T H E F L O R A O F

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An Attem pt at Collectin g the Legen d s a n d An cien t

Ded ication s of Plan ts con n ected in Popula r

Trad ition with the Life of Our Blessed Lord

from His Nativity to the Flight in to Egypt

P R E C E D E D B Y A N E S S A Y U P O N

1 ra 15m f lora éac .

ALFRED . P . R Y A. A MUND DOWLING B . E ,

TE F ’ LA O ST. JOHN S COLLEGE , OXFORD

iLon Don

KEGAN PAUL TRENCH TRUBNER CO . L , , , TD . M D C C C C Edin ur h : ONSTAB E n er o Her e t b g T. C L , Pri t s t Maj s y

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Introductory,

Essay upon the Flora Sa cra,

n f th Nati i Advent a n d the Nove a o e v ty,

The Holy Night, .

Some Flowering Trees, etc .

The Holy Thorn of Glastonbury,

’ St . Patrick s Bush at Tours,

The Dagny Thorn,

The Cadnam Oak,

- Fruit bearin g Trees,

r Som e Flowe ing Plan ts,

- The Rose Mary,

Christmas Roses,

Types of the Incarnation,

Tree of Jesse or Rod of Jacob,

’ Js cob s Ladder, or Scala Coeli,

The Burn ing Bush, ' Gideon s Fleece,

r Filius ante Pat em ,

- Cradle Grasses, ' Mary s Milkworts, z r t T Qan d iem s, o the Presen ta ion . in the emple .

n The Adoration of the Kings a d the Bethlehem Sta r,

- Child erm a s, or the Massacre of th e Holy Inn ocents,

“ Th : Fl ht 11 E e ig t gypt, a.

I N TR OD U C TOR Y .

c on THE earlier the record of h uman thought, the more sta n tly evident is there a reverence for the phenomena by m wh ich man is surrounded . Job, as uch as Homer, is ’ h Th e u n a rtificia l instinct wit it . more simple and men s h h a s lives, the more present to t eir minds been the sense of the close connection between the Divinity and Th what we sum up in the word Nature . e most ancient oracle of Greece was that introduced by the Pelasgian settlers at Dodona four thousand years ago, dedicated to h h Zeus, the omnipresent aet er ; and at that s rine the voice of the unseen deity came to men in the rustling of the

- a leaves of its oak trees , the song of its w ters, and the melody of th e birds in its groves ; later on the laurel boughed temple of Delphi was raised in honour of the Sun god in his triumph over the wreathing exhalations of the earth ; and th e next famous temple in Greece was that dedicated to Demeter at Eleusis, whose story is an allegory of agricultural life . The substance of the noble address made by the Hierophant to the newly initiated at the

Greater Mysteries at the last- mentioned shrine sounds like a chapter from Job . As the postulant was admitted to the h inmost sanctuary and be eld the statue of the goddess, the choir sang a triumphant ode, and at its conclusion the Officiant made this exhortation : ‘The soul that beholds the Creator in His works is alone worthy to be admitted among His children : That Creator is not to be likened to ’ things made of men s hands, wood and stone . He dwelleth 3 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY in no similitude of created things ; space is His altar, the universe His temple . His goodness and benevolence cry aloud ; His maj esty and power are not left without witness .

He rides on the storm, and the whirlwinds are His chariot . To you the gates of knowledge have been now thrown open ; but while you contemplate the vastness of Infinity, th e h h u and mightiness of Omnipotence, learn to t ink mbly of yourselves ; to pay your vows with out grudging ; and to commit your keeping into the hands of the Highest of the h highest . Remember always t at the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ; and that the end of all knowledge is h ’ ’ to teach us t is, to look from Nature up to Nature s God . Such was the exalted tone of teaching in what some h scornfully term times of heat en thought, yet to s ome others it would be a gratification if such thought were

- prevalent amongst us to day . To every thinking person in ’ the world s history Nature has ever been at th e same time supernatural . Its external aspects even are so inscrutable

- and awe inspiring, and its beauty so penetrating, that their contemplation should make th e most flipp a n t tongue silent in their presence, and often even reverent . It is not th e superior knowledge of our time that makes men speak of the world around th em as if it were noth ing but the out o f s u rfi ci lit come known physical laws, but superior p e a y .

It is true that law governs the universe, for order is ’ Heaven s first law ; but to think that when we have arrived h at this we have come to the conclusion of the w ole matter, shows how little we realise our inquiry, and that here we

- have but a starting point, not an end . Even to grasp what the universe means will always remain beyond our mental comprehension . This world alone of ours, with every element known and labelled in it, will still continue, as Mr . ‘ ’ Carlyle remarks, God s creation, towards which the best attitude for us after never so much science is awe , devout prostration, and humility of soul, worship if not in words, 4 INTRODUCTORY

then in silence . When all material knowable facts shall

have been gathered, we shall have, as the same author says ,

but a sketch of a portion of the great picture, some of the pigments, in fact, which still need the hand and mind of h th e artist to make them intelligible and armonious . For ’ the facts of the universe are the result of God s thoughts, ’ ’ ’ and God s thoughts, the Psalmist tells us, are very deep . Th e Latin word for th e culture of polite life was identical with that for worship, and the term is taken from rural occupation ; for men could not conceive of culture being possible without reverence, nor anything so conducive to reverence as a communing with Nature . The early Teutonic peoples had so profound a sense of the sacredness of the very soil, that we get our word earth from their goddess

Hertha, with whom they identified it . The ancient Pan theisms were an abuse of even natural religion, but they were at least expressions of the heart, if not of the mind ; th ey brought man face to face with the divine from dawn to sunset, every mountain and river had its sacred associa tion, every grove and meadow its deity, every natural ’ phenomenon its god . This was but man s e ffort to express what is innate to his best feelings ; and in a like manner m still to many sensitively strung inds, the voices of the universe are like a Holy Spirit breath ing upon the delicately attuned instrument of the soul, producing a harmony of sweet cadenced sound that whispers of things too deep for words may be, but which need no priestess to interpret . We do not deify the natural phenomena as they did of old

‘ ’ time ; we do not worship in that way now ; but, we again ‘ . quote Mr Carlyle, is it not reckoned still a merit, a proof “ " of what we call a poetic nature, that we recog nise how every object has a divine beauty in it ; how every object still verily is a “ window through which we may look into in fin itu d e itself He that can discern the loveliness of things, we call him poet, painter, man of genius, gifted, 5 THE FLORA OF THE S ACRED NATIVITY

’ ‘ lovable ; and whether it be pagan peasant of old, or th Christian king of e moyen age, who learned a sacred lesson from flower, or bird, or star, each in his own fashion, and to the extent of his own inner light of conscience, was poet and priest in one . It was Judaism and its completion in Ch ristianity that united head and h eart togethe r in regarding all nature as deriving its being and energies and beauty r n d h h f om one a the same source as man imself, s aring in varying degrees in the Fall from original perfection, groan

’ ing and travailing in pain together with him awaiting th e

Redemption, since he was its perfection and head, he its complete exp ression uniting it to the divine , he its priest, the voice by which was offered the Benedicite to the Creator from every created phase of life .

- The intimate belief in the constant, ever supporting Providence of God has been the teaching of both Jewish and Christian philosophy all through the ages, and this led men to reverence every manifestation of it in every depart e ment of nature . As a specim n of mediaeval philosophic thought, we may quote th e words of St . Augustine in his ‘ ’ City of God (v . which Mr . Ruskin speaks of as ‘ containing all, as far as he could discern, that it is possible for us to know, or well for us to believe, respecting th e ’ : ‘ h world and its laws . St . Augustine says W erefore th e great and mighty God, He that made man a reasonable creature of soul and body, and He that did neither let him pass unpunished for his sin, nor yet excluded him from mercy ; He that gave both unto good and bad, essence with the stones , power of production with the trees, senses with the beasts of the field, and understanding with the angels ;

He from whom is all being, beauty, form and order, number, weight and measure ; He from whom all nature mean and excellent, all seeds of form, all forms of seed, all motion both of forms and seeds derive and have their being ; He that gave flesh the original beauty, strength, propagation, 6 INTRODUCTORY

form and shape, health and symmetry ; He that gave the un reasonable soul sense, memory, and appetite ; the reason a —He able, besides these, phantasy, underst nding, and will ,

I say, having left neither heaven, nor earth, nor angel, nor man, no, nor the most base and contemptible creature, ’ ’ neither the bird s feather, nor the herb s flower, nor the ’ h tree s leaf, without the true armony of their parts and peaceful concord of composition —I t is in no way credible that He would leave the kingdoms of men and their bondages and freedom loose and uncomprised in the laws of His

’ eternal Providence (Trans . Ge o . Bid , In that old ‘ ’ storehouse of mediae val tradition, the Le genda Aurea, its

compiler, Jacques de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, un der ’ the heading De Nativitate Domini, shows us how then they ’ : ‘ regarded all nature as related There are beings, he says , ‘ which exist but do not live, a s the stars ; which exist and

live, but do not feel, as the plants ; which exist, live, feel,

but do not think, as the animals ; which exist, live, feel,

and think, but are without prescience, as man ; and lastly, beings in whom all the preceding qualities are united and ’ combined with perfect intelligence, as the angels . Thus did they account for th at sympathy between man and nature which otherwise surely is one of the greatest

- mysteries of an ever enlarging experien ce . How is it to be accounted for unless all things come from one source and are essentially related ? The green book of Nature is one of God’ s witnesses to Himself no less than the book of the —in Scriptures, both, deep calls to deep ; the strange and inscrutable pleasure that those gifted with the power of keen perception feel in the presence of natural beauty or in the expression of the writings of the Old and New Testa ment is probably because both appeal to man’ s inner

- consciousness, which recognises a fellow feeling, a family likeness and affinity with itself in the message that both these Bibles convey ; it is a touching of the note that 7 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

vibrates through all, and that is its source and its end, viz . the divine life ; a life which sleeps in inorganic matter, it has been said, dreams in th e vegetable, wakes in the l animal, but in man the child of God speaks ; a life gradua ly unfolded to the world in the Word made matter, the Word made letter, and finally embodied in the Word made Flesh . h No wonder, then, t at the sight of created beauty melts us, woos us, awes us, for behind the sacramental veil is ’ the Divine Presence, and we feel its nearness without realising its existence perhaps ; but to those whose love of nature has led them thus far in their perception of its mystery, the winds and waves, birds and flowers, moon and stars, will all become sons and daughters of consola i tion, stay ng weary steps, purifying and refining each ’ sense, and making earth s pilgrimage no sad or j oyless h j ourney, but one of constant interest and delig t from ' Bethlehem s Hill of Frankincense to the land of the Repose .

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY ment ’— until then we shall have a race far less ‘ sons of ’ God than children of Mammon . h There was a time, even in t is century, when to care for such simple things as flowers was considered, in English t ‘ men a least, an artificial affectation of singularity ; that feeling certainly no longer exists, and the modern pleasure in them in this northern latitude is probably greater than t r in s o u h e n l a n d s, where Nature decks herself in robes of ever- changeful and abundant beauty ; the interest we take in developing a plant to its highest degree of perfection, and producing fresh varieties of it, is greater now than in h any previous time . But our sole idea connected wit them i h s t eir decorative capability . There is scarcely ever any familiar or expressive significance at th e root of our regard . h h th In sout ern lands it is rat er e reverse, the meaning or h utility being the c arm perh aps more than the beauty, wh ether it be in the language of love or as the badge of th party, as e flower of a saint or th e sweet store of mystic virtue . Mr . J . Bateman, in his Orchidaceae of Mexico and ’ th h Guatemala, has noticed e romantic use of orc ids in h : ‘ t ose countries he is writing upon . He says In Mexico, th “ ! where e language of flowers is understood by all, the a Orchidace e seem to compose nearly the entire alphabet .

