two

Walnuts, twenty Juniper-berries, and a little salt. Rue entered into

the composition of the once noted “vinegar of the four thieves.” It

is said that four thieves, during the Plague of Marseilles, invented

this anti-pestilential vinegar, by means of which they entered infected

houses without danger, and stole all property worth removing. Piperno,

a Neapolitan physician, in 1625, recommended Rue as a specific against

epilepsy and vertigo: it sufficed for the patient to suspend some round

his neck, renouncing at the time, in a stated formula, the devil and

all his works, and invoking the Lord Jesus. This same doctor advocated

the employment of Rue to cure dumbness caused by enchantment.----In

England, Rue was thought to be efficacious in the cure of madness.

Drayton gives the magic potion:--

“Then sprinkled she the juice of Rue

With nine drops of the midnight dew

From Lunarie distilling.”

In combination with Euphrasy, the herb appears to have been considered

potent as an eye lotion.

“Then purged with Euphrasy and Rue

The visual nerve, for he had much to see.”--_Milton._

In olden times, there was a tradition that Rue always throve best

when stolen from a neighbour’s garden; and it was popularly believed

that the gun-flint boiled in Vervain and Rue ensured the shot

taking effect.----In Venice, Rue is kept as a charm in a house,

to maintain its good fortune; but it is reserved for the single

members of the family; with it goes the luck of the house. When a

plant cannot be procured, care is taken that at least a sprig is

worn by some one between the stocking and leg.----In some parts of

Italy, Rue is considered to be a protection against the Evil Eye

and witchcraft.----In the Tyrol, anyone bearing a bundle of herbs,

comprising Rue, Broom, Maiden-hair, Agrimony, and Ground Ivy, is

enabled to see witches.----Astrologers claim Rue as a herb of the Sun,

under Leo.

=RUSH.=--The sea-nymph Galatea was devotedly attached to Acis, a young

shepherd of Sicily, who warmly returned her affection. Unfortunately

Galatea was passionately loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus, whom she

treated with the greatest disdain. One day the Cyclops surprised the

lovers who fled from his jealous wrath. The giant, however, hurled a

mass of broken rock after Acis, and a fragment striking him, he was

crushed to death. Galatea, inconsolable for the loss of her lover,

determined to change him into a stream. The blood of the mangled

shepherd issuing from the fragment of rock which had overwhelmed him

gradually changed into flowing water. Simultaneously

“The stone was cleft, and through the yawning chink

New Reeds arose on the new river’s brink;

The rock from out its hollow womb disclosed

A sound like water in its course opposed.

When (wondrous to behold) full in the flood

Up starts a youth, and navel-high he stood.

Horns from his temples rise; and either horn

Thick wreaths of Reeds (his native growth) adorn.”

The Flowering-rush (_Butomus umbellatus_) is considered to be the plant

which sprang from the blood of Acis. The ancients knew it under name of

the _Juncus floridus_, and Gerarde calls it the water Gladiole.----The

flower now known as Acis is a dwarf Amaryllid.----In olden times,

before carpets were known, it was usual to strew the floor with sweet

Rushes, which diffused a fragrance. When William the Conqueror was

born in Normandy, where that custom prevailed, at the very moment when

the infant first saw the light and touched the ground, he filled both

hands with the Rushes strewn on the floor, firmly grasping what he

had taken up. This was regarded as a propitious omen, and the persons

present declared the boy would become a king. This custom of strewing

sweet Rushes was in vogue during Elizabeth’s reign, for we find several

allusions to it in Shakspeare’s plays. Cardinal Wolsey, when in the

zenith of his power, had the strewings of his great hall at Hampton

Court renewed every day. It was customary formerly to strew Rushes on

the floors of Churches on the Feast of Dedication, and on all high

days. Till recently the floor of Norwich Cathedral was strewn with

_Acorus Calamus_ on feast days, or, if the _Acorus_ was scarce, then

with yellow Iris-leaves. At the Church of St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol,

Rushes are strewn every Whitsuntide.----In Yorkshire, Cheshire, and

Westmoreland, the old custom of Rush-bearing is observed, which

apparently had for its origin the ancient practice of carrying Rushes

to adorn the Church on the Feast of Dedication. The following account

of a Rush-bearing at Ambleside is taken from ‘Time’s Telescope,’ for

1824:--“July 26, 1823.--On this and the following day, the antient

custom of Rush-bearing took place at Ambleside. At seven o’clock on

Saturday evening, a party of about forty young girls went in procession

to the Church, preceded by a band of music. Each of the girls bore in

her hands the usual Rush-bearings, the origin and signification of

which have so long puzzled the researches of our antiquarians. These

elegant little trophies were disposed in the Church, round the pulpit,

reading-desk, pews, &c., and had a really beautiful and imposing

effect. They thus remained during the Sunday, till the service was

finished in the afternoon, when a similar procession was formed to

convey these trophies home again. We understand that formerly, in

some parts of Lancashire, a similar ceremony prevailed, under the

same designation, in which the Rush-bearings were made in the form

of females, with a fanciful rosette for the head; and on looking at

these in Ambleside, some faint resemblance of the female form may be

traced in the outline. No satisfactory explanation of this ceremony

has ever yet been given: the attempt at one is, that it is a remnant

of an antient custom, which formerly prevailed, of strewing the

church-floors with Rushes to preserve the feet from damp; but we cannot

perceive what resemblance there is between the practice of strewing

the church with Rushes, and the trophies which are now carried from

time immemorial.”----To dream of Rushes portends unpleasantness between

friends.

=RYE.=--The Rye-fields are thought by the superstitious German

peasantry to be infested by an evil spirit known as the _Roggenwolf_,

or Rye-wolf, and in some districts the last sheaf of Rye is left as a

shelter for this field demon during the winter.----In Germany, when a

horse is tired, the peasantry will place on his back some crumbs of Rye

bread, with a sure conviction that his fatigue will vanish.

=SAD TREE.=--The Indian Sad Tree (_Nyctanthes Arbor-tristis_) is a

species of Jasmine whose sweet-smelling flowers open at sunset and

fall at sunrise, so that it is unadorned during the day, and has

thus obtained the name of the Sad Tree. Its flowers, which resemble

Orange-blossoms, are much used in temples.----Thunberg relates that

the ladies of Batavia, when in the evening they pay visits to one

another, are decorated in a particular manner about the head with a

wreath of flowers of the Nyctanthes, run upon a thread. “These flowers

are brought every day fresh to town for sale. The smell of them is

inconceivably delightful, like that of Orange and Lemon-flowers: the

whole house is filled with the fragrant scent, enhancing, if possible,

the charms of the ladies’ company.”----At Goa, this flower is called

Parizataco, a name given to it from the following circumstances:--A

governor, named Parizatacos, had a beautiful daughter, who inspired

the Sun with passionate love; but after a time he transferred his

affections to another, and the poor deserted one was seized with such

despair, that at last she put an end to her existence. Over her grave

sprang up the Parizataco, or Night Jasmine, the flowers of which have

such a horror of the Sun, that they always avoid gazing on it.

SAFFRON.--See Crocus.