Not an infant is baptized, not a marriage is celebrated, not a funeral obsequy performed at wh ich th e aid of these flowers is not called in by the sentimental natives to assist th h f e expression of t eir feelings . They are o fered by the h devotee at t e shrine of his favourite saint, by the lover at th e ' feet of his mistress, and hy the sorrowing survivor at th e h is grave of friend ; whether, in short, on fast days or feast days, on occasions of rej oicing or in moments of h h h distress, these flowers are soug t for wit an avidity w ich would seem to say th at there was no sympathy like th eirs ; ' “ ! " “ d r u thus Flor de los Santos, Flor e C o p s , Flor de los ! “ ! “ - muertos, Flor de Maio, No me olvides (or Forget me 12 FLORA SACRA

not), are but a few names out of the many that might be cited to prove the high consideration in which our ’ favourites are held in the New World . This same spirit prevailed as strongly in rural Europe h as in Central America, to w ich it was conveyed, and exists ' still in many parts ; and it is probably only since the h h Renaissance of the sixteent century, wit its return to the h h work and th ought of pagan time, t at t is interesting use of

- flowers fell into abeyance . To day flowers are employed amongst us more popularly th an th ey ever have been at marriages and deaths , home and church festivals, and as

‘ ever welcome gifts ; but this practice will die out again, it will exist only as a passing fashion, if th ey be used in surfeiting profusion simply as decorations in j oy and tokens h of sorrow, wit out any individual and definite and historic Th e reason for their presence . first adoption of any pretty custom is of itself dazzling to the mind , and, like the first gaze at an attractive picture, the eye does not get critical before it has overcome the glamour of surprise and quietly can consider th e detail ; th e reaction takes place if in this

- h after t inking there is nought to justify the first impression ; th e h h it is need of authority t at t en is felt, not of fancy . ' If this be present, then each detail adds to one s original j oy ; it is going down to the foundations and finding them rock ; it is the testing of the ore, and finding it gold ; but if it th e be contrary, then comes the palling of the taste, the disappointment of the heart, and the weariness to the eye . The revival of church sentiments in this country and the renewal of a taste for flowers were almost cause and effect . As th e heart of England yearned for more earnest life in its religion it threw long glances back over th e arid desert of its p ast three hundred years ; and in that retrospect those desolated shrines and ruined houses of the old faith, whose relics now stood out stark against the sky, were 13 THE F LORA OF THE S ACRED NATIVITY

seen brilliant with . lights and flowers, warm with colour and incense cloud, and there was a wistfulness for the old ways, and ardent souls struggled to copy in the nine te en th century what the Church had been in the fourteenth a re and fifteenth . Flowers were found, as they ever , full of pure sympathy with the human heart, and they were earliest enrolled in the service of devotion ; but the old learning about them was so far away, the monastic botanist was not to be found to tell how Mother Church had sancti

fi ed all nature by setting her seal upon plant, and bird, and fish, and star, and beast, an d insect, finding in one h ere and one there a memorial of sacred truth or saintly legend, and providing a constant source of recollection of holy things for her ch ildren as they journeyed through ’ earth s garden . A Sacred Flora has been the longing wish of countless persons ; not only poets and religious, but antiquaries, i painters, and architects have desired it . The rel gious that they might have their garden of the saints, whose consecrated blossoms not only might increase recollected ness by their dedications, but that the flowers employed o h to decorate an altar, r onour a shrine, might have of themselves an especial adaptability and meaning beyond their fellows . Artists, whether architects, sculptors, painters, or workers in textile fabrics, have required some authority for the herbage they sought to employ which would in tensify their meaning and bear a congruous relation to their subject . Is there nothing, they say, to portray in the botany of sacred art save a lily, a palm, a vine, a

- - fl w r ? rose, the wheat ear, or a Passion o e The antiquary has need of such a guide to help him to interpret the work of earnest mediae val days when the tendency was to bring into the sanctuary the familiar things of their daily life with a symbolic intention . A discriminating ‘ ’ 863 ‘ writer in the Quarterly Review, for July 1 , says : A 14 FLORA SACRA complete arrangement of the plants and flowers named th after certain saints, or recording e festivals of the Church, so far as such plants exist, would be of great value and interest ; and that is very many years ago . Such a work, even if it had been confined to the remnants of the old dedications remaining in England alone, would have been h deligh tful ; w at would it not be if it were Catholic, the voice of all Christened lands ? What an interest it would be to find that a herb bore the same significance in wh ole groups of countries, where it existed, and perhaps in the heart of the whole world ; what a new depth of meaning would reveal itself if it could be shown that this builder ’ h a d allowed only ‘ Our Lady s flowers ’ to appear in the b e ’ foliage employed for her chapel, that this high altar s frieze was entwined with only such plants as told of the h bitter dolour of the Cross, that t at painter had carpeted the feet of his saints with a purposeful botany, or placed in the fields of Paradise a flora which spoke o nly of its inhabitants Th ere is h appily an increasing demand for such a work as we refer to, and many attempts have been made to h a s h ff satisfy it ; but no satisfaction attended t ose e orts, for they h ave been those of fanciful writers and their copyists . The student who undertakes such a task must not be a person wh o can speak lightly of names which to r Ch istendom were, and still are, names of sweetness and veneration ; if he cannot accept them for the simple earnest ness of the devotion of which they tell, he need not display k ‘ ’ his lac of ability by feeble pleasantries, which are re voltin g to even an artistic mind, not to speak of any h h igher form o f t ought . Mediae val days were marked by intense familiarity with religious truths ; there was no separation between them and the daily life ; they were interwoven so intimately that we with our ‘ Sunday reli ’ gion think they were often irreverent ; and if we find 15 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

‘ ’ ’ ’ ’ Mirr u r ‘ such titles as Our Lady s o , Our Lady s Smock, ‘ ’ ’ - Our Lady s Pin cushion, and more toilet requisites than the poor home at Naza reth ever knew, they were names given in no disrespectful intrusion upon the life of the

Virgin Mother, but in the vivid realism of a work- a - day faith .

The savant Bauhin, the greatest botanist of the sixteenth century, did not disdain to occupy himself in making the commencement of a Sacred Flora ; and as far as it extended, with a success worthy of his high reputation . In 1591 he ‘ published De plantis a divis s a n ctisve nomen h a b e n tib u s h and althoug necessarily a very small collection, it forms 1 a most valuable groundwork for future extension . In 630, th e Italian physician Ambrosini produced Panacea ex h erb is ’ d en om in a n tur co n cin a ta o qu ze a sanctis , f unded on Bauhin, b ut not extending his researches . In 1 643, the pious French doctor Du Val brought out ‘Historia monogramma sive ’ r m e d ic rum t p ictu a linearis sanctorum o e medicara m, in which is a ‘Digress iu n cu l a de plantis n o m e n cl a tu rae sanc ’ tio ris , but this again did not add anything, but aimed at ex ’ plaining Bauhin s book . Between these dates and the middle of the present century there do not appear to have been any works upon the subject ; and it would be satisfactory if they who then presumed to write upon it, and have since treated it, had shown any acquaintance with the above

h . mentioned Bau in They would have hesitated, perha ps, before committing to print the sacred flora s which they have done, for they have been the means of misleading a large number of persons, and their catalogue of flowers of the saints have no more title to be regarded as authentic than the fanciful languages of flowers with which we are ‘ all familiar . In this world there are so few voices and ’ so many echoes, Goethe said ; but upon this subject it is the faint echo of the voice of the ages of pious Christendom that we have to listen for if we desire to carry on the 1 6 FLORA SACRA

tradition of their thought . It is not the ordinary reader that is to blame for accepting as sufficiently authoritative books published on the subject sometimes even by fellows . of the Linnaean Society itself ; but it is surprising that th e writers of such books should h ave h elped to circulate statements before seeking a reasonable authority for their assertions and without making such tests as would satisfy h th e them t ereon . But, on contrary, these modern com

r - pilers h ave copied and e copied one another, almost th e universally, with out qualifying their assertions by name of th e auth or to whom they are indebted, and thus they have made themselves equally culpable in the popular ising of an imposition . As a natural consequence, many have taken these lists as auth entic by reason of their h o w repetition, and produce dissertations showing in old days they employed this and that flower and why they h did so, when, perchance, the very herb t ey descant upon may h ave been introduced into Europe in th is century

only, and was quite unknown in the times to which they h th th ‘ refer . Wit e exception of e paper in the Quarterly ’ Review, alluded to above, perhaps there is no writer on ‘ ’ the Flora Sacra who has escaped th e poison of these h careless teachers . Let us examine one of t em, for his statements have obtained a respect from their very age and repetition which we h ope to be able to destroy ; and then when the ground is cleared of th ese forgeries and

sham antiques, we may have some hope that a fairer a n d

more solid construction may occupy its site . " 1826 th e In , Hone commenced weekly publication of his ‘ ’ - Every Day Book , and under January 19 he gives th e following without quotation marks and without reference h i Th to s authority : e monks , or the observers of monkish

rules, have compiled a catalogue of flowers for each day th e in year, and dedicated each flower to a particular saint, on account of its flowering about the time of the saint ’ s B 17 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY festival . Such appropriations are a Floral Directory through th e out year, and will be inserted under the succeeding ’ days . He then gives those flowers which belong to the h preceding eig teen days in January, and for the future gives one at each date . This is the first appearance of h this catalogue, and t ere can be little doubt th at it owes its conception to th e pretty fancy and quaint device of one man, a certain Dr . Forster, who was writing about this th time a series of interesting works upon e Kalendar, drawing attention to th e natural beauties of each month th and season, and illustrating e association of each day th e in year by its reference to botany, history, meteorology,

. w as and so forth He a good pious man, a doctor of th e a medicine, a fellow of Linn ean, Astronomical, and other learned Societies ; but although his poetic nature made him ff a ectionate towards antiquity, he evidently did not feel that a modern invention posing as a part of th e venerable past is of all things th e most abhorrent to all earnest h students . T ere is a general resemblance only between the catalogue in Hone and th e flowers of th e months in ’ ‘ ’ Forster s Perennial Calendar, published two years before and his Pocket Encyclopaedia of Natural Ph enomena in the year after but in the following year he brought ’ ‘ th e out his Circle of Seasons, and in this he pretends to . m quote fro Hone, and substantiates his statements by curious rhymes, proverbs, and verses, in every sort of language, diverting suspicion from their true authorship by appending to them authorities which h ave been the puzzle of bibliographers and students generally . Here are a fewspecimens of his statements ‘ : a u restin Vibur um in us. Jan . 1 L e, n T A familiar adage says to - day

h eth er th e e th er b e n or r n e W w a s ow ai , We a re su re to , see the flower of St . Fain e R n e b ut seld om e a n d ten n ai com s of s ow , " th u o An d yet is Vibu rn m is sure t blow .

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY et ’ 25 métaphysicien, par T . Forster, and on p . he admits ’ that in 1825, the year previous to Hone s publication, he ‘ ’ ’ was at Walthamstow . C est dans cette solitude que j ai ’ concn l id ée de faire u n calendrier perpétuel de Flora et ’ de donner a chaque jour de l a n n ée une d en o m in a tio n ’ ’ l i n d apres e moyen temps de la flora s o des plants . In ‘ h - the second edition, w ich he re styled Recueil de ma vie, et ’ mes ouvrages, mes pensées, on p . 55, he confesses himself to be the author of all th ose pieces of verse to which were appended the mysterious references alluded to above . Such, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter, and it is one of th e strangest literary impositions h of our time, for t e man who executed it was no illiterate or worthless person, but the ve ry reverse, and his action can only be accounted for by a species of insanity . The late learned librarian of South Kensin gton Museum has a clear recollection of asking Dr . Forster where the authority ’ for this Flora was to be found, and of the doctor s assuring

a t . Ca m him that it had been copied by him from a MS . h bridge . In later years t is gentleman went up to Cambridge ; but after a fruitless search in all the libraries there, and finding there was a total ignorance by the authorities of h any such document, e came to the conclusion that the

MS . which the doctor had copied from was one of his h h own construction . There can be no doubt t at t is is th e correct solution, but we believe this to be the first time that it has been publicly exposed . The satisfaction created to those wh o study the his to rica l side of the science of botany at this conclusion must naturally be great, for here we have a definite fact . The annoyance must also be great to those who have given credit to those statements, and their influence to circulate the same ; but there can be little pity for those h writers w o , in the patchery and sleight of modern work, have started to build upon foundations of which they 20 FLORA SACRA have never tested the reliability ; men who do not say

Hone gives this or Forster that, but who announce that ‘th e Catholic Church h as appropriated certain flowers fo r ’ certain days, and then pretend to give them . Such blind guides have been baneful to the whole study, and reduced Th it from fact to fancy . e following are a few of the works

’ : 184 ‘ as which have copied Forster In 9 , Flores Ecclesi ; ‘ ’ Oakele 1862 in 1851 , Th e Catholic Florist, edited by y ; in , ’ ‘ ’ Miss E . Cuyler s beautiful book, The Church s Floral ’ ‘ Calendar in 1869, W . A . Barrett s Flowers and Festi ’ ’ ‘ ’ ‘ 186 S m b olica sub ca . vals ; in 9 , Ingram s Flora y , p Holy ' Flowers ; in 1868, the Rev . Mackenz ie Walcott copied ’ ‘ A 1884 many of Forster s into his Sacred rchwology in , ’ ’ F lk r ‘ the chapters on the subject in o a d s Plant Lore, and ’ ‘ ’ in Friend s Flowers and Flower Lore ; in America, Mrs . ’ ‘ l Lincoln s Botany and, in Ita y, the Countess Anna di ’ ‘ ’ San Giorgio s Catalogo Poliglotto delle Piante, as well as countless papers in periodicals of all nations . Notwithstanding the pleasure that it is to have a fact not a fancy for the basis of all true lasting work, we ' cannot but regret that we have to part with s om e of the dedications assigned by Forster ; he has given such an

old- world flavour to his pill that we can almost resign ourselves to its toleration . How delightful are his lines

‘Th e sn owdrop in pure st wh ite arraie n C a n e First re ar s h er h e ad o dl mas Day. While C rocu s h aste n s to th e sh rin e ’ Of r r e e a t en ti n e tc. p im os lov Val , e

It is entirely constructed to suit his list of flowers, and ‘ ’ we long for a reformed text in its pretty spirit . He

speaks of the Tremella lichen, Which is found upon old walls and palings, with its bright yellow or orange d ‘ colouring, as being calle , amidst the various antient ’ ’ . Gud ula emblems of commemoration, St s Lamp, and the ’ crocus he christened St . Valentine s flower, as reminding 21 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

’ of Hymen s torch . So, too, the flowers of the sweet coltsfoot, which come in winter, and scent our rooms, he states to be ‘ ’ called in Italy Pastori di Madonna, or Shepherds of the

Madonna, in memory of those who awaited the Nativity ! of our Lord ; but we can find, alas no confirmation of these pleasant fancies . They are, however, specimens of m the delightful environ ent he gave his thought, and may well excuse the deception of ordinary readers ; and if we felt that there were no true dedications as pretty and as full of significance to take their place, we are not sure that we should venture to disturb their acceptance . They are so healthy in their influence, so helpful in forming a holy regard of Nature, that to the individual they can be quite harmless, and minister only to virtue ; but their utility for purposes of sacred art, or their help to those w h o might seek to read th e works of ancient days by meanings which they conveyed, was likely to be the source of lasting error . Flora ix We say that there is a p , not only true, but as pretty and far more extensive than any which Dr .

Forster and his followers have invented or conceived . In every form of faith that has ever possessed any livin g ’ influence upon men s minds, we may find abundant examples of how human nature has especially turned to trees and flowers to assist in the expression of the deepest emotions of which it was capable . Christianity is no exception ; but, strangely enough, this is quite an unrecognised fact . We have only to take up the Dialect Society ’ s publication ‘ ’ of English Plant Names , by Messrs . Britten Holland, to see how large a number of sacred dedications prevail in this island alone ; and if we extend our researches to other countries, we shall find how frequently the same dedication will hold its place in the peasant lore of every land where the same plant is to be found . It is surpris ing to learn how vast and beautiful a Christian flora really 22 FLORA SACRA

exists . The life of our Blessed Lord may be found recalled therein by many a simile or type in almost every known h h event . We might plant our gardens wit trees, s rubs, and herbs that would speak to us as th ey did to our pious re forefath ers through the circling seasons of the year, ’ minding u s of the Saviour s Nativity, Circumcision, Adora

- h th e tion by the star led Magi , the Flig t from murderous

h . Herod into Egypt, and the R epose t ere Still further, we m" ay follow every step of His Passion from Gethsemane h to Calvary, His Resurrection and Ascension, w ile the h flora of Wh itsuntide, Trinity, and Corpus C risti complete n th ’ Th the teachi g of e Church s year . e flora relating to th e holy Mother St . Mary is another extensive section in these sacred dedications ; and in it every type and symbol, every detail of her life in connection with her sh are in th ’ e work of man s Redemption, memorials of the days at d Bethlehem and Nazareth, and much else, may be foun existing so as to form th e story of Our Lady among th e h th Flowers . T e flora of e saints is a still further division, and one of singularly vivid and historic interest, ranging th e V th h from ia infiom m of St . John to e single erb that recalls some only locally remembered St . Kadoc or St .

Albuin . Th is is the delightful store th at has been lying scat tere d throughout Christendom, full of the most lovely h and tender teac ing, and radiant with faith and poetic beauty ; existing often for centuries in the folk- lore of quiet country places, yet hitherto ungathered ; attractin g only casually the notice of th e public when an individual example was brought into prominence, and again relapsing into disregard or forgetfulness . It is this story of th e flowers that we h ope to unfold and to save from oblivion for all who care for Christian art and poetry . h h It will be asked w en did t ese dedications originate, and the answer no doubt is that they were the gradual growth 23 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY r of time . A constant rema k that one sees upon such of the Christian flora as is known is that it is but a servile trans lation of the pagan dedications, wherein Jupiter has been replaced by God , Apollo by Christ, and Venus by Mary . As far as the present writer is able to speak , that is quite untrue as a general or usual case . Occasionally it does th e occur . In instances so often quoted of herbs dedicated ’ to Venus or Freya, bearing the Blessed Virgin s name, there is no necessity for th e supplanting to have been deliberate h and intentional, since in so large a flora as that whic bears the name of Mary— over two hun dred varieties at least— many must be included which once bore that of

Venus ; but it is quite impossible to show that, on the h l a r e o r ot er hand, a g . even appreciable proportion of these two hundred ever bore th e name of the goddess .

Nor is it provable, even excluding these instances, that the similarity extends further . Moreover, it would make no variant in the regard with which Christians would take these dedications to find that the affection of a less perfect faith had cherished them under similar forms of thought ; to us all effort to express devotion in a ss ocia t ing it with the wonders and beauties of the natural world ’ has been but the signs of th e yearnings of man s heart after a revelation which to us is known . A Venus or an Aphrodite may have been the highest ideal the mind of Greece and Rome could form cf female perfection ; but to us such types become noisome and impossible when we ‘ compare them to her who was sweet Mother, sweet Maid a Jupiter or a Zeus may have been the embodiment of their conceptions of the King of heaven and earth ; but to us o m nipotence and omniscience have only the command of our dread , and make no appeal to our reverence when dissociated from perfect purity, j ustice, truth, and love .

There was , doubtless , such a revulsion from the pagan d eifi ca tio n s of the aspects and harmonies of nature, that for 24 FLORA SACRA centuries men’ s minds would think it a mark of the old heathenry to connect their newly learned doctrines with r h th e them, n o would they become sufficiently abituated to lofty teachings of Christianity for some generations to allow of their familiarising th eir th oughts with the simple h things of their daily life, and it is probable t at not before the old pagan associations had died out in all conscious reference did the new ones arise . However this may be, the inquiry still remains, How did these Christian dedica tions originate ? ‘ h h To speak, as writers often do, of the Cat olic Churc having provided a flora for each day of the year dedicated ’ to a particular saint is quite inaccurate ; such things do “ Th not belong to the domain of faith or discipline . e th h h Christian flora has been e gradual growt of t e ages, ff h h the o spring of pious t oug t among pious people, and arose in many ways . Many of the dedications must be of venerable antiquity, since to gain the hold th ey have in the familiar and old - world thought of a people is th e result of centuries of quiet observance ; those that we find existing among Gaelic- speaking people must be very early examples ; wh ile we may see the same spirit continuing to exist in

- fl the sixteenth century Passion o w er, and the probably still later Calvary clover . It would seem very likely that the majority were the result of the influence of the seraphic ’ St . Francis and his followers in drawing men s attention h to the world of nature about t em . Every one knows how that great saint loved to unite with him the natural creation in adoring th e Creator ; and we can trace this S pirit of the times in its architecture, where we see an awakening to natural beauty as distinct from classic rtifi i li formalism and a c a ty, and a seeking for motive and inspiration in the growth of trees and the joyous beauty of the field . The introduction about this time of such representations in the church es as that of the Bethlehem 25 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

Crib, and the performance of mystery- plays bearing upon th the life of our Lord or of His saints , not only made e minds of the masses of th e people singularly intimate with h h every detail in sacred istory, but probably led to t eir seeking to find some special suitability in any vegetation they might have to employ, and to recall in their work in th e forest and field the images raised in their minds by the scenes they had beheld thus vividly portrayed . But even earlier than St . Francis there had been the use made by the Church in its ceremonies of various greenery, such as the palm or its substitutes, the hyssop for the th Aspergillum, flowers for the decorating of altars and e honouring of various festivals, and the like . There was also the desire to identify th e trees and sh rubs mentioned h in the Bible, or to find t eir counterpart in the local flora, and to illustrate the similes employed in the offices of the h B C urch , such as the Tree of Jesse or the Burning ush, by familiar types . There are many other motives that originated these h sacred dedications . The plant, shrub, or tree may ave been connected with some event in the life of our Lord, as the Crown of Thorns or the Tree of the Cross ; or with ’ one w h o was subsequently canonised, such as St . Francis s ’ - h h rose bush or St . Patrick s s amrock . Ot er examples of ericum er this class can be easily collected . The Hyp p ’ ara ta w . f , generally known as St John s Wort, was among th e Gaels of Ireland and Scotland better known as St . ’ Bea ch n ua d/z Cola ille L ; Cb ola m Columba s Wort, mc , or a ci i l a, from the Apostle of Iona having shown an especial love for it on account of its dedication to his beloved

St . John, and hence it gained its second name, or was ’ ‘ Th e spoken of as the herb which St . Columb carried . ’ h M rrili s ln s magician of the Nort makes Meg e e sing St . C o e charm ‘ ’ re er n J hn rt T foil , V vai , o s Wo , Dill, ’ H n e r tch e th r i d wi s of ei will .

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY n ection with which the saint may have gained a notoriety for having tended or been especially interested in during his life on earth, and in which that interest was not thought to be severed now that he was in a high er state A n th n ' rt m m of existence . The St . o y w o s got their na es fro h being palliatives in erysipelas , for w ich the saint was besought as intercessor ; the lovely cross gentian known ’ as St . Ladislas herb is so known from that saintly monarch having h a d it pointed out to him in th e provi dence of God when his people were decimated by pestilence ; th and e Carline thistle is called after the great emperor,

Charlemagne, to whom it was revealed by an angel when his army was dying of a plague . Again, there is the great section of plants which get their sacred dedications from flowering about the festival of the saint or the season commemorated ; and of this large class we may recall the Candlemas bells, the

Lent lilies, most of the SS . Peter, John, Joseph, or th Mary worts, and, in fact, e maj ority of those popularly known .

Finally, there are those which are distinguished by certain titles, from recalling to pious eyes by their form or markings something of sacred story in familiar know ledge, and this is a large and interesting division . Instances

- are the amaranth, whose purple tail like flo wer may well

- h be thought to resemble a blood stained scourge, and w ose name in South ern Europe of ‘ The Scourge of our Blessed Lord ’ gives a very deep solemnity and freshness of mean ‘ - ing to our English Love lies a bleeding so , too, the Meadow Lych nis or Ragged Robin has obtained the title ‘ ’ of the Flower of the Blessed Sacrament, the flower recalling the rayed monstrance with crystal centre so familiar to the eyes of Catholic peoples . The Passion flower since its discovery by th e Spanish missionaries in the sixteenth century has been regarded as a compendium 28 FLORA SACRA of the Passion ; and the Holy or Holly - tree continues the ancient type of th e Burning Bush . In this study we often meet with dedications of quite l local use, confined to quite imited areas, but full of inter esting lore when we trace out their reference ; the St . ’ w Alb u in s Apple of th e Austrian Tirol is one of these, hose ’ h story is told in Miss R . H . Busk s pretty book upon t at G m i n i n district ; so, too, the Fiore di Santa Fina at San e g a o ’ in Tuscany ; St . Peter Martyr s Palm, or our own St . Wini ’ frid s Moss and Betony . It is often puzzling to know to h w ‘ w om some names refer ; h o, for example , is th e Sans ’ h Pons of the Balearic Isles, w ose R a meil is the Heli clarysm a m L a m a rkij and does the S a Wals log of Denmark Wu llia h ? refer to a St . Walter, , Walston, or w om h th e Suc , then, seem to be leading motives that have led th e to the creation of Flora sacra, and there can be no h h dispute as to the utility, aut ority, and value, t at it sh ould posses s for all ecclesiastical artists wh o care for the th h h traditional lore of e C urc , as also for private in d ivi duals who would wish for their gardens to speak to them h h of h oly t ings . There is suc a sacredness always about a n d all nature, perhaps it is especially felt with regard to

o . fl wers by most of us Their beauty, freshness, simplicity, h ff t eir remarkable power to a ord solace in sorrow, h sympathy in joy, and their companions ip to elevate, h h — c asten, and refine the c aracter, all would suggest the h h hig er lines of t ought in connection with them . Even in nomenclature alone th e gain would be great if we adopted th again e sacred titles . As for learning the scientific names, they are daily becoming more impossible to pro nounce and more worthless of recollection, and they h ave raised a barrier against the study of botany by the very hopelessness of their confused jargon . What lesson

h h L ht ootia is t ere worth the learning in suc names as ig f , L a e roasia Hed wi - iii Sc/zka firia or p y , g , , Sckea cfzz eria Who 29 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

would feel invited to identify, far less to touch or smell, S la n chn om ces Tetra on otfieca X sm a lobia m Za cca n ia a p y , g , y , g , Scfiivereckia Po o n e Helm en tb osta ch s Cka m a emes ilus , g gy , y , p , or Am elosec os ? p y Can any rational being, not corrupted by ’ this century s idolatry of the word Science, think that wisdom is justified in such children as th ese ? The modern school of botanists have had the naming of the whole of a the Orchidace e, and here is a specimen at random of what th ey propose for our ears to be racked with and our heads to remember, even to read them through without inj ury to one ’ s teeth is a warranty to their firmness !

a lsc/zla e elia a fz lla P /z sa ra s Wa rcz i W l g p y , y e icz ella Tetra a m estra s isoc/ziloid es Teli o on klotz sc/zea a us w , g , p g , re ia e throxa n t/za P lea rot/za llis ke zrstein ia n a M a xilla ria R est p ry , fi , ’ oi lio lossa Con a sis a tricula rioia es E llea mf/za r a r o /z lla n y g , p , p p y ta c/z s Cra n ic/zis mn ecosa s y , Even among our trivial vernacular names too we might show greater selection . How far preferable to such silly ’ ’ ’ titles as Bear s Breach, Dog s or Sheep s Tails, and the like, are those which bear some interest in them, such as Tea of ’ Europe , Lambkill, Loosestrife, Saracen herb, Dane s blood, and so forth ; or the poetical Queen of the Meadows,