=SAGE.=--Many species of Sage are highly esteemed in European countries

for their medicinal qualities, and most of the continental names of the

plant are like the botanical one of _Salvia_, from _Salvo_, to save or

heal. The ancients ascribed to the herb manifold virtues, and regarded

it as a preserver of the human race (“_Salvia_, _Salvatvix_, _naturæ

conciliatrix_.”).----In mediæval times, the plant, on account of its

numerous properties, obtained the name of _Officinalis Christi_, and

was reported to have been blessed by the Virgin Mary.----So wholesome

was the herb considered, that the school of Salerno summed up its

surpassing merits in the line--

“_Cur morietur homo cui Salvia crescit in horto?_”

“How can a man die who grows Sage in his garden?”

Probably this saying gave rise to the piece of advice contained in the

old English proverb--

“He that would live for aye

Must eat Sage in May.”

Parkinson remarks that “Sage is much used in the month of May, fasting,

with butter and Parsley, and is held of most to conduce much to the

health of man,” and Turner says that “it restores natural heat, and

comforts the vital spirits, and helps the memory, and quickens the

senses; it is very healthful to be eaten in May with butter, and

also to be drank in ale.” The Greeks of Crete (where Sage is grown

abundantly) are very careful to gather the herb either on the first

or second day of May, before sunrise.----In Sussex, to charm away

ague fits, the peasantry eat Sage-leaves fasting for nine mornings

consecutively. In Franche-Comté, the herb is believed to mitigate

grief, moral as well as physical.----In Piedmont, there exists a

tradition that if Sage is placed in a glass phial and buried beneath a

dung-heap, a certain animal will grow, the blood of which, if tasted

by dogs, will cause them to lose consciousness. There exists, also, a

belief among Piedmontese girls that in every Sage-leaf is concealed a

little toad; and Robert Turner, in his work on English plants (1687),

states that “Rue is good to be planted amongst Sage, to prevent the

poison which may be in it by toads frequenting amongst it, to relieve

themselves of their poison, as is supposed; but Rue being amongst it,

they will not come near it.”----There is an old superstition that,

with the aid of Sage, young women may see their future husbands by

practising the following extraordinary spell:--On Midsummer Eve, just

after sunset, three, five, or seven young women are to go into a

garden, where there is no other person, and each is to gather a sprig

of Red Sage, and then, going into a room by themselves, set a stool in

the middle of the room, and on it a clean bason full of Rose-water, on

which the sprigs of Sage are to be put; and tying a line across the

room, on one side of the stool, each maiden is to hang on it a clean

smock, turned the wrong side outwards; then all are to sit down in a

row, on the opposite side of the stool, as far distant as the room will

allow, in perfect silence. At a few minutes after twelve, each maid’s

future husband will take her sprig of Sage out of the Rose-water and

sprinkle her smock with it.----Sage is held to be a herb of Jupiter.

=SAINFOIN.=--As at present applied, the name Sainfoin appertains to

_Hedysarum Onobrychis_, but the name was first given to the Lucerne

_Medicago sativa_. Sainfoin was, in earlier times, called Holy Hay; the

smell of this plant is supposed to excite the braying of asses; hence

the specific name is taken from two Greek words, signifying an ass,

and to bray. An Indian species (_H. gyrans_), which grows on the banks

of the Ganges, exhibits a singular instance of spontaneous motion: its

leaves constantly move up and down, now with sudden jerks, anon with a

gentle waving motion. By day or night, and in whatever weather, this

plant is never at rest.

=SAINTS’ PLANTS.=--In monastic days, certain plants received the names

of saints either from some peculiarity in their structure, or from

their association with the objects of which the saint whose name the

particular plant bore was patron. Thus St. Anthony, the patron saint

of pigs, gave his name to the _Bunium flexuosum_ (St. Anthony’s Nut),

and the _Ranunculus bulbosus_ (St. Anthony’s Rape). St. James’s-wort

was so called because it was used for the diseases of horses, of which

the saint was patron. St. Thomas, St. Christopher, and St. Benedict

have each given their names to plants. The _Nigella Damascena_ is St.

Katherine’s Flower, from its resemblance to her wheel. The _Saxifraga

umbrosa_ obtained the name of St. Patrick’s Cabbage because it grew

in the West of Ireland, where St. Patrick lived. The _Primula veris_

is St. Peter’s-wort from its resemblance to a bunch of keys. Most

of these saintly names were, however, given to the plants because

their day of flowering is connected with the feast day of the saint.

Hence _Hypericum quadrangulare_ is the St. Peter’s-wort of the modern

floras, from its flowering on the twenty-ninth of June; _Hypericum

perforatum_ is St. John’s-wort, being gathered to scare away demons

on St. John’s Eve; _Barbarea vulgaris_, growing in the winter, is St.

Barbara’s-cress, her day being the fourth of December, old style; and

_Centaurea solstitialis_ derives its specific Latin name, as well

as its popular name, St. Barnaby’s Thistle, from its flourishing on

the longest day, the eleventh of June, old style, which is now the

twenty-second.

=SAINT JOHN’S WORT.=--The common St. John’s Wort (_Hypericum

perforatum_) has leaves marked with red blood-like spots, which

tradition avers always appear on the 29th August, the day on which

St. John was beheaded; but the plant derived its name from its being,

according to ancient custom, gathered with great ceremony on the eve

of St. John’s Day, the 24th of June, to be hung up in windows as a

preservative against evil spirits, phantoms, spectres, storms, and

thunder; whence it derived its ancient name of _Fuga Dæmonum_ (Devil’s

Flight).

“St. John’s Wort, scaring from the midnight heath

The witch and goblin with its spicy breath.”

For the same reason, the plant was also called _Sol Terrestris_, the

Terrestrial Sun, because it was superstitiously believed that all the

spirits of darkness vanish at the approach of the sun; and St. John’s

Day falls on the summer solstice, the 24th day of June, the last of the

three days which mark the culminating point of the solar ascension--the

day when, in some latitudes, the sun never sets, and the heavens are

illuminated and radiant with its glory through the night. The bright

yellow blossom of the _Hypericum perforatum_, with its glittering

golden stamens, was not inappropriately called _Sol Terrestris_, as

symbolising the sun (which, by its effulgence, disperses all evil

spirits), and St. John the Baptist, of whom the Scriptures say he was

“a light to them which sit in darkness.”----At the present time this

plant is almost everywhere known by the name connecting it with the

saint. The peasantry of France and Germany still gather it on St.

John’s Day to hang over their cottage doors or in the windows, in the

belief that its sanctity will drive away evil spirits of all kinds,

and will also propitiate their patron saint.----In Switzerland, young

girls on the Eve of St. John make nosegays composed of nine different

flowers, of which the principal one is the _Hypericum_, or St. John’s

Wort. These nine flowers are plucked from nine different places. The

posy is placed beneath the maiden’s pillow before she retires to bed,

and she then endeavours to sleep and dream: should she, in her dream,

see a young man, he will not fail soon to arrive and to make her his

wife.----Somewhat similar customs to this, in connection with the

Rose, the Moss-Rose, and the Sage, exist in England, one of which is,

perhaps, referred to by Harte, who, when alluding to certain flowers,

adds:--

“And that which on the Baptist’s vigil sends

To nymphs and swains the vision of their friends.”