Amourette, Floramour, Eglantine, Asphodel, etc . , names that render our language the richer for their beauty . We ’ are, however, so conceited with our century s omniscience, we are so frantic to get a title for each plant which we can probably neither understand nor correctly pronounce, and to dance around it as an emblem of the scientific knowledge of the day, that the name that was familiar and loved for of centuries , and taught even in its sound a lesson holiness, has become unknown or been rejected as unscientific or Un s cie n tific ! superstitious perchance . , forsooth What a silencer that word is ! wh at a power it is to end all dispute as to the superiority of modern thought over everything everywhere ! You may plead for your favourite herb to 30 FLORA SACRA

retain its old title of the Tears of St . Peter or the Flower of

the Magdalene, and say that th ose old names suggest more to your mind and soften your heart far and away beyond

their Latin ones , but down come your teachers with their — ’ Nasmyth hammer tis unscientific to use such names, and you are doubtful of your courage thereafter to bear the ‘ laugh of the careless and the jeer of the learned ; and you Briz a m ed ium C i sa say now, or try to remember, and li y u tlzemum leuca utlzem um or Sh aking Grass and Bull or Ox

Daisy, and endeavour, quite uselessly, to make your children perceive how infinitely inferior the old sacred name is for common everyday ch ristened folk We are but reaping what th e Renaissant spirit of the sixteenth century sowed : for just as we can trace a seeking for greater familiarity with th e works of Nature in the earnest Christian thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as ' th h f illustrated by e arc itecture o those times, so may w e ’ trace th e spirit of revolt from Nature s models and a return to th e pagan nomenclature of plants and pagan types of architecture in th e terrible uph eaval of the sixteenth n th e century . An old writer, speaki g of reforming spirit of : ‘ th his time, says In our zeal we visited e gardens and ’ e u A o o c apoth ecaries shops . So Un gu n t m p st li um was com m a n d e d to take a new name, and besides to find security ’ for its good behaviour for the future . Gum a us aeued ictus ’ ’ An elica . g , St John s Wort and Our Lady s Thistle, were summoned before a class, and forthwith ordered to dis tin u is h h g t emselves by more sanctified appellations , and in the ‘R efle ctio n s on the Growth of Heath enism among ’ Modern Christians, by Jones of Nayland we read h w o Botany, which in ancient times was full of th e Blessed Virgin Mary and h a d many religious memorials affixed to it, is now as full of the heathen Venus, the Mary of our modern virtuosi . Amongst the ancient names of plants ’ a lceolus M a ria e a rd uus M a ri e we find the C , C a , Ca ra uus 31 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

" b en edictus Our ’ ’ , Lady s Thistle, Our Lady s Mantle, the Alcfi milla . y , etc ; but modern improvements have introduced ’ S eculum Ven eris L a brum Ve e the p , n ris, Venus s Looking

’ ’ a D i sa cus Gl ss, Venus s Basin (the p ), Venus s Navelwort, ’ Venus s Flytrap, and such like ; and whereas the ancient botanists took a pleasure in h onouring th e memory of the ’ ’ h . C ristian Saints, with the St John s Wort, St . Peter s Wort,

Herb Gerard, Herb Christopher, and many othe rs, the ff modern ones, more a ected to their own honour, have dedicated several newly discovered genera of plants to one h Si r anot er, of which the Hottonia, the b th o pia , are instances , with many others , so numerous and familiar to h h ’ men of science, t at t ey need not be specified . We h ave now arrived at a time when it is the odium scien tia e rather th an the od ium theologicum that disturbs th e quiet th ought of people upon Ch ristian subjects ; and it is regretfully true that if we h a d here recorded th e pagan dedicatio n s of plants, they would be more popularly accept th h able th an e C ristian ones . Doubtless both should interest ff h ur us, but in very di erent ways ; one mig t amuse o fancy h and the ot er instruct and inspire our lives . During the last century and early in this, several large and elaborate works appeared recording th e old pagan dedications of the trees and h erbs ; and we might form our classic garden, in wh ich every plant should tell the tale of pre - Christian h th e th th oug t, from grass of Olympus or of Parnassus to e flowers of th e gods and goddesses and heroes who pressed th e th em . But surely lives of our Lord and of the heroes of h true civilisation, w om His teaching and example have h inspired, are more worthy our recalling to mind than t ose th h old myths of e poets, even if they did enfold p ysical Th truths in their h ieroglyph ic form . e more we study the pioneers of Christian culture, the more do we find that they were men who were engaged in the life of their day, raising

‘ it, purifying its ideals, and rebuking its vice, and we cannot 32 FLORA SACRA ignore th eir influence if we would judge aright the progress h h of our race . We hear ignorance speak of t em as if t ey had b een only recluses removed away from the haunts and h a a e toil of the world, useless to t eir time, and gaining f ls l reputation by th eir eccentricities . But such is certain y h w h o h not true , rather t ey were as a rule men , in t eir day, h s were judged leaders of thoug t, teachers of righteousnes , s a crifice rs benefactors to th eir time, and of self, and we ‘ are the inh eritors of the intellectual discipline they pro d u ce d in eradicating pagan h abituations and refining crude

conceptions . h It does, therefore, seem surprising t at men should have shown th emselves anxious to disconnect this old piety of

association with flowers where it h a s existed , but so it is . ‘ Take, for example, Skinner in his Etymologicon he is loath to admit th at th e herb An gelica Archa n gelica takes its name from wh at it most obviously does ; the Herb o Christopher, he thinks , may be so called from a doct r of that name w h o cultivated it for its beauty ! And yet this th e h h is wildest guesswork , w ich a reference to Bau in, th h nearly a century earlier, or e abit of the rest of Europe, h w ’ would have s o n to be worthless . St . James s Wort is ‘ h ’ h per aps named, e says, from a discoverer of that name , alth ough h e is forced to admit th at it is in blossom at the ’ saint s season ; he can make apparently no excuse for the ’ ’ ’ b u t ‘ St . John and St . Joseph s Worts, all Our Lady s are ‘ ’ Si illum made Ladies, and he will even translate the g ’ Bea ta e M a ri c . a into Ladies Seal So, too, with a more h i recent writer Dr . Prior ; what can induce m to say ’ tis Vita ll a the that the Clem a , Virgin s Bower, is so named ‘ as fitting to be a bower for maidens, and with allusion,

h h . per aps, to Queen Elizabet , but not, as we migh t b e

tempted to imagine, to the Virgin Mary We are not only

tempted to imagine it, but we are absolutely certain that h h there is no t ought of Elizabet or of maidens, but of her C 33 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

ercea u d e la Vier e who is known as the Virgin . B g and — — Cb eveux d e la Vierge its names throughout France are not doubtful in their allusion any more than anoth er which

. a rbe a u b an D ie is found in that land and Belgium, viz B u, and the silvery plume of its seeds in autumn suggests the latter title perchance as much as the flowering of the pretty th e climber about Assumption does the former . The same ’ writer s derivation of Marygold from Anglo - Saxon Mear lla M a rs h o ld ge a , or g , may or may not be true ; but it should be noted that L u; M a iri is its Gaelic and M a rien blaem is its

German vernacular, and there is an extensive enough flora bearing the Virgin Moth er’ s name to make one hesitate h before seeking after strained possibilities elsew ere . It is no question of private opinion which sh ould influence the student in this study ; to gain the truth is the sole end, and no perversion of th at can stand ; it is quite and absolutely useless to endeavour to diminish or ignore the share of affectionate devotion paid in the ages past, as in Catholic

- countries to day, to the Blessed Virgin ; and no perver ’ ’ ’ sion of Our Lady s Mantle into Ladies Mantle, or Virgin s h ’ Bower into Queen Elizabet s Bower, helps to the right th understanding of e subject .

The more one studies traditional customs and names,

! the more convinced does one become of the probability, where doubt exists, that religion is the basis whence they

r - sprang . There are a la ge number of folk names for flowers h w ich seem to have a possibly sacred dedication, but for which no confirmation has been found as yet, and until that be adduced they must continue only doubtful ; but if their h origin ever be found, it is almost certain to s ow that the title originated in the most sacred feelings of the people . Just as there are writers who endeavour to eliminate

Christianity from its influence in ancient tradition, so there are others who will impose upon us by making it the author in all doubtful questions . One such error is the connecting 34

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

For those artists who consecrate their talents to eccles i a s tica l h work some such collection a s been sorely wanting, for nothing can be more sterile than the resources for floral h th symbolic work in modern Churc art . Beyond e vine,

- fl w r wheat, rose, lily, and Passion o e there is no variety to n be met with in sculpture , painti g, or embroidery, and ye t among flowers and birds there is a great store of material ff i o ering its aid, symbolic as all relig ous art should be, full of teaching to its minutest point, and bringing into design a wealth of instruction, delight, poetry, and human interest . b e Not only among flowers should this quest undertaken, h but also throug out the fauna likewise, for it needs only a limited knowledge of the old- world lore to show how much we miss in the depth and intensity of meaning that — mediaeval art was intended to convey to say nothing of the interest that we lose in our observation of nature itself b y our ignorance of what simple things were to simple minds in th e days of piety and prayer . Why sh ould we be subject to th is famishment in a land of plenty, when a little stirring and proyning in the vine yard of the traditions of Holy Church will produce so much nourishable fruit? Symbolism is the language of the graphic arts , and tradition is its authority ; although it has ceased to be vernacular, yet it is not so dead in ecclesiastical art as to be incapable of revival on a far more intellectual basis than has hith erto been possible . Symbolism is but the ‘ setting forth of a great truth by an imperfect or inferior ’ sign, and if natural history be the means employed, would not

’ our churches once again smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia in the sweet fragrance of their instruction and inspiration ? The lifelessness of good modern ecclesiastical work is probably more in its lack of poetry and imagination than anything else . The thought of the day is patently drawing

1 - a closer to medi eval ideals, and the principles of its life and the preciousness and consistency of its faith are daily more 36 FLORA SACRA

recognised . The Christian flora was the creation of the vivid belief of those times, and has existed ever since, speaking in a language that no tyrant could silence, and with a potency that indifference and callousness alone can h render helpless . T e deeper religious life becomes , the more it will resort to symbolism ; and the deeper the a ffe c th tion of an artist for Nature, e more sincere will become his ff work, and the more he will seek to express his a ection in illustrations gath ered in her realm . The field of Nature is so wide that the student may have reasonably contended th at he was unable to select one plant more th an anoth er as consecrated to Christian uses and subjects . There are, however, such to be found illustrative h of every doctrine of the faith, and the interpretation is t at of many generations of Ch ristened souls whose eyes now t gaze on h e flowers of Heaven, and their dedication, like the th canonisation of many a saint in e Kalendar, by popular acclaim and recognition .

Again, there is no excuse for a modern artist to confine himself to th e narrow information of a mediaeval one upon natural objects , knowledge then was so local, com r tive l h p a a y ; but in t ese days, when the means of inter communication have made continents like to countries h h then, and when there is little t at a s been thought, or is h h thoug t, in one place that is not easily learned in all ot ers, there is no reason why the symbolic teaching in nature of any Ch ristian land sh ould not be used and known in all h oth ers . Moreover, t ere can be no question as to its being incumbent upon those who are desirous of making th e spirit of the art of mediaeval time the principle of modern

work, that they sh ould show the mark of their time not h only in adapting t at art to modern requirements, but also

in employing for decoration, subjects which satisfy and feed th e mental demand created by the popular extension of

education among all classes, and which the accumulation 37 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY of literature from every country at our doors renders accessible to all students . Church art will then once again become vital and contemporaneous when, not producing copies of bygone ages, it gives voice to the thought of the day and the nobler tastes of its children . The principles of a medi eval work are eternally true, but th eir application I n varies with the varying generations of human life . the ' greater use of natural detail we shall but reproduce th e universal taste of this present time in its keen appreciation of floral and animal life, and for the ecclesiastical designer there is a sacred fauna no less than a sacred botany from h it whic to draw his illustrations . In his power lies to elevate these tastes of his time, as it is seemly all the work of th e sanctuary should tend to do ; every detail employed will not only attract the superficial observer, but to th e thoughtful it will be a voice uniting in the chorus of mean ’ ff ing which it will have been the artist s e ort to evoke . To every true artist there must be the ardent love of natural th life in every form , so that, like the Countess Matilda on e h ’ banks of the Lethe, e finds in the Psalmist s words th e ’ expression of th e j oy of his heart in earth s meadow sweet fi e —‘ d l t ti ld s Quia e e c a s me, Domine, in factura Tua, e t in ’ ri n u u Tu ru lt Op e b u s m a m a m ex u a b o . As a people we can largely regain th at old spirit o f regarding Nature as a h oly th ing ; we are not less attached to natural history in its manifold aspects th an our fore d fathers , but we stu y subjects so much more for their h a r systems than for t eir facts . The systems e but the bare th frames , e skeletons of the subject, and only of real im portance to the specialist, whereas the education begins h in all t at lies apart from them . The attention which we

“ would ask to be bestowed upon th e sacred associations and the virtues of herbs is one which is ignored by modern botanical writers ; but it is that which was popularly ae bestowed by the wise in heart of medi val times, and 38 FLORA SACRA which we must learn if we would read their work, or share their spirit.