In Lower Saxony, the peasant girls on the Eve of St. John hang sprigs

of _Hypericum_ against the head of their bed or the walls of their

chambers; if it remains fresh on the following morning, they are

persuaded they will be married within a year; but if, on the contrary,

it droops and fades, they have no hope of marriage within that time.

“The young maid stole through the cottage-door,

And blush’d as she sought the plant of power;

‘Thou silver glow-worm, O lend me thy light!

I must gather the mystic St. John’s Wort to-night,

The wonderful herb whose leaf will decide

If the coming year will make me a bride.’”

In Italy, the _Hypericum_ is called both St. John’s Wort and the

Devil-chaser. On the Night of St. John it is worn about the person,

as a preservative from witchcraft and sorcery, and it is suspended

over doorways and windows with the same object.----In Scotland, it is

carried about as a charm against witchcraft and enchantment, and the

peasantry fancy it cures ropy milk, which they suppose to be under

some malignant influence. According to Pennant, it is customary in

Wales to stick sprigs of St. John’s Wort over every door on the Eve

of St. John’s; and Stowe, in his ‘Survey of London,’ tells us that,

“on the Vigil of St. John the Baptist, every man’s door being shadowed

with green Birch, long Fennel, St. John’s Wort, Orpine, white Lilies,

and such like, garnished upon with garlands of beautiful flowers, had

also lamps of glass with oil burning in them all the night.”----The

peasantry of the Isle of Man have a tradition that if you tread on the

St. John’s Wort after sunset, a fairy horse will rise from the earth,

and, after carrying you about all night, will leave you in the morning

wherever you may chance to be at sunrise.----St. John’s Wort was by old

medical writers deemed of great utility in the cure of hypochondriacal

disorders, and B. Visontius commends the herb to one troubled with

heart-melancholy. For this purpose it was to be gathered on a Friday,

in the hour of Jupiter, when he comes to his effectual operation (that

is, about the full moon in July); “so gathered, and borne or hung

about the neck, it mightily helps this affection, and drives away all

phantastical spirits.” Another remarkable quality ascribed to the plant

was its power of curing all sorts of wounds: hence originated its old

name of Tutsan, a corruption of its French cognomen _la Toute-saine_,

or All-heal. In Sicily, they gather _Hypericum perforatum_, and immerse

it in Olive-oil, which is by this means transformed into an infallible

balm for wounds. A salve made from the flowers, and known as St. John’s

Wort salve, is still much used and valued in English villages: it is

a very old remedy, whose praises have been spoken by Dioscorides and

Pliny, Gerarde, Culpeper, and all the old English herbalists. As these

flowers, when rubbed between the fingers, yield a red juice, it has,

among fanciful medical men, obtained the name of _sanguis hominis_

(human blood).

=SALLOW.=--The Sallow (_Salix caprea_) is the _Selja_ of the Norsemen,

an ill-omened plant possessing many magical properties. No child can

be born in safety where a branch of this sinister tree is suspended;

and no spirit can depart in peace from its earthly frame, if it be near

them. It is the badge of the Scottish Clan Cumming.

=SAL-TREE.=--The Sâla or Sâl (_Shorea robusta_) is one of the sacred

trees of India. According to the Buddhists’ belief, it was while

holding in her hand a branch of the sacred Sâla, that the mother of

Buddha gave birth to the divine infant prince. It was beneath the

shelter of two twin Sâl-trees, that Buddha passed his last night on

earth, near Kuçinagara, “beneath a rain of flowers, with which the

Sâl-tree growing there covered his venerated body.” Thus we read in Da

Cunha’s ‘Life of Buddha’--“He then retired to Kuçinagara, and entered

a grove of Sâl-trees (_Shorea robusta_); there, during the night, he

received a gift of food from an artizan named Chanda, and was seized

with illness. At early dawn next day, as he turned on to his right

side with his head to the north, the Sâl-trees bending down to form

a canopy over his body, he ceased to breathe.” It was not the season

for Sâl-trees to bloom, but the twin trees beneath which he lay were

covered with blossoms from crown to foot. Blossoms fell down on him, a

shower of flowers fell from heaven, and heavenly melodies sounded over

head as the Perfect One passed away. At the moment of his death, the

earth quaked, thunders rolled, and the wife of Brahma announced the

entry of Buddha into Paradise.

=SAMI.=--The Indians employ the wood of Sami (_Mimosa Suma_) a species

of Acacia for the production of fire in their sacrifices. For this

purpose they rub a stick of Asvattha (representing the male element)

against a stick of the Acacia Sami (regarded as the female symbol),

in accordance with the Indian legend which relates how Pururavas,

the Indian Prometheus, created fire by rubbing two woods together.

At Indian weddings, after the sacrifice has been made, the husband

and wife take in their hands some Rice (symbol of abundance) and some

leaves of Sami (symbol of generation). Before building a house, it is

customary to sprinkle the site by dipping a branch of Sami into some

holy water. In the same way, the Indians sprinkle the spot when a grave

is to be made.

=SAMPHIRE.=--Samphire (_Crithmum maritimum_) grows on the rocky cliffs

of our Southern shores, the name being a corruption of St. Pierre.

The plant, from its love of sea-cliffs, was long ago dedicated to the

fisherman saint, whose name in Greek (_petros_) signifies a rock.

Samphire used formerly to be gathered from the cliffs at Dover by men

suspended from the summit by a rope: hence Shakspeare’s lines in ‘King

Lear’:--

“How fearful

And dizzy ’tis to cast one’s eyes so low!

The crows and choughs that wing the midway air

Show scarce so gross as beetles: half-way down

Hangs one that gathers Samphire--dreadful trade!

Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.”

By astrologers Samphire is placed under the influence of Jupiter.

=SAMOLUS.=--The Samolus was a plant held in high esteem by the Druids.

It grew in damp places, and was only to be gathered by a person

fasting--without looking behind him--and with his left hand. It was

laid in troughs and cisterns where cattle drank, and when bruised was a

cure for various distempers.

=SANDAL.=--The Sandal-wood of India (_Santalum album_) is a small tree

celebrated by the poets on account of its beauty and the perfume of

its wood, which is used as incense in temples and also for medicinal

purposes. In Hindu temples, the Du, or god, is, before the services,

anointed with oil of Sandal-wood or with Sandal dust and water, and

adorned with flowers; he is also presented with Betel-leaves. The

Chinese Buddhists give the Sandal a place in the celebrated groves

of their Paradise, and they say that the chariot of the Sun is made

of gold and Sandal-wood. In an Indian religious fête called _Mariatta

Codam_, the devotees anoint themselves with Saffron ointment, and go

about collecting alms, in return for which they distribute scented

sticks, partly composed of Sandal-wood, which are received with great

veneration. In the Burman empire, it is customary on the 12th of April

(the last day of their calendar) for ladies to sprinkle with Rose-water

and Sandal-wood all they meet, to wash away the impurities of the past

year, and commence the new one free from sin. The Mussulmans of India

in all their religious ceremonies burn _ood_, an incense compound of

Sandal-wood, Aloe, Patchouli, Benzoin, &c. _Sundul_, or Sandal-wood

ointment, is likewise used in innumerable instances for religious

purposes; and it is employed to exorcise evil spirits. Magic circles,

squares, and figures are drawn on a plank with _Sundul_, and the

individual supposed to be possessed of a demon is made to sit in the

centre: then the exorciser pronounces an incantation in Arabic, and

burns some incense under the nose of the patient, who solemnly inhales

the fumes, and by that means smokes out the demon. The Parsis, who are

followers of Zoroaster, renew the undying sacred fire of their altars

with Sandal and other precious woods.