It is not, however, for the future of religious Art alone that we would venture to urge the study of the sacred associa tions connected with the natural creation, for the moral philosophy of the herbs of th e field has a value far higher h and more personal . W en once we have familiarised our minds to regard Nature as we regard, let us say, an exquisite h piece of ecclesiastical arc itecture, where we listen to the h lore that gat ers about each detail, and makes the whole so fruitful of inspiring thought, reposeful charm , and instructive ’ fact ; when we have learned to make Nature s cathedral n h h aisles as voiceful as those reared by m a , t en those w o care for th e one study will be helped and ravished by th at h h of the oth er . If the work of the uman architect be wort h i h h our study, if we would read s t ought in is work, a p r ia t p ec e the beauty he has unfolded to our eyes, and mark his clever adapting of material to uses a n d contrivances to h i needs, ow far greater a reward awaits us ii the study of ’ the plans of th e Divine Architect ; for Nature is but God s ’ h foreman, as an old botanist remarks, carrying out t e designs of One from whom springs all being, beauty, form h r ’ and order, number, weig t, and measu e . It is not therefore only as a study in Christian art that we shall find the sacred botany most h elpful ; few have to do with gardening who do not learn that it has a powerful moral influence on the character ; and if we go among the herbs and shrubs ready to recognise emblem, type, and teach ing such as appealed to those of old time, we shall learn that our gardens may be very Paradises of contemplation, ’ peopled with memorials of Heaven s citizens, and calling h on fort in their cultivati that triple interest of body, mind , and soul which produces th e o nly perfect and lasting delight . A return to country homes and rural life seems to us a necessity for those who would realise their triple 39 THE FL‘ORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY powers of happiness ; there they may learn to love simplicity, peace, contentment, nature, art, true beauty, God ’ and His saints . The cultivation of man s aesthetic, or per c ei in h v g, senses of w at is beautiful is best pursued out of doors . Heaven is there under his feet as well as over h i s head . The study and watchful interest in all natural phenomena will create not only a mazement at the h marvellous laboratory of energy t at exists, and delight in th e diapason of sweet h armonies that pervades created s l thing , but will also produce a singu arly useful calm of mind and enjoyment of living, so that the words of the ‘ Psalmist are very beautifu lly true : A u d ita m fa ciet ’ Dominus gloriam Voeis S u a e in laetitia cordis vestri Th e Lord will make th e glory of His voice to be heard in th h ’ e j oyful n es s of your eart . For us in this world of types h and s adows, or of enigma, as St . Paul calls our life, we shall find if we will listen to th e lessons taught us in the mediaeval lore of flowers and trees, that it will raise our minds from earth to heaven, from interest to faith, from ‘ th e shadow to the truth . If it be true that to win the secret of a plain weed ’ s h eart ’ gives the winner a clue to h th the hidden t ings of e spiritual life, then we have mines of wisdom pleading for our study on every wayside ; and when once we h ave peopled our gardens with th e flowers of sacred association, then they will come forth to meet us with fresh inspirations until going amongst them will seem like Dante ’ s description of the citizen returning to his true home . As he who returns from a long journey even before

- he enters th e gates of his city is met by his fellow citizens, so the citizens of th e eternal life come forth to meet the noble soul, and this because of its good deeds and medita tions . So that being already dedicated to God and abs tracted from worldly things, it seems to see those whom

on n . . 28 it believes are with Him (C iv ,

If such things be true and possible, to how wide a circle 40 FLORA SACRA

should this sacred flora be known, when we think of those who care for gardening as a recreation ? Every finer nature is appreciative of trees and flowers, in man no less than woman . We can scarcely picture in our minds the idea of a ’ home without flowers, and the home is woman s empire ;

flowers should ever surround her throne, and the most fitting setting th at our minds can give a noble woman is perhaps in a garden, or among the flowers to which her grace and beauty are so contin ually compared . This is a purely Christian ideal ; it is not Greek or Roman, far less

Buddhist or Mohammedan . It is a feeling now so engrained in our nature th at we are apt to forget that it is of divine origin ; for God made woman of finer material than man, th h not of th e dust of e earth, but of vitalised fles , and her birthplace was within, not without, the Garden of Delights itself. She was not brought there like Adam ; it was her h ’ ’ original ome . The Creator s plan for man s existence on th is earth was not to dig for its gold and play with its

counters, but to be occupied mentally and physically as a gardener ; and it was perhaps not without purposeful intent th at the Marys at th e sepulchre of the second Adam were th to mistake e risen Saviour in the character of the first . Th e philosophy of herbs is most singularly worthy of th e regard of all who have to do with th e formation of h the minds of the young . Childhood a s an inherent delight

in flowers, birds, and animals ; too often we dull this youth ful interest by endeavouring to make the pure gaze of th ose early years see th ings with the eyes of the materialist ;

and the young heart finding that its pleasure- ground is being covered with a sagene which impedes its sweet

wantonness of choosing what its instincts prompt, and finding the hard breath of science is bleach ing all th e

bright. blossoms into skeletons, retreats for ever from fields of amaranthine enj oyment and seeks fresh interests

elsewhere . We do not mean that if the disposition in later 41 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY years shows the desire to pursue the graceful study of botany that then th ere should be no scientific course of teaching, as we know it ; but rather that the same method should be adopted as we would have in the study of history, h first attracting the mind wit its fascinating facts, and, as years go on and the brain becomes stronger, fitting these h facts into t eir proper position, leaving for still later life the scientific method of investigation if time and tastes consent . The anatomy of plant, or bird, or animal, is no help in the formation of the plastic dispositions of the young ; but the early impressions made by the hearing of how eyes long closed h ave loved to regard the wonders of creation without the need of telescope or microscope or knife, and the learning of the treasures of h istory and d legen , of virtue, and of beauty that lie garnered in the

a m c-n smallest of the wayside flowers, will leave their X p ip, their stamp, upon their future life . It is such studies as h t ese that make boys become thoughtful men, such culture h makes children truly pleasant plants, wit stores of gracious h tenderness and interest towards simple things, and wit th an intelligent love of e great world th ey move in, interests which they will hand on to generations ; they would be in truth as h erbs yielding their seed after its kind, and as trees yielding their fruit whose seed is in itself, of whose wholesomeness we may be as sure as of that of th e third ‘ creative period of which it is s aid, God saw that it was good) Th e purer the taste for floral nature and the less vitiated it is by indulgence in only seeking to satisfy the a sensuous luxury of the eye, the keener will be the p preciation and the clearer the perception of its sacredness .

The h umblest weed will become awe- inspiring in its mar ’ vello u s evidence of the wisdom and beauty of its Maker s mind ; and if the observation of these exquisite artistic specimens of the divine Craftsman be united with the 42

THE FLORA OF THE SACRE D NATIVITY

associations left us by our pious ancestors, common often

- to all Christian Europe, and still in these super excellent times to be heard where faith, piety, and peaceful homes are found . h in So, too, in our domestic use of greenery, w at an tellectu a l ch arm it adds to the pleasure of its presence if there be a reason in its use . In old time every season h had its own flora appropriate to it ; C ristmas and Easter, h Pentecost and the Assumption, all had t eir own boughs and flowers . We can still trace signs of this in modern days in every country, especially at the Nativity . Yet even h ere we have lost the use and meaning of the Rose mary boughs which once were always present, full of pious h memories, and the C ristmas Roses that the Shepherd Maid offered at the crib, of the Cradle grasses that formed the th h bed of e little Saviour, and very many ot ers . Why do ’ we never see St . John s worts or any of his large flora about our homes at midsummer ; Michaelmas - daisies at

Michaels - tyde ; Stars of Bethlehem for the Epiphany and ? the like And, as we write this last, we do not only mean th e pretty holly stars which are placed in the windows of many a noble mansion in New York, and h which is an entirely beautiful memorial, but t e flowers Orn itb o a lum themselves, whether the g , originally brought to Europe by the crusading knights who found it abundant th o et i about e Manger City, or the flaming P in s t a which forms so striking an emblem . There is no reason why we sh ould not make our gardens a very calendar of the seasons and of the saints of Holy Church if we wished, and not only our homes and our families, but our churches would gain in the perfume of pious thought thus engendered . What depth of reality there would be if even the flowers used at our festivals, ecclesiastic or domestic, were those of th ese dedicated blossoms ; if those wedding- bouquets now composed of unmeaning exotics, nurtured and pam 44 FLORA SACRA pered and typical only of the luxurious wantonness of the ‘ h world, bore some flowers that told that Jesus was t ere ’ - o ff S and His Mother, as at far Cana in Galilee ; or a prig ‘ ’ - th e of the Seven years Love were seen , to recall perfect love of Jacob for Rachel . Ga rd in a Sa crista There were once, it would appear, , or h Church Gardens, as late Latin called t em, for we find instances mentioned of one or two . For example, adjoin ing the Lady Ch apel at Winchester th ere was one wh ich long after th e destruction of the sacristy was known as

vi . the Paradise ; and again, in the will of King Henry he left directions concerning a garden for th e ch apel of Eton ‘ h College, w ich is left for to sett in certain trees and l flowers, b eh ova b e and convenient for the service of the ’ same Church ’ (Nich ols s ‘ Wills of the Kings and Queens of About Hamburg and oth er parts of Germany the peasants wh o possessed a garden never entered a church without a posy gathered from a corner reserved

for th e purpose, and in France th ey called such little beds ‘ l ’ li ’ h Les Bouquets de Eg s e . In England of even t irty years ago th e same spirit was seen among our own country h h folk, who b ore to church small nosegays , w ic in earlier times would h ave been laid at th e feet of Our Lady of Pity or some such favourite shrine ; and much else migh t

be said of th ese practices . Perhaps once again these Church Gardens may be found h about our homes, and as certainly as t ey are tended with mind and heart they will be found to be th e creators of an entirely different and higher delight in nature than h th e ‘ any we ave hitherto enjoyed ; and petition , Come,

south wind, and blow through my garden and let its ’ aromatic spices flow forth, will be a petition for graces and virtues wh ich the lesson s learned therein h ave inspired

and fostered . The sacredness of a garden may appear greater to some 45 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

of us after learning how full of holy lore it may be made . Many an old botanist loved to dwell upon the very natural reflection of how gardens have been consecrated by their h connection with the greatest epoc s in human existence . They loved to tell how in a garden it was that the first Adam fell, and how in another the second Adam endured the

Agony to redeem that fall . It is not so often remarked how L in a garden the ord of Heaven and Earth was buried, and there arose again to life . It was this latter thought ’ especially that gave rise to the Christian s care of his dead, not placing them in rocks, like the Egyptians, or on the roadsides , like the Romans, or cremating them, as the

cem eterion - Hindoos, but making their , or sleeping place, in a garden, where green herbage and bright flowers might ’ tell of th e Saviour s tomb and the hope it brought of the resurrection morning . It was from the sacredness of the ground around where the men of old time deemed the ’ Lord s Body still lay in the mystery of the Mass, that the space adj oining a church became called the Paradise, a a rv‘ is O n ame still retained in the French p , for the pen court a e before a cathedral church, and in our English word p r vii for the chamber above our porches, as a place where priests might pray for those who slept within the ’ Church s garth ; and in every old burial- place arose a

Mount of Olivet, with the scene of the Agony, or a .

Calvary, with its cross to throw its shadow over the

- off sleeping dead, as did that in far Jewry over the garden of th e Holy Sepulchre .

We commend, then, to our readers this study of the sacred flora as a wide and inspiring field of fresh interest, a continual source of mingled instructiveness and of food m for the highest thought . To the men of the oyen age the Kalendar has been said to have been De otion’ s Diary , v ’ and Mirth s Manual, and we might add that Nature was its illustrated Supplement . Birds, flowers, and stars were all 46 FLORA SACRA enlisted to help th em in th e expression of their rational enjoyment in life ; their bodies and souls, minds and hearts, were all united in making th e completion of th eir happiness — —not treated as separate entities so th at if the body were Th e rej oicing, the soul sh ould be silent. feast was not th e complete with out Jesus and Mary . Then world was truly merrie wh en men looked to th e Church and to Nature

- as th e partners of their mirth . Carol tyde brought with it festivities of every kind, but all prompted by the com

h h . h memoration t at it onoured Nature elped, with its h lessons and illustrations, to increase the mirt fulness of th e man, and the Burning Bush of Holly, Jesse Tree of th e h h Mistletoe, the Christmas Roses of S ep erd Maid , Stars h h of Beth lehem for t e Epip any, and many another emblem th u h it offered to deck e ch rc es and homes of the people .

- Passion tyde and Easter came on, and again in the floral division of natural subjects emblems and types were appearing on every roadside and meadow to h elp man ’ s recollected and appreciative gaze . Trinity, Pentecost, h th Corpus C risti, and e Assumption followed, completing ’ th e th e h those Seven Stars, Constellation of C urch s Year, and for them all nature rendered its tribute and earth yielded its fruit . Not only were the memorials in Nature confined to the great feasts or fasts , for scattered on every side about that fi rm a m en t in which sh one th e seven greater th lights are to be found, as lesser luminaries, e saints of God wh ose dedications among the flowers range from a single bud to th e Galaxy of Mary or the Via picta of th e h Baptist . W at a new world of delight there is in th is ! h study W at a vision of peace it reveals in its intellectual, artistic, and spiritual resources Where is the limit to the real education— the leading forth of man ’ s mental and — moral capabilities that such garden studies would bestow, giving education in its highest, widest, and truest sense ? To children with their innate love of Nature th e most 47 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

profound truths in dogmatic theology, to say nothing of the h most needful lessons in moral culture , can be taug t with the most penetrating and lasting effect if natural symbolism

h - be employed . The sweet purity of c ild life, undimmed by

’ the world s blight, drinks in lessons from the flowers, as h the bee imbibes and assimilates their oney, and yet we scarcely ever find them so employed . Is reverence for Nature diminished, th e religious truth forgotten, or the instru ction wearisome when the mother points to the robin’ s scarlet ’ - breast or the cross bill s twisted beak, and repeats to the eager listener what pious hearts h ave told as to how th ose badges were won ? Will a child recklessly pluck lVi ella or wantonly injure the g with the dimmed Eye, or

- Orc i the Blood sprinkled lz s, if he know what they recalled to Christian eyeS l l o n g closed ? It Wa s never so needful as it is to - day th at parents sh ould encourage such a love for

- h Nature, and it eminently belongs to home teac ing to foster th e dispositions that such teaching engenders .

' E rth s r e th He ven a c amm d wi a , d ’ An d every commo n bu sh a fire with Go .

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY enlisted by man as sharers with him and the angels in the j oy of earth for the Advent of its Redeemer ; we shall also see what was the prompting thought that led to their selection and dictated their use in ecclesiastic and domestic ritual and art . Easter and Christmas are the foremost festivals in the Christian year in connection with our Lord ; fo r as one is the keystone of the arch of Faith, so the other is its foundation . Granting the Incarnation, the R es urr e c tion is but a sequel, for to God death is impossible ; or th granting the Resurrection, then e Incarnation was that of God, for to Him alone is power over death . Both are cardinal points in the Christian belief, and as such have

- ever been distinguished by especial pre eminence . Christ mas Day was a Theophany, the revelation to man of his God in the flesh ; and although the Incarnation followed th upon the Annunciation to Mary, yet it is for e Nativity that the Church looks forward in her offices to give th e expression of her gratitude for the termination of her long waiting . To make some sort of conception of what these great feasts were in days long gone, we should have had the experience of the domestic life at those seasons in quiet parts of Spain, the Austrian Tiro l, Italy, Pro n — h th e vence, or the easter States of Europe places w ere old habit of life has been more conservatively preserved than with us, and then we should be better able to under stand the spirit that prompted many habits that linger in h this land of ours . Otherwise we ave scarcely the power

- to realise what before the break - u p of the sixteenth cen tury such occasions were to a people at unity in th eir faith ; for it was the same motive that prompted all, and moved them to its expression ; th e customs of one part n of Christendom were those of all others , though varyi g in name and in detail perch ance ; th e posadas of Spain were but the novena or nine days ’ preparation of the rest of the 52 ADVENT AND THE NOVENA OF THE NATIVITY

Christian world ; the pifferari of Italy and elsewhere are but our waits and carollers ; the shrubs and flowers of our land employed for the feast were used with identical mean h ing, when not identical in kind, with t ose used in other h lands, for uman nature is much the same all the world

’ th ‘ n r t over, and e co s o lid a i y of man was known in the universal Church long before earth ’ s bounds were twitched h by railway and telegraph lines, or men invented that frot y h phrase . Even in these days of social upheaval C ristmas

makes the best fight to retain its distinct character, for it is connected with th e associations of ch ildhood to most of

us, and these we are least ready to forego . Moreover, it is th e feast of a little Child, and its two great mysteries that bring sage and suckling together are adoration at the crib of

the Infant God and reverence at the feet of a Virgin Mother . th th We all need Christmas, e wisest, e oldest, the best no th less than the worst and e most ignorant . It is a want of

our hearts . Jesus Christ may be said, in the phrase of th e ‘ ’ h day, to have discovered the little c ild . Plato had nothing to say for the child ; the ancients showed no h reverence for child ood, since its innocency and simplicity ' h were not qualities for w ich they felt especial regard . The poet looks at the child as a pretty artless th ing to sing th about ; e painter as a graceful, lithesome figure glowing with fresh life and warm beauty ; but Jesus Christ in ! His

usual thorough way went to the germ and source of all real, happy, j oyous life and beauty, and looked at the loving, h s responsive little eart, the cloudles eye of absolute, unquestioning trust, the tender conscience, the simplicity o f life ; and when He chose a little child to set as the model to the Apostolic College, He saw the heroic strength these qualities give in purity of purpose and consciousness of h rig t doing, developing into the St . Ignatius of Antioch, a

Doctor of the Church, and a Confessor of its Truth . It is regarding Christian childhood under the influence of this 53 THE FL ORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY spirit that we should enter into the commemoration of the

Nativity festival . A preparation for the feast has been in existence from very early ages of Christianity ; an early mention o i this o is in a canon f a council at Saragossa in 380, forbid ding the faithful to absent themselves from the Church offices during the Novena and the twelve days succeeding

i e. 16 the feast itself, . from December to the Epiphany .

The custom had no doubt existed long before, but a p a ren tl p y was becoming carelessly observed . In the fifth century the length of the Advent season was assimilated ’ to that of Lent ; and from its commencing about St . Martin s ’ Day (November it became known as St . Martin s Lent . The Sacramentary of Gregory the Great gives special masses for five Sundays in Advent ; but about the ninth century these were reduced to four, so that in the Latin Church there is at least a th ousand years ’ auth ority for the present arrangement of the season . Save in religious communities, the strict fast and abstinence that once pre vailed in this season, as in Lent, have become relaxed, the

Wednesdays, Fridays, and the Ember Days alone remaining enforced ; and it may be remarked that just as th e Mid L a eta re lent Sunday is known as , as if to break the stern severity of the ancient Lent, so the third Advent Sunday ’ is Ga ua ete for th e same reason . The language of the liturgy continues to regard the season as one of self- denial and expectation ; and it is noteworthy th at it would have men put themselves in an attitude expressive of awaiting a real and actual coming of the Saviour, as if for the first time, and to realise vividly to themselves what dark groping it was before that momentous epoch , and how the heart of the world was yearning for a Redeemer. Pro mises of hope recorded by prophet and seer are read ; symbol and type of the Root out of Jesse and Star out of Jacob are repeated ; and then on the fourth Sunday the 54 ADVENT AND THE NOVENA OF THE NATIVITY

Church unites itself with the ‘Expectation of our Lady ’

for the birth of the Messiah . The month of December is said to have been known

in the Keltic Church as the Holy Month, and to have shared

this name with the Oriental churches, and of this title a refrain is thought to be heard in the cry of Hagmenay ! Hagmenay ! ( Ayr ca Pfivfl) a cry still to be heard in the north of England and in Scotland on the days that formed the

Novena of Christmas under the Old Style . The actual strict observance of the festival began at the Vespers of s’ the i6th of the month, the opening of the nine day

preparation wh ich was called the Novena, and this was followed by the twelve feastful days ending at Twelfth th e Day, or the Epiphany . These three weeks formed

Christmas Holyday time, and its conclusion was marked by the housewife and her maids returning to their spin h ning and weaving on the morrow of the Epip any, and the h ind resuming his labour upon the succeeding Monday . Hence it is that we have still among us such names as

Plough Monday, given to the latter day, one observed still n in certain parts of E gland by civic and rustic rites, while th e ff the maidens gave jocular title of St . Rock or Dista ’ to their day from those emblems of the spinsters toil . It may be a criticism that the date December 25 is not the ’ h actual one of our Lord s Birt , but only its commemoration, m a and this y possibly be true, for by some in very early times 1 the feast was kept on January , but by the majority on 6 January . The Copts still, we believe, observe the Nativity h and the Epip any together, and for a long time the Greeks ff did the same . It was these di erences that induced Pope

D . Julius who occupied the Papal throne between A . 337 and

AD . 352 , to institute inquiries upon the su bject . St . Chry s osto m , who was nearly contemporary with him, informs us that these investigations were made very carefully and thoroughly, with the result that December 25 was 55 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

appointed . St . Chrysostom, in one of his sermons at

Antioch, mentions that they in the East had only observed 25 h the t for the last ten years, but that in the West they had always done so .

For over ten centuries the Sunday succeeding St . Andrew ’ s Day (November 30) has marked the commence ment of the Advent season of general preparation . During

h - this time no fles meat was eaten, as is still the case in Russia with the people ; no marriages could then be solemnised ; the joyous Gloria in E xcelsis was silenced and awaited that of the angels upon the Holy Night for its resumption ; the violet of penitence and sorrow was the colour of the season, and the music was stern and restrained ; yet amid the gloom, like meteors in the sky of night were signs and portents of joy ; the lessons are usually from Isaias telling of hope not only for Israelite, but for Gentile also ; and the Alleluias are but once or twice interrupted, as though shafts of light from the approaching dawn fell upon the season . The early part of th e month was marked by two singularly appropriate ’ : th 6th commemorations On e , came St . Nicholas Day, ’ 8 th e children s patron, and on the th the Feast of the

Immaculate Conception of Mary . We are accustomed to see th e latter spoken of by popular writers in England as if this were a novel doctrine or festival ; but unless th at term be applied to opinions and practices that were observed in the twelfth century at least, the description i s inaccurate ; the definition of an article of faith is a far different matter from the existence of the belief defined . In modern times this latter feast appears to h ave been especially chosen in place of that of St . Nicholas for the

- priz e day in the convent schools of girls, but formerly it was the festival of the bishop that was so observed, and ’ it is so still on the continent of Europe . All children s customs seem endowed with something of the vigour of 56 ADVENT AND THE NOVENA OF THE NATIVITY

h their ow n young lives, and are very ard to kill ; and in England it took three centuries of repression and various ’ Acts of Parliament to destroy this children s festival, and even up to a century ago it might be traced in various h parts of t is land . Even still we can see it surviving in the utterly changed aspect of th e Eton Montem Day trans ferred from its winter observance, and no doubt in most of our old schools and colleges th ere are relics to be found l of th e Feast of St . Nich olas . Abroad it is sti l regarded ’ as the day for the stock- taking of the year s progress ; in every pensionnat and college the 6th of December is looked h forward to, as well as in every family, w ether rich or poor, gentle or simple ; for it is marked by th e distribution h h of toys and presents for the little folk, whet er t ey be those carefully trained in h omes or th e little waifs and h strays of t e towns . All are expectant at th e St . Nicholas h i of what the good Bishop will send s clients . A little pageant is produced for th e occasion ; and under the guise of the good Bishop, who so loved young children wh en on th e earth, one of elders comes to them clad in mitre and h crimson cope, with his long w ite beard and hair, aecom n i p a e d by an attendant bearing a sack or basket . He addresses the eager crowd in words of praise and warning, h h each by name , as may be needful ; t ey ave been to th eir ch urch that morning, and heard th e Epistle ordering obedi o ’ ence to auth rity, and the Gospel of our Lord s story of th e h h is talents, and t ese suggest, no doubt, discourse . He h th t en brings forth his gifts, and amid e tiptoe excitement of the moment gives to every one his reward . Finally, a bunch of twigs is produced from the bottom of the sack , and this is handed over to the Superior to be hung up in

- sight of all as a note of awe to evil doers . Upon retiring ’ to bed after the saint s visit, it is the custom in Bavaria and elsewhere for the children to place upon their window sills little petitions addressed ‘ To the dear little Christ 57 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

’ Child in Heaven, for St . Nicholas to take with him upon ’ his return thither, detailing the petitioner s especial wants ; and then when the Infant Saviour comes o n Chris tm a s n t morning, He is sure to bring them something, if e all that they ask for . Thus were children brought up in

Catholic lands, with their lives interwoven with earth and h eaven, making familiar acquaintance with their celestial friends, and learning thus at Nich ola styd e to prepare for ‘ the coming of the Liebes Cristkin d in a few weeks hence . We can trace many of our own customs for Christmas Day wh ich th e republic of childhood has retained ; especially we remark th at our figure of Father Christmas is th at of h the Bis op of Myra, and his title of Santa Klaus is the h ’ h i c ildren s abbreviation of s name . Moreover, in every h sc ool, village, or wherever young people were to be found, th h ’ it . was also e custom to elect upon t is day a children s h ierarchy ; and in Benedictine h ouses that had a large h number of yout ful students attached to them, the boy bishop was elected to have his court until Child e rm a s s e came round ; for to old as to young Christmas was a festival h h on w ic to recognise the fact that it is not to Wisdom, h Power, Age, Wealth, or Position t at God gives greater audience, but to Simplicity, Trustfulness, and Innocency, and th at from the mouth s of those with hearts like babes and sucklings His praise was most acceptably rendered . h T us each monastic community, as typical of its subjection th e to Babe of Bethlehem, chose that a little child should h h h lead t em , and by t eir reverence to this uman type marked their submission at the foot of the cradle scene . With th e exception of th is suitable break in the Advent sternness, the season continued to be pervaded with a solemnity behind wh ich lay the sense of joyful expectancy, a solemnity deepening at the approach of the nine days of especial preparation ; for, like as in a Catholic church, the whole congregation may be seen hushed in awe as the 58

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

its oratory, and even the peasant his piéta, and it is the habit for families to observe alone, or with their friends, each night of the Novena . A procession is formed, with the

children in front bearing the figures of Joseph and Mary, servants and master and mistress follow bearing tapers in their hand, singing the Posada litany ; as they wander through the corridors and along th e verandahs they knock t a every portal, but there is no response to them , and the wayfarers have to abide where they can . Upon Christmas th e Eve same takes place, and again the travellers from Nazareth are rudely repulsed or coldly turned away from each door at which they appeal for admission ; they come at

- length, however, to the chapel door, and th is at last is thrown open to them upon the inmate h earing the reply that it is ‘ Mary the Queen of Heaven that begs a place to lay her h ead, the night is dark and cold, and she is a wanderer from ’ far Galilee . They are shown a dark corner where is a — - lanthorn lit, straw strewn stable ; there th ey may rest, and h th e w ile final prayers are being recited, a little child with ’ angel s wings hurries in with th e Bambino in its arms, and placing it in the crib, kneels in adoration ; then tapers are quickly lighted, and all sing some of those exquisite carols of welcome or of lullaby to the infant Saviour, which are so full of tender piety and poetic beauty .