=SANICLE.=--The healing virtues of the Sanicle (_Sanicula_) have,

in England, passed into a proverb: “He that hath Sanicle needeth no

surgeon;” whilst the French have a corresponding old saying, recording

its curative powers:--

“_Qui a la Bugle et la Sanicle

Fait au chirurgions la nicle._”

“Who Bugle and Sanicle hath

May safely at the surgeons laugh.”

In England, it was in former days called Self-heal, for according to

one old herbalist, it would “make whole and sound all wounds and hurts,

both inward and outward.”----Sanicle is held to be under the rule of

Venus.

=SARDEA.=--It is considered that the _Sium latifolium_ is the plant

known by the ancients as Sardea, which was supposed to grow in

Sardinia, and which possessed the singular power of provoking sardonic

laughter. Sallust speaks of this mystic plant as resembling Celery.

=SATYRION.=--The appellation of Satyrion (from the Greek _Saturos_,

a Satyr) is applied to several species of Orchis, from their reputed

aphrodisiac character. The Romans believed that the roots of these

plants formed the food of the Satyrs, and, on account of its exciting

nature, prompted them to commit those excesses which were one of their

characteristics.----In Gerarde’s ‘Herbal,’ we read that most of these

plants were used for the purpose of exciting the amatory passions: some

of them were called Serapiades, because “sundry of them do bring forth

floures resembling flies and such like fruitful and lascivious insects,

as taking their name from Serapias [Serapis], the god of the citizens

of Alexandria, in Egypt, who had a most famous temple at Canopus, where

he was worshipped with all kinds of lascivious wantonnesse, songs and

dances.” Turner says of the roots of Satyrion, that all the species

have a double root, which alter every year, “when one waxeth full, the

other perisheth and groweth lank.” The full root, he says, powerfully

excites the passions, but the lank ones have exactly the opposite

effect.----Astronomers place Satyrion under the rule of Venus.

=SAVIN.=--The Savin (_Juniperus Sabina_), in some parts of Italy, is

held in great abhorrence as a plant of evil repute: it is called the

“Devil’s-tree,” and the “Magician’s Cypress,” on account of the great

use of it made in olden times by sorcerers and witches when working

their spells.----Savin is reputed by astrologers to be a herb of Mars.

=SAVORY.=--Savory or _Satureia_ was considered by the ancients as a

herb belonging to the Satyrs; hence matrons were specially warned

to have nothing to do with it, as the plant was supposed to have

disastrous effects on those about to become mothers.----Savory is held

to be under the dominion of Mercury.

=SAXIFRAGE.=--Of the genus _Saxifraga_, twenty species are indigenous

to Great Britain. In olden times, it was noticed that these plants

split rocks by growing in their cracks, so, on the doctrine of

signatures, certain of the species were supposed to be efficacious in

cases of calculus, and were indeed highly esteemed on that account by

the Roman physicians. In England, the name Breakstone was bestowed on

them for the same reason; the plants most employed by the herbalists

being the Meadow Saxifrage, or Mead Parsley, the White Saxifrage, and

the Burnet Saxifrage. To this family of plants belongs _S. umbrosa_,

the familiar London Pride, known also by the names of None-so-pretty,

Prattling Parnell, and St. Patrick’s Cabbage (from its growing in

the West of Ireland).----Astrologers state that the Moon governs the

Saxifrages.

SCORPION GRASS.--See Forget-me-Not.

SEA HOLLY.--See Eryngo.

=SEA POPPY.=--The Sea Poppy or Horned Poppy (_Glaucium_) is named

after Glaucus, a Bœotian fisherman, who, whilst pursuing his calling,

observed that all the fishes which he laid on the grass received fresh

vigour as they touched the ground, and immediately escaped from him

by leaping back into the sea. He attributed the cause of it to some

herb growing among the grass, and upon tasting the foliage of the Sea

Poppy, he found himself suddenly moved with an intense desire to live

in the sea. Upon this he leaped into the water, and was made a sea

god by Oceanus and Tethys. This _Glaucium_ or Sea Poppy was called in

the middle ages _Ficus infernalis_: it was supposed to possess magical

properties, and was prized by witches and sorcerers, who used it in

their incantations. Ben Jonson, in the ‘Witches’ Song,’ says:--

“Yes, I have brought to help our vows,

Horned Poppy, Cypress-boughs,

The Fig-tree wild that grows on tombs,

And juice that from the Larch-tree comes.”

Borlase tells us that, in the Scilly Isles, “this root (the Sea Poppy),

so much valued for removing all pains in the breast, stomach, and

intestines, is good also for disordered lungs, and is so much better

here than in other places, that the apothecaries of Cornwall send

hither for it; and some people plant them in their gardens in Cornwall,

and will not part with them under sixpence a root. A very simple

notion they have with regard to this root, which falls not much short

of the Druids’ superstition in gathering and preparing their Selago

and Samolus. This root, you must know, is accounted very good both

as an emetic and cathartic. If, therefore, they design that it shall

operate as the former, their constant opinion is that it should be

scraped and sliced upwards--that is, beginning from the root, the knife

is to ascend towards the leaf; but if it is intended to operate as a

cathartic, they must scrape the root downwards.”

=SELAGO.=--Selago was the name of a herb held in great repute by the

Druids, and intimately connected with some of their mysterious rites.

It was known as the Golden Herb or Cloth of Gold, and was reputed to

confer the power of understanding the language of birds and beasts.

It is variously supposed to have been the Club-Moss (_Lycopodium

Selago_), the _Camphorosma Monspeliaca_, or a kind of Hedge Hyssop,

which used in olden times to be called _Gratiola_ and _Dei Gratia_,

and was regarded as a charm as well as a medicine. Pliny, in his

‘Natural History’ (xxiv., 62), tells us with respect to the Druidic

Selago, that it resembles Savin; and that it is gathered as if by

stealth, without the use of iron. The person who gathers it must go

barefoot, with feet washed, clad in white, having previously offered a

sacrifice of bread and wine, and must pluck the plant with his right

hand through the _left_ sleeve of his tunic. It is carried in a new

cloth. The Druids of the Gauls asserted that it was to be regarded as

useful against all diseases, and that its smoke was a remedy for all

affections of the eyes.----In Johnson’s edition of Gerarde’s ‘Herbal,’

it is said that the Club Moss, or Heath Cypress, is thought to be the

_Selago_ mentioned by Pliny. “The catkins of this plant are described

as being of a yellowish colour; and it is stated to be found growing in

divers woody, mountainous places of Germany, where they call it _Wald

Seuenbaum_, or Wilde Savine.”----In his work on the Druids, called the

‘Veil of Isis,’ Mr. Reade gives a similar account of the gathering of

the _Selago_, excepting that he states it was cut with a brazen hook.