As we have previously mentioned, there was the canon of the Council of Saragossa in 380, ordering the faithful to observe th e Novena ; but we do not know if ever it has been the custom publicly to keep these Processions, or whether they are simply the outcome of popular devotion, testifying to the familiarity of mediaeval thought with the words ’ of their Ch urch s offices ; for in the services for the Ember

Days of Advent in which the Novena begins, there is distinctly prominent this memory of the going up to Judaea .

The great liturgist B eleth has the note to Ember Saturday . ’ This day the pilgrimages begin, and this must refer to these 60 ADVENT AND THE NOVENA OF THE NATIVITY

pious acts we have described, since other pilgrimages would scarcely start in the winter . The words of the chapter at Lauds on th e very first Monday in Advent seem to give the starting- point of this commemoration of the leaving of ’ Naz areth for Beth lehem s Hill : ‘Venite et a s ce n d a m u s in t D m u m t d ceb it Montem Domini e ad o Dei Jacobi, e o nos Vias ’ itis Suas e t am b u la b im u s in S em Bjus . It is the invitation of the Church to man to follow in spirit that j ourney up to

- h is h h the hill country, and to trace in t oug ts those paths that the pilgrim to the Holy Land has ever loved to tread, th ‘ with e words upon his lips, Vias Tuas, Domine, notas : et ed o ce ’ 1 t fac mihi Semitas Tuas me (Gradual s S . in h h Advent) . T e whole of the liturgy for t e Ember Days especially is evidently constructed with not only a spiritual, but historic significance, calling upon the hearts of all to h join in this Procession up to Bet lehem, the city of David, and taper in hand to come and walk in the light of the

Lord, exhorting the cities to open their gates, and welcome th e King of Glory and Prince of Peace, for He is nigh . Th e prophecy employed on the first Ember Day from Isaias reads like the pilgrims ’ ch orus as they ascend the mountainous district of Ju d aaa and gaze upon the h eigh ts crowned with th e the House of Lord and Zion, the city of the Great King ; while passing through Jerusalem they continue their way to where breaks upon the eye the distant view of th e ‘ Manger City, cresting the lofty ridge of distant hills . Brit in n oviss im is d ieb u s p ra ep a ra tu s mons Domus Domini in vertice m on tiu m e t eleva b itur super colles et fluent ad e um Et ib u n t omnes gentes . populi multi et d icen t : Venite et a scen d a m u s e t D o m um ad Montem Domini, ad Dei Jacob, t m e d o ceb it nos Vias Suas, et a b ula b im u s in S em itis Bjus ex ib it et quia ex Zion Lex, Verbum Domini de Jerusalem . Et jud ica b it gentes et a rguet populos m ultos : et con fla b u n t la d ios vo m ere s et l a n cea s g suos in suas in falces . Non leva b it gens contra gen tem gla d ium nec ex e rce b u n tur 61 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

i roel u m . m ultra ad p Domus Jacob venite, et a b ul e m u s in ’ Lumine Domini Dei nostri (Isaias cap . The place of the Epistle on this day is taken by another prophecy of Isaias

(cap . foretelling the tremendous mystery of the Virgin ‘ u d it becoming a mother . A e domus David . Ecce Virgo n i i t t F iliu m t c o c p e e pariet , e vo ca b itu r nomen Eju s ’ Emmanuel, and the Gospel is of the Annunciation and the

f . submission of Mary to the Will o G o d . The second day _ records how Mary once before had come up to this hill country bearing in her breast, as within an Ark of the ‘ Covenant, Him who was the Virga de Radice Jesse et Flos u s de Radice ej and, indeed, all through these offices there is mingled the th ought of the nine months ’ soj ourn and ’ the nine days caravan j ourney . The very similes seem gathered on the road, the mountains and valleys, the h crooked ways and stony tracts, the s epherds on the hills tending their sheep, the distant views of Sharon and

Carmel from the hilltops, and the wilderness that the last of the prophets was to make to t e - echo with his cry of

‘ ’ Prepare ye the way of the Lord, all these are to be met h ‘ with . Were not t ese two wayfarers truly the Beati ’ m u l ti I m a c a in via, qui ambulant in Lege Domini, of the Gradual on the Saturday ? At least six times through the r season has the petition been used in gradual, tract or int oit, ' ’ ‘ lu t Qui regis Israel, intende : qui d ed u cis ve ovem Joseph . h h th Does not t e eart, as it forms e picture of Mary approaching the Holy City with th e Divine Child within her ’ ‘ t Virgin s Bower, naturally exclaim, Jerusalem, surge e sta in excelso et vide Jucu n d ita te m tuam quae ven iet tibi a Deo ’ th tuo ! or at e entrance to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, ‘ lit r s et leva m in i Tol e portas, principes vest a , e portae ’

rn a les et in tr i it ri . a ete , o b Rex glo a e

We might illustrate this more fully, and all who care to closely follow the Divine liturgy appointed for this season will easily be able to recognise the source of this custom of 62 ADVENT AND THE NOVENA OF THE NATIVITY

the Novena processions, in days when body and soul were h united, and fait was j oined to homely rite , to give expres sion to the promptings of the h uman heart . Our o w n waits and carollers were but observers of this Novena of Ch ristmas ; it is only of recent years th at any but sacred music or songs were heard from th em ; their very names of waits and w a s tl ers are taken from words signifying their instrument (waygb tes = h a u tb oys according iction a r o M usic h re to Dr . Busby in D y f ), and from t eir wa stle = t calling the wanderers from Nazareth ( o wander) , in th e same way as the word P if b ra ri is that for these osa Christmas pipers in Italy, and P d a for the processions th in Spain . Both in France and England e carol has a very distinct place both in music and poetry, and it is a singularly beautiful expression of mirth and piety for pure

- h . h earted, simple minded folk Carolling a s never died out in England ; and it is very much to be h oped that its revival in the ch urches will not be reduced to the same

h - formal position as t at of ordinary hymn singing, but that these songs will be more cultivated for use either out of

doors, in processional motion, or in the domestic circle I n upon visits to the cribs . Old England th ere can be little h h doubt that, as in ot er Cat olic lands, every h ome h a d its statue or shrine before wh ich th e Ch ristmas waits w a stlers h h and sang t eir carols and piped t eir music, and th at th e present custom of th eir visiting the different m houses in a parish arose fro this pilgrimage of piety . h We may see t is retained in many places in Europe, but we are best acquainted with its observance in Italy and

Sicily . In the latter fair island early in December th e a n ta storie C , who are usually blind men, go from house to house taking engagements fo r singing the Novena ; and when th ey come for this purpose the household shrine is decorated with orange boughs and lighted with nine

; h h m in a re candles each night t ese blind waits sing t eir clcli, 63 THE FLORA OF THE SACRE D NATIVITY

which are of great variety, the most popular being that of ‘ ’ ’ The Nine Days Journey to Bethlehem, accompanying h their songs wit fife, bagpipe, and castanets . One of the most favourite sights in Rome at Ch ris tm a styd e under the o ld regim e was the visit of the mountain shepherds of the Abruzzi to keep the Novena dei Pifferari del Santo h Natale . Their t rilling music, which may be as old as the time of Romulus, and once have been played before h ff Cybele t e Syrian goddess, has frequently a orded a favourite subject to composers , and both Handel and Corelli have adopted it with trifling alterations in its h notation and rhyt m . So popularly acceptable were the h h h visits of these peasants , t at t ey had to leave t eir homes and begin to circulate in the villages about All Souls ’ Day in order to satisfy th e desire of th eir many clients . From the Daybreak to th e Evening Angelus these rough herds men play their simple strain upon th eir rustic pipes and ‘ ’ sing their touching Song of the Shepherds . Their pifi ro is a small reed or fife, and a species of bagpipe known as the corn em usa supplies a bass accompaniment . Hat in hand and with earnest eyes they stand before each wayside h h t piéta, or that at each ouse to w ich hey are invited, for their presence is thought to be auspicious to the home . h Not as mendicants do t ey come, but as pilgrims, receiving h in return only their needful food or s elter, for which in acknowledgment th ey leave beh ind a wooden spoon and fork manufactured by th em in their mountain h omes . Thus do Calabria’ s shepherds testify their gratitude that ’ to men of their calling upon Judoca s hills th e angels saw ’ fit to first announce the Saviour s birth ; and our waits were perhaps originally th ose w h o followed the same occupation h as these Abruzzi pifferari, and t us successors of those pastors who kept th e night watch upon the Hagia Pim en a

- or Holy Pasturage of Beit Saour .

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY were far more popularly familiar than they are now to any of us, save those in religious houses ; and they would seem to have taken the concluding psalms of the daily L a n d s in a very practical manner, and made the world about th em partners with themselves in fulfilling their appeal

‘ L a u d a te n u d e coelis L a u d a te B um in E e Domi m , xc lsis . u re E um Sol et Lu n L a ud a te E u m n e Ste La da a, om s llas et Lu men . L a ud a t e E um C e C o loru m et ua e n e u e u er coelos un t la ud en o li e , Aq om s q a s p s , t Nomen Domin i;

La u d a te n u d e terr r n e et n e a b ssi. Domi m a, d aco s om s y I n s G r n Nix G la cies S r tu P r e ru ua e f ci r E us g i , a do, , , pi i s oc lla m, q a un t Ve bum j . n te et n e C e Li n fru ctifera et n e e r Mo s om s oll s, g a , om s C d i . B e t et un er P e r Ser en te et V olu cres en s iac iv sa co a, p s p n atae . u n u Can tate Domin o ca n tic m ov m . ’ Om n is Spiritu s l a u d et Dom in u m .