He further tells of a mysterious sisterhood of Druidesses who inhabited

the island of Sena (now Sain) at the mouth of the River Loire, where

there was a Druidic oracle. These Sibyls devoted themselves chiefly to

the service of the Moon, and worshipped her under the name of Kêd or

Ceridwen, the Northern name for the Egyptian Isis. They consecrated a

herb to her called _Belinuncia_, in the poisonous sap of which they

dipped their arrows to render them deadly. It was one of their rites

to procure a virgin, and to denude her as an emblem of the moon in

an unclouded sky. Then they sought for the mystic Selago, or Golden

Herb. She who pressed it with her foot slept, and heard the language

of animals. If she touched it with iron, the sky grew dark and a

misfortune fell upon the world.

“The herb of gold is cut: a cloud

Across the sky hath spread its shroud

To war.”

When they had found the precious herb, the virgin traced the circle

round it, and covering her hand in a white linen cloth which had never

before been used, rooted it out with the tip of her little finger--a

symbol of the crescent moon. Then they washed it in a running spring,

and having gathered green branches, plunged into a river and splashed

the virgin, who was thus supposed to resemble the moon clouded with

vapours. When they retired, the virgin walked backwards, “that the moon

might not return upon its path in the plain of the heavens.”

SELF-HEAL.--See Sanicle.

=SENSITIVE-PLANT.=--The leaves of most species of the genus Mimosa

are more or less sensitive to the touch, but _M. pudica_ is the true

Sensitive Plant, of which Browne writes:--

“Looke at the Feeling-plant, which learned swaines

Relate to growe on the East Indian plaines,

Shrinkes up his dainty leaves if any sand

You throw thereon, or touch it with your hand.”

=SERVICE-TREE.=--The true Service-tree is thought by some to have

obtained its name from the Latin word _cervisia_, because from

ancient times its fruit has been used for making a fermented liquor

of the nature of beer. In France, the Service or Sorb-tree is called

_Sorbier_ or _Cormier_, and an excellent drink, something like Cider,

is made from its berries.----De Gubernatis tells us that among the

Fins the Sorb is specially reverenced above all trees. In the poem

‘_Kalevala_’ allusion is made to a nymph of the Sorb-tree (_Sorbus

terminalis_), who is regarded as the protectress of cattle. The Finnish

shepherd sticks his staff of Sorb-wood in the middle of a field, and

offers up his prayers for the safety of his flock. A branch of the

Sorb-tree is the symbol of the lightning, which, according to the

Vedic legend, first brought fire to the earth, whilst imparting it to

certain privileged trees--on which it fell, not to destroy them, but

to conceal itself.----Among the superstitious Scandinavian and German

peasantry the Sorb is esteemed a magical tree, typical of fecundity

and generation; it is also regarded as a funereal tree, and Mannhardt

relates an Icelandic legend, according to which the Sorb sprang from

the bodies of two young men, who, although quite innocent, had been

condemned to death.

=SESAME.=--It is from the delightful story of ‘The Forty Thieves,’ in

the ‘Arabian Nights’ Entertainment,’ that most English people have

become acquainted with the Sesame--the wondrous plant that at the

command of Ali Baba--“Open, Sesame!”--gained him an entrance to the

secret treasure-cave. In this capacity of opening the doors of caverns,

&c., the Sesamum-flower resembles the Springwort, and, like that mystic

plant, would seem to be an embodiment of lightning, if we may judge

from its Indian name of _Vajrapushpa_, Thunderbolt-flower.----Gerarde,

in his ‘Herbal,’ speaks of it as “the oily pulse called Sesamum” (or

_Sesama_), and says “it is one of the summer grains, and is sown before

the rising of the seven stars, as Pliny writeth.”----The plant is a

native of the East Indies, and the Hindus say that it was created

by Yama, the god of death, after a lengthy penance. They employ it

specially in funeral and expiatory ceremonies as a purificator and

as a symbol of immortality. In their funeral rites in honour of the

departed, they pour Sesame grain into the three sacrificial vases,

wherein the sacred Kusa and the holy oil have already been placed,

the while invoking the pulse as “the Sesame consecrated to the god

Soma.” At the annual festival in honour of the childless god Bhishma,

the four Indian castes pray for the departed god, and by this act of

piety procure for themselves absolution for all sins committed during

the past year, provided that, at the conclusion of the ceremony, an

offering is made of water, Sesame, and Rice. Sesame, with Rice and

honey, enters into the composition of certain funeral cakes offered

to the Manes in the ceremonies, but eaten by the persons present. The

Indian funeral offering, made at six different periods, is called “the

offering of six Sesames,” and if this is faithfully made, the natives

hope to be delivered from misfortune on earth and to be rewarded with

a place in the heaven of Indra. At an Indian funeral, when the corpse

has been burnt, the devotees bathe in a neighbouring river, and leave

on its banks two handfuls of Sesame, as nourishment for the soul of the

departed whilst on its funeral journey, and as a symbol of the eternal

life offered to the deceased.

=SHAMROCK.=--The word Shamrock (which means Little Trefoil) is from the

Erse _seamrog_, a diminutive of _seamar_, Trefoil. The Shamrock, or

Trefoil, in heraldry, is the badge of the kingdom of Ireland, and St.

Patrick, the patron saint of that isle, is represented in the habit of

a bishop, holding a Trefoil--St. Patrick’s Cross, as it is called by

Irishmen. It is said that St. Patrick, when on an evangelising mission

in Ireland, made the doctrine of the Trinity, one day, the subject of

his discourse. Finding his hearers unable to understand it, he plucked

a leaf of Shamrock, and used it as an illustration. So easy and simple

was the application, that their difficulties were removed, and they

accepted Christianity. Ever since, the Shamrock has been the national

emblem of Irishmen, and has been worn by them for many centuries on the

17th of March, which is the anniversary of St. Patrick. As to what was

the herb which furnished the saint with so excellent an illustration

of the Three in One, there is amongst botanists much dispute, but the

plants that for a long time past have been sold in Dublin and London

on St. Patrick’s Day as the national badge are the Black Nonsuch

(_Medicago lupulina_), and the Dutch Clover (_Trifolium repens_).

Several writers have advocated the claims of the Wood Sorrel (_Oxalis

acetosella_), which is called by the old herbalists _Shamrog_, and is

proved in olden times to have been eaten by the Irish,--one old writer,

who visited their country in the sixteenth century, stating that it was

eaten, and that it was a _sour_ plant. Wood Sorrel is a sour-tasting

plant, is indigenous to Ireland, and is trifoliated. It grows in woods,

where the people used to assemble, and where the priests taught and

performed their mystic rites; and therefore it may have been the plant

plucked by St. Patrick. It has also been contended that the Watercress

(called “Shamrock” by Holinshed in 1586) was the plant gathered by the

saint, but as its leaf is not trifoliate, this claim has not found much

favour. The plant which is figured upon our coins, both English and

Irish, is an ordinary Trefoil. Queen Victoria placed the Trefoil in her

royal diadem in lieu of the French Fleur-de-lis.

=SHEPHERD’S PURSE.=--The _Capsella Bursa_ is commonly known as

Pickpocket or Pickpurse, from its robbing the farmer by stealing the

goodness of his land. It was known to our forefathers by the names

of St. James’s-wort, Poor Man’s Parmacetty, Toywort, and Caseweed,

and was considered to be “marvellous good for inflammation.” (See

CLAPPEDEPOUCH.)

=SHOLOA.=--The Sholoa is a medicinal plant, employed by the Bushmen

of South Africa. Before going into battle, they rub their hands with

Sholoa, in order to be able to chafe the badly wounded to preserve

their life. When they dig up this plant, they deem it necessary, to

avert danger from themselves, to replant immediately a portion of the

root, so that it may spring up again. Tradition says that a man who

neglected this precaution was found speechless and motionless enveloped

in the toils of serpents. These serpents were killed by the Bushmen

in order to regain possession of the root, which was replanted. Their

women are afraid of these roots, when freshly dug up; they are,

therefore, always put into a bag before being taken into a hut.

=SNOWDROP.=--The Snowdrop (_Galanthus nivalis_) was formerly held

sacred to virgins, and this may account for its being so generally

found in the orchards attached to convents and old monastic buildings.

“A flow’r that first in this sweet garden smiled,

To virgins sacred, and the Snowdrop styled.”--_Tickell._

It is also dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and a monkish tradition

asserts that it blooms on the second of February, or Candlemas Day,

the day kept in celebration as that on which the holy Virgin took the

child Jesus to the Jewish Temple and there presented an offering. Hence

the flower is called the Fair Maid of February; as on the Day of the

Purification of the Virgin Mary her image used to be removed from the

altar, and Snowdrops strewed over the vacant place.----The legendary

account of the flower’s creation is as follows:--“An angel went to

console Eve when mourning over the barren earth, when no flowers in

Eden grew, and the driving snow was falling to form a pall for earth’s

untimeous funeral after the fall of man; the angel, catching as he

spoke a flake of falling snow, breathed on it, and bade it take a form,

and bud and blow. Ere the flake reached the earth Eve smiled upon the

beauteous plant, and prized it more than all the other flowers in

Paradise, for the angel said to her:--

“‘This is an earnest, Eve, to thee,

that sun and summer soon shall be.’”

The angel’s mission being ended, away up to heaven he flew; but where

on earth he stood, a ring of Snowdrops formed a posey.”----An old name

for the plant was the Winter Gilliflower. Dr. Prior thinks that the

name Snowdrop was derived from the German _Schneetropfen_, and that

the “drop” does not refer to snow, but to the long pendants, or drops,

worn by the ladies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, both as

earrings and hangings to their brooches, and which we see represented

so often by Dutch and Italian painters of that period.----In some parts

of England it is considered by the peasantry unlucky to take the first

Snowdrop into a house--the flower being regarded as a death-token,

inasmuch as it looks like a corpse in its shroud.

=SOLANUM.=--To this family belong the Love Apple, the Mad Apple, and

the Bitter-Sweet. Several species of the genus _Solanum_ are poisonous

and highly dangerous plants. It is related that when Sweno, king of

Norway, was besieging Duncan of Scotland in the town of Betha, Macbeth,

his cousin, managed to leave the town, whereupon Duncan began to treat

with the enemy as to the terms of a surrender, promising them a supply

of provender. The Danes accepted the terms, and Duncan sent them their

provisions, which they duly partook of; but soon after they were

overcome by a profound lethargic sleep, for their wine and ale had

been drugged with _Solanum_. In this condition they fell an easy prey

to Macbeth, who attacked them and utterly routed their forces. Ten only

of the soldiers, who had entertained suspicions with regard to Duncan’s

gift of supplies, remained in their senses, and these carried off King

Sweno, in a lifeless condition, to the mouth of the river Tay, and

thence conveyed him home in a fishing-boat.

=SOLOMON’S SEAL.=--The appellation of Solomon’s Seal has been given

to the _Convallaria Polygonatum_, because, on cutting the roots

transversely, some scars are seen resembling the device known as

Solomon’s Seal--a name given by the Arabs to a six-pointed star,

formed by two equilateral triangles intersecting each other. To the

old herbalists these marks (according to the doctrine of signatures)

were an indication of the plant’s virtues or uses: it was sent to seal

or consolidate wounds. Gerarde says: “That which might be written of

the herbe as touching the knitting of bones, and that truely, would

seeme with some incredible; but common experience teacheth that in the

world there is not to be found another herbe comparable to it for the

purposes aforesaid; and therefore, in briefe, if it be for bruises

inward, the roots must be stamped, some ale or wine put thereto,

strained, and given to drink. It must be given in the same manner

to knit broken bones, against bruises, black or blew marks gotten

by stripes, falls, or such like; against inflammation, tumours, or

swellings, that happen unto members whose bones are broken, or members

out of joynt, after restauration: the roots are to be stamped small,

and applied pultesse or plaister wise, wherewith many great workes

have been performed beyond credit.”----The plant is also known by the

name of Lady’s Seal, Seal-wort, White-root, Ladder-to-heaven, and

Jacob’s-ladder.----By astrologers it is held to be under the rule of

Saturn.

=SOMA.=--The Soma, or Moon Plant, is one of the most sacred plants of

India. It is supposed to be the _Sarcostemma viminale_, or _Cyanchum

viminale_ (_Asclepias acida_), which grows on the Coromandel hills and

in the Punjâb. According to Dr. Haug, the plant at present used by the

sacrificial priests of the Dekhan is not the sacred Soma of the Vedas,

although it appears to belong to the same order. In the Hindu religion,

by a truly mystic combination, Soma represents at once the moon or

moon-god, the genius presiding over the Soma, and the plant itself.

In the Vedic hymns to Soma, the notion of the plant predominates,

but intermixed are references which are only applicable to the lunar

character of the divinity. The description of the plant given in

Garrett’s ‘Classical Dictionary of India’ is as follows:--“It grows

to the height of about four or five feet, and forms a kind of bush

consisting of a number of shoots, all coming from the same root; their

stem is solid, like wood, the bark greyish, they are without leaves,

the sap appears whitish, has a very stringent taste, is bitter but not

sour; it is a very nasty drink, but has some intoxicating effect. The

sap referred to is sharp and acid, and, according to Decandolle, would

be poisonous if taken in large quantities; in many cases the nerves

are affected by it, as if by a narcotic; but it is benumbing in its

influence, as it hinders the activity of the nerves, without inducing

sleep.” From this sacred plant, which has the mystic five white petals,

is obtained a milky exudation (symbolising the motherhood of Nature),

out of which is made the Vedic _Amrita_, a divine beverage that confers

immortality; and, probably on this account, the plant itself is

worshipped as a god. Thus we find it so addressed in a hymn from the

Rigveda, translated by Muir:--

“We’ve quaffed the Soma bright,

And are immortal grown;

We’ve entered into light,

And all the gods have known.

What mortal now can harm,

Or foeman vex us more?

Through thee beyond alarm,

Immortal god! we soar.”

The Soma sap is used as the Soma drink for the initiation of the Djoga;

it is said to produce the magical condition in which, raised above the

universe to the great centre, and united with Brahma, the seer beholds

everything.----In the Hindu worship, libations to the gods were of

three kinds--butter, honey, and the fermented juice of the Soma-plant.

The butter and honey were poured upon the sacrificial fire; the Soma

juice was presented in ladles to the deities invoked, part sprinkled on

the fire, part on the Kusa, or Sacred Grass, strewed upon the floor,

and the rest invariably drunk by those who had conducted the ceremony.

The exhilarating properties of the fermented juice of the Soma filled

the worshippers with delight and astonishment; and the offering of

this sacred liquid was deemed to be especially pleasing to the Hindu

gods.----In the lunar sacrifices, the Soma drink was prepared with

mystical ceremonies, with invocations of blessings and curses, by

which the powers of the world above and below were incorporated with

it. According to their intended use, various herbs were mixed with the

principal ingredient. Windischmann remarks that the use of the Soma

was looked upon in early ages as a holy action, and as a sacrament, by

which the union with Brahma was produced; thus, in Indian writings,

passages similar to the following, often occur: “Prâjapati himself

drinks this milk, the essence of all nourishment and knowledge--the

milk of immortality.”----The Gandharvas, a race of demigods, are

represented in certain of the Vedic legends as custodians of the Soma

or Amrita, and as keeping such close watch over the divine beverage,

that only by force or cunning can the thirsty gods obtain a supply

of the immortalising drink.----One of the Hindu synonymes of Soma is

_madhu_, which means a mixed drink; and this word is the _methu_ of

the Greeks, and the mead of our own Saxon, Norse, and Celtic ancestors.

=SORREL.=--From May to August the meadows are often ruddy with the

Sorrel (_Rumex Acetosa_), the red leaves of which point out the graves

of the Irish rebels who fell on Tara Hill, in the “Ninety-Eight;” the

popular and local tradition being that the plants sprang from the blood

of the patriots shed on that occasion.----Sorrel is under the planetary

influence of Venus.

=SOW-THISTLE.=--Theseus, king of Athens, is said to have received as a

gift from the hands of Hecate, the Sow-thistle (_Sonchus oleraceus_)

and the Sea Fennel (_Crithmum maritimum_). Like the Sesame, the

Sow-thistle, according to tradition, sometimes conceals marvels or

treasures; and in Italian stories are found the exclamation, “Open

Sow-thistle,” used with the same magical results as attend the

invocation of the Sesame. A Russian legend states that the Devil

considers the Sow-thistle to be peculiarly his property, although in

so doing he is in error (see OATS and REED).----The Sow-thistle is

considered by astrologers to be under the dominion of Venus.

=SOUTHERNWOOD.=--The _Abrotanum_ (Southernwood) is a species of

Wormwood, to which the Greeks and Romans, and in more recent times the

Germans and French, attributed wonderful magic properties. According

to Pliny, it should be classed as an aphrodisiac plant, for, if it

be placed under a mattress, it will evoke sensual passions. Gerarde

says the same thing; and adds that “it helpeth against the stinging of

scorpions,” and that, “being strewed upon the bed, or a fume made of it

upon hot embers, it driveth away serpents.” Lucan refers to this latter

quality in the following lines (Book 9):--

“There the large branches of the long-lived hart,

With Southernwood their odours strong impart;

The monsters of the land, the serpents fell,

Fly far away, and shun the hostile smell.”

Macer Floridus states that it will drive away serpents; and Bauhin

narrates that it used to be employed against epilepsy.----From an

ointment made with its ashes, and used by young men to promote

the growth of a beard, the plant obtained the name of Lad’s

Love.----Astrologers place Southernwood under the rule of Mercury. (See

also MUGWORT and WORMWOOD.)

=SPEEDWELL.=--The _Veronica Chamædrys_ appears in olden times to have

been called “Forget-me-Not,” a name that has since been universally

applied to the Myosotis. Now-a-days it is sometimes called by country

folk Cat’s-eye. The plant derives its name of Speedwell from the fact

of its corolla falling off and flying away as soon as it is gathered;

“Speedwell” being the old-fashioned equivalent of “Good-bye!” The

bright blue blossom of the Germander Speedwell is in some places

better known as Veronica, an appellation derived from _Vera_ (Latin)

and _Icon_ (Greek), and signifying “true image.”----When our Saviour

was on his way to Mount Calvary, bearing his cross, he passed by the

door of Veronica, a compassionate woman, who beholding with pity the

Lord’s distressed condition, and the drops of agony on His brow, wiped

His face with a kerchief, or napkin, and the features of the Redeemer

remained miraculously impressed upon the linen. The kerchief itself

was styled the _Sudarium_, and from some resemblance of the blossom of

the Germander Speedwell to this saintly relic, bearing the features

of Christ, the plant received the name of Veronica.----Francus wrote

an entire work on the virtues of the _Veronica orientalis_, which is

said to have cured a King of France of the leprosy and to have given

children to a barren wife. R. Turner calls the plant Fluellin, or

Lluellin--a name, he remarks, “the Shentleman of Wales have given it

because it saved her nose, which disease had almost gotten from her.”

=SPIGNEL.=--Spignel (_Meum athamanticum_) is also known as Mew,

Bear-wort, or Bald-money. The latter name is of obscure etymology, but

we may safely reject the derivation which some writers have suggested

from the name of the god Baldr, the Scandinavian Apollo.----Spignel is

held to be under the rule of Venus. (See BALDMONEY).

=SPIKENARD.=--We read in Canticles: “While the king sitteth at his

table, my Spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.” And again: “Thy

plants are an orchard of Pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; Camphire,

with Spikenard, Spikenard and Saffron.” The true nature of Spikenard

has for ages been the subject of much controversy; but it is now

generally accepted that it was obtained from the _Valeriana Jatamansi_.

Ptolemy notices these odoriferous plants, the best of which grew at

Rangamati, and on the borders of the country now called Bootan. Pliny

says there are twelve varieties of it--the best being the Indian,

the next in quality the Syriac, then the Gallic, and in the fourth

place, that of Crete. He thus describes the Indian Spikenard: “It is

a shrub with a heavy thick root, but short, black, brittle, and yet

unctuous as well; it has a musty smell, too, very much like that of

the Cyperus, with a sharp acrid taste, the leaves being small, and

growing in tufts. The heads of the Nard spread out into ears; hence

it is that Nard is so famous for its two-fold production, the spike

or ear, and the leaf.” The price of genuine Spikenard was then one

hundred denarii per pound, and all the other sorts, which were merely

herbs, were infinitely cheaper, some being only worth three denarii

per pound. Galen and Dioscorides give a somewhat similar account of

Spikenard or _Nardostachys_, but the latter states that the so-called

Syrian Nard came in reality from India, whence it was brought to Syria

for shipment. Mr. E. Rimmel, in his ‘Book of Perfumes,’ points out

that “the ancients appear to have confounded Spikenard with some of

the fragrant Grasses of India, which would account for the report that

Alexander the Great, when he invaded Gedrosia, could smell from the

back of his elephant the fragrance of the Nard as it was trod upon by

the horses feet. This error was shared by Linnæus, who did not attempt

to classify the plant, but was inclined to think it was the same as the

_Andropogon Nardus_, commonly called Ginger Grass. Sir William Jones,

the learned orientalist, turned his serious attention to this question,

and after a laborious investigation succeeded in establishing beyond

doubt that the Spikenard of the ancients was a plant of the Valerianic

order, called by the Arabs _Sumbul_, which means ‘spike,’ and by the

Hindus _Jatamansi_, which signifies ‘locks of hair,’ both appellations

being derived from its having a stem which somewhat resembles the tail

of an ermine, or of a small weasel. He, consequently, gave it the name

of _Valeriana Jatamansi_, under which it is now generally classed by

botanists. It is found in the mountainous regions of India, principally

in Bootan and Nepaul. Its name appears to be derived from the Tamil

language, in which the syllable _nár_ denotes any thing possessing

fragrance, such as _nártum pillu_, ‘Lemon Grass;’ _nárum panei_,

‘Indian Jasmine;’ _nártum manum_, ‘Wild Orange,’ &c. It is highly

probable, however, that the word Spikenard was often applied by the

ancients as a generic name for every sort of perfume, as the Chinese

now designate all their scents by the name of _hëang_, which properly

means _incense_, it being for them the type of all perfumes.”----In an

Indian poem, the hero, compelled to go upon his travels immediately

after wedding the girl of his heart, takes leave of her in his garden,

and showing her a Spikenard of his own planting, enjoins her to watch

over it with loving care; for as long as it thrives all will go well

with him, but should it wither some fatal misfortune will certainly

befall him. Years pass away before he can turn his steps homewards.

Then he assumes the garb of a mendicant, goes to his home, gains

admission to the garden, and there sees his faithful wife weeping over

the precious Spikenard, grown into a mighty plant, telling its own

tale. The finish can well be guessed.

=SPRINGWORT.=--The Springwort, or Blasting-root, is famed in German

legends for its magical power of opening locks, however strong,

hidden doors, rocks, and secret entrances to caves where are stored

inexhaustible treasures. In Kelly’s ‘Indo-European Tradition,’ we

read that as a rule the Springwort has been regarded as an unknown

species of plants, and therefore most difficult to find; but some

few accounts specify known plants, and Grimm mentions the _Euphorbia

Lathyris_, which he identifies with the _Sferracavallo_ of the

Italians, so named because it acts so potently on metals, that horses,

if they tread on it, have their shoes drawn off. (The _Sferracavallo_,

however, was stated by Mentzel in 1682 to be a Vetch now known as the

_Hippocrepis_). The Springwort is procured by plugging up the hole in a

tree in which a green or black woodpecker has its nest with young ones

in it. As soon as the bird is aware of what has been done, it flies

off in quest of a wondrous plant, which men might look for in vain,

and returning with it in its bill, holds it before the plug, which

immediately shoots out from the tree, as if driven by the most violent

force. But if one conceals himself before the woodpecker returns, and

scares it when it approaches, the bird will let the root fall; or a

white or red cloth (representing water or fire) may be spread below

the nest, and the bird will drop the root upon the cloth after it has

served its own turn. This is Grimm’s version of the matter, and Pliny’s

account coincides, except that he adds that the plug is driven out

with an explosion, caused, as one may conclude, by the electricity

contained in the plant which is applied to it by the bird. Now it

is worthy of remark that the woodpecker is mythically alleged to be

a fire- or lightning-bearer; and so is called by the Romans _Picus

Martius_, after the god Mars, and _Picus Feronius_, from the Sabine

goddess Feronia, who had a certain control over fire. In the Sanscrit,

a species of _Euphorbia_ is called the Thunderbolt Thorn, and some

others are termed Thunderbolt-wood. It is curious to notice, by the

way, that the Indian name of the Sesame-flower, _Vajrapushpa_, connects

with the thunderbolt the flower that opens treasure-caves. In Swabia,

they say that the hoopoe brings the Springwort, and lets it fall into

water or fire to destroy it: to obtain it, therefore, one must have

in readiness a pan of water, or kindle a fire; the original notion

having been that the bird must return the plant to the element from

which it springs,--that being either the water of the clouds, or the

lightning-fire enclosed therein. The connection between the Springwort

and the lightning is also manifested in an old Swabian tradition, that

when the plant is buried in the ground at the summit of a mountain, it

draws down the lightning, and divides the storm, causing it to pass

off to right and left.----In the Oberpfalz, the Springwort is called

_Johanniswurzel_, because it is there believed that it can only be

found among the Fern on St. John’s Night. It is said to be of a yellow

colour, and to shine in the night like a candle, resembling in this

respect the Mandrake. Moreover, it never stands still, but darts about

continually to avoid the grasp of men. Here then, in the luminosity

and the power of rapid movement attributed to the Springwort, we see

the embodiment of electricity in the plant.----In Switzerland, the

_Spreng-wurzel_ is carried in the right pocket, to render the bearer

invulnerable to dagger or bullet; and in the Harz mountains it is

said to reveal treasures.----With regard to this magical property of

disclosing concealed treasures, a story is related by Kuhn in his North

German Legends, from which we learn that a shepherd who was driving

his flock over the Ilsenstein, having stopped to rest, leaning on his

staff, the mountain suddenly opened, for there was a Springwort in his

staff without his knowing it. Inside the mountain he discovered an

enchanted princess, who bade him take as much gold as he pleased; so he

filled his pockets, and then prepared to retire; but he had forgotten

his staff with the Springwort in it, which he had laid against the wall

when he stepped in; so that just as he was on the point of stepping out

of the opening, the rock suddenly slammed together, and cut him in two.

In this version of the German legend, the Luckflower is identified with

the Springwort.

=SPURGE LAUREL.=--The Spurge Laurel, called in Denmark _Ty-ved_, is

sacred to Tyr, the god of war. This plant is the badge of the Scottish

Clan Graham.

=SQUILL.=--The _Scilla maritima_, or Sea Onion, was of old consecrated

in Egypt to the god Typhon. The mummies of Egyptian women often hold

the Squill in one hand, probably as an emblem of generation. The

Egyptians planted the Squill in groves, and hung it in their houses to

preserve them from evil spirits. In Arcadia, at the festival of the god

Pan, the statue of the deity was decorated with Squills.

=STAR OF BETHLEHEM.=--The _Ornithogalum umbellatum_ is called the

Star of Bethlehem on account of its white stellate flowers resembling

the pictures of the star that indicated the birth of the Saviour of

mankind. As the plant is abundant in the neighbourhood of Samaria, it

was thought by Linnæus and also by several biblical commentators to be

the “dove’s dung” mentioned as the food of the famished inhabitants of

that city during the siege recorded in the Book of Kings. The Star of

Bethlehem is horological--it never unfolds its petals before eleven

o’clock, and hence has acquired the nickname of the Eleven o’Clock Lady.