At the moment of th e Sacred Birth it was supposed that there was a universal pause in nature, a profound silence pervading creation for a few moments, when the

- cattle ceased to feed, the night bird paused in its flight, and the heavenly bodies danced and carolled for j oy ; the stable and its stall were radiant to the Christian peasant with memories of Bethlehem ; the ox mindful of his Owner, ’ and the Ass of his Master s crib, taught by an unfathomable instinct, were thought to make their obeisance at the hour of the Na tivity Cogn ovit B os et Asin us ’ u Pu er er t in u Q od a Dom s , while the humble shepherd on the hills united with himself his folded sheep in adoring Him of whose advent they were the first to be told . In our own land many remains are to be found in its folklore of this old belief of the animals ’ adoration upon Christmas night, and even among the converted American Indians the pretty legend has been found, and one was seen to creep stealthily to a spring at midnight to witness, as he said, the chief stag of . a herd ’ kneel in homage to the Saviour s Birth . The husbandman said that at the hour that marked the Divine Advent the 68 THE HOLY NIGHT

bees awoke from their winter sleep, and might be heard to utter marvellous canticles in their own method of song, but which only those free from stain of mortal sin could hear, while a language was put to the sounds of birds and animals, and to the listening ears of the pure in heart, th e C ook crowed Cb ristus n a tus est (Christ is born) ; the Raven croaked Qua n d o (When) ? th e Rook cawed Ha c n octe (This nigh t) ; th e Ox mooed Ubi (Wh ere) ? the Sheep answered Betb leb em ; and th e Ass brayed E a mus (Let us go) . Even as early as the fourth century we may trace th is giving of words to the sounds of th e animals in reference ’ to the Saviour s Birth, and the poet Prudentius has the following reference to it

‘ P ue n a tus cla m a b a t n te sub Vacca r oc ipsa, Qua Ch ristu s pu ra Virgin e n atu s Homo est ; Sed u en t n u n u en e cred itu r u n i , q ia dic i q am b , Ad d eb a t t te t e u : I ra fac i s is as ll s , D u m a ieb a t : Ubi ? Cla m o so gutture gallu s

I n B et/em Bet/em em in a b a t . , vox g ovis e n im iu m ecu d es ecoru m u e m a istri Felic s p , p q g , ’ u n e r r u Qu i n o ru n t Domin m co c leb a e S um . Thus men loved to find in Nature a sense of correspond ence to their own feelings ; th ey took the classic halcyon

days that come before the winter solstice , and drew from th e calming of the warring seas a simile acceptable to their h th ough t of the fitness of things, finding in t is legend of the h h h Halcyon or Kingfis er, w ic was said to make its nesting

place upon the waters, between the Immaculate C on cep 8th r tion (Dec . ) and the Nativity, a reason to ch isten it ‘ ’ ’ h h h the Madonna s fowl, w ic eralded the coming of the h ’ Prince of Peace . Upon St . Step en s Day the Wren was ’ sought to receive th e priest s blessing upon its race from one of its kind having had its nest in the Bethlehem stable ’ at the same time as the Saviour s Birth ; and it is sad to

think that the old tradition being forgotten or ignored, this bird is still pursued in many places upon that day but to indulge a reckless cruelty and wickedness in making him 69 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY as it were the protomartyr of Once to men ’ s h ’ ’ eyes this pretty feat ery ball was God s little fowl, or Our ’ ’ Lady s Hen, and, like Robin and Swallow, Kingfisher and

Crossbill, its life was made sacred by the memories around it ; but there came th ose who called all such thoughts ’ superstition, and under the blast of their breath reverence was blighted and poetic feeling has been destroyed in the hearts of our people . Let such beware of the old Scotch curse, which many will utter with earnest conviction

‘ n n r th n ten Maliso s , Maliso s , mai a , ’ h t h rr th e He en s h ’ T a a y Lady of av en .

In the Tirol at the conclusion of the Midnight Mass the

- people break out into carol singing, and the pious peasantry are wont to accompany the music with the imitation of th e ’ songs of the birds, so that God s choristers may not be forgotten at that silent hour of night . In many countries there has prevailed the custom among the farmers, in con n ection with the supposed sympathy of animals with the ’ Nativity, of supplying their cattle and fowls with a greater abundance of food upon that day, and in Northern Europe it is said to be frequently the habit to place a sheaf of oats on the porch of the house, so that the birds may share in ’ man s rej oicing . (Frederika Bremer has drawn a very pleasing description of this kindly custom in her novel ‘ ’ w B erra a a rd Streit und Friede, and the S edish poet j g has alluded to it .) But not only was the realm of animate nature thus united with the events of the Holy Night, but the very phenomena of light and darkness and the winter glory of the stars of heaven were made emblems of great truths, and thus united by men in th eir rej oicing . They endeavoured to bring home to their minds with all the force of re a lis a

th e wit-h tion, the contrast between world and without the th e Advent of the Saviour, to show that it was like contrast 70 THE HOLY NIGHT between darkness and light in the physical world, illumined by stars and the reflected light of the waning moon of th e

- i Judaic dispensation it is true, but not by the life giv ng light of the Sun of Justice . Advent was the reminder of these long ages of groping in shadowy and uncertain ways per meated but by one ray of vitalising hope, that of the promised Messiah . The three masses ordained to be said on the Feast of the Nativity by Pope Th elesp h oru s in A D ; 127 were to be offered in gratitude to God for the salvation of souls who struggled to the light (1) before the Mosaic 2 3 dispensation, ( ) under it, and ( ) after it, uniting in memory the three Births of our Lord (1) from all eternity of the 2 3 Father, ( ) into time of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and ( ) in the hearts of the faithful . The great 0 Antiphon for the 20th ‘ 0 th e was, Key of David and Sceptre of House of Israel come and lead him th at is bound from th e prison house, and him that sitteth in darkness and in the h ’ ‘ shadow of deat ; 0 Orient, Splendour of the Eternal h Lig t, Thou Sun of Righteousness, come and illuminate us h ’ that sit in darkness and the s adow of death, was that of the l t ; and it is beautifully interestin g to trace through o f th out the offices the season how, amid the anxiety of e h h night, t ere come the flashes of opeful promise, as if to keep up the courage of despondent souls . Like beacon m h lights fro the shore to the s ipwrecked, so come to the ‘ h longing Christian such assurances as, The nig t is far ’ th e ‘ spent, day is at hand ; Behold, th e Lord sh all come ’ and in that day th ere shall be great light ; ‘Let the ’ heavens rejoice and earth be glad, for He cometh . The darkness that fell upon Egypt and th e release of its bonds men was a favourite simile one of th e introits of th e feast was th at verse from the Book of Wisdom which seems written for th e Midnight Mass : ‘While all things were in th e th e quiet silence, and night was in midst of her course, Thy Almigh ty Word leapt down from Heaven from Thy 71 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

’ royal throne as a conqueror into the world of destruction . ‘ ’ The words, At midnight I will go forth into Egypt, were h ’ used in t is mystical sense ; and Our Lord s own words, She remembereth no more her anguish for j oy that a Man ’ is born into the world, were continually a pplied in mediaeval use to the long travail of the Church through the thousands t of waiting years for h e Advent of the Redeemer . There must have been a singularly vivid meaning in these references to light and darkness in the early days of

Christianity, since then the Vigils of great feasts were kept by th e faithful actually in the churches as they continue to be done still in religious houses, and we believe by the

Coptic laity and clergy . For obvious reasons this practice had to be disallowed in th e progressive West ; b ut Christmas continues to have the Matins and Lauds of the day largely indulgenced devotions in the Western Church , and the first Mass on the day is th e only Midnight on e that remains in the year of all of those of the ancient Vigils . If we remember this , we can the more readily appreciate the power with which passages telling of the darkness, the th firm n t stars of e a m e , and the like would come to their h ears, as t ey may still to those who live in the country ; for the stars in December are especially brilliant, and the ’ Advent season s Opening hymns both at Vespers and Lauds ' ‘ Sid rum refer to them . The beautiful Creator alme e and ‘ ’ r r u it e En clara vox e d a g , whose lines are pr gnant with meaning, must have attracted those who sang to think of the Star out of Jacob that was to arise out of the darkness of night ; and just as the words recur again and again in ‘ n rr n t Introit and Gradual of the season, Coeli e a a gloriam ’ t n ti t F irm a m en t Dei e opera mann um Eju s a n n u a um , so in the first Vesp ers of th e feast itself they heard

‘H n c tr te u a e uora u as a , ll s, q , Hu n e n e u c o elo s ub est om q od , Sa lu tis a u ctorem n e ova , ’ Novo sa lu ta t can tico . THE HOLY NI GHT This was the new canticle that the Church would have man

, take his part in, and unite all Nature with him in its singing so th at from star and sea and earth should go up a great shout of rejoicing to the Author of the New Salvation . It was in the expression of this j oy that in days of earnest life men christened all nature about them . Going forth into the crisp winter air, they beheld among the constellations " ’ ’ ra ese e the rising P p , or Bethlehem Crib, and in Orion s band th e three Magian sages hastening to adore its occupant ; and in th eir homes Christmas Brand, and Candle, and Blaz ing Tree were all expressive of their faith in the advent ’ of the True Light of th e World . The Christmas night rejoicing cannot have left many hours for sleep, for upon the return home there were many rites to be observed before retiring . The fagot had then to be lighted, and subsequently the Yule log placed upon its embers, the wassail song had to be sung, and the Mary

Brand or Taper kindled .

d in t C hristmas 6110t or 75mm . The Christmas or Mary Taper, which was once a marked feature in our h domestic ritual, and was wont to be burnt in every Englis home, as it is still in Ireland, is now seldom to be seen . It was a huge torch or candle usually coloured red and n blue a d garlanded about with greenery, lighted after the ff Midnight Mass, and, where possible, only ignited, snu ed, ’ and tended by a maiden or one bearing Mary s name . It was thought that it should be given, not purchased ; and

' hence it became the custom, and still continues in parts of h the North countree, for c andlers, grocers, and the like to ‘ present them to their customers . At Rippon, in Yorkshire,

’ ‘ ’ ’ on Christmas Eve, says the Gentleman s Magazine for 1750 ‘ (p . the chandlers sent large mold candles and th e ’ coopers logs of wood, generally called Yule Clogs . In

Lapland the candle is like the Easter or Pentecost taper, 73 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

branched into three, or with divided stem each bearing three wicks . We seem to have a mem ory of this distinctive mark of the Christmas . joy in the name of several flowers . Verb a scum The High Taper, for instance, or Great Mullein ( ), ’ a s th e is still known in Ireland l Virgin Mary s Candle ; in G Gaelic it is uineal Mhuire, in France and Belgium Le

Cierge de Notre Dame, and in Germany Marien Kerz en,

Unser Frauen Heil, or Himmelbrand . I ts thick leaves are ‘ ’ ’ called in Kent Our Saviour s Flannel, as if in memory of the swaddling bands of the Christmas Night . The White L chn is dioica s Campion ( y ), which give forth its fragrance at night as if to recall the hour of the sacred Birth, is spoken R u elliu s 1544 k of by , in , as being nown b y the name of Chandelle de Notre Dame ; but perhaps both this and our ‘ ’ ’ North Country Lady s Candlestick, as a title for the rim ula n eris Greater Cowslip (P ), may more probably be referred to Candlemas Day .

' Q DB C hristmas jragot. Besides those trees and shrubs which we s hall h ave to enumerate as marking by their greenery the presence of the Nativity festival, serving our forefathers as Kalendars of th e season and illustra t tions of its teaching, there were oth ers employed in heir domestic rites for definite reasons . Our modern arrange ment of the hearth no longer permits of our enjoying the blazing fagot which once was customary within the ample ingle nooks of Old England, nor can it be succeeded by a Yule log of the old proportions to burn through the night and following day . Both have virtually disappeared in all but name from amongst us, together with the homely ritual connected with them and the traditions they recalled . In

Christian story it was the Ash that tendered its wood, though green, to burn in the Bethlehem grotto upon the

first Christmas night, and by an ashwood fire the Sacred

Child was washed and swaddled . Ever since the time that 74

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

m a lin — bowl of p wood, borne by a maiden, its sides decked ’ - with fragrant sprigs of the Virgin Mother s Rose Mary, and ’ bound with her ribbons blue ; and, to recall the Mother s

- breast, above it rose a cover, dome shaped, or else a twined a rb u r o a ge in the place of one, wh ile upon the surface of th e beverage floated a little Bambino or His cross . As it came into the hall, accompanied by the children, all sang ‘ ’ the Wassail Song of Mary, still to be heard perchance in some retired spots of these isles, and of which, as sung in ‘ - Wales, Hone gives a rough translation in his Every Day ’ h - Book (i . and t en each grown up member of the ’ house, kneeling at the maiden s feet, takes through a straw h ’ one draug t, limited to a breath, from the bowl s ingre d i n t e s . Amid all this deligh tfully symbolic ritual there was room for th e interplay of continual mirth and merri ment ; as each of th e Hazel withes gave way a fresh toll was claimed, and from the skill with which each detail

of the feast was performed many an augury was drawn .

At Stevington, Bedfordshire, th e scene of two kneeling

figures drinking at a bowl is carved upon a bench - end h in the churc , and is thought to refer to this Christmas observance, while the word wassail and its songs are to be h eard in every form of corruption in the midland and northern counties . lin i In Sicily the Buckthorn is called Za cca ti Na ta , and probably they use it at Ch ristmas because it is connected

in many places with the new fire at Easter, from its being

‘ the Jewish custom to employ it at the Pasch al time . 1795 The following lines by R . T . Thorn, of Bristol, , show that the customs we have alluded to above were not then obsolete in the west country

’ Th e on d rou s h en - t r th e r p As fago , f om ya d , Th e jolly farmer to his crowded h all C o n ve ys with sp e ed ; wh ere o n th e ris in g flames (Already - fed with store of massy bran ds) THE HOLY NIGHT

e it e r I t blaz e s soon ; n in e ban dag s b a s, An d th e e h n u t , as y ac disjoi (so c s om wills) ’ i l e r s r u h t A m gh ty ju g of spark in g cyd b o g , ’ e th e u e t With b ran dy mixt to elevat g s s .

9 613 2 1118 013 QBIUCk. As soon as the soaring 1 1 . tongues of flame from the fagot died down, and each Hazel band had yielded to the influence of the heat, in was drawn th e upon a decked trolly Yule Log, a huge block that had been dried for the occasion . It varied in material, but usually it was of Oak, Pine, Ash, or Olive ; in Southern S u France it is known as Le Souche de Noel, o c N a d a l en , Tre f ir in Ca len d a u , or o de Noel ; a s Zocco di Natale Tirol Th and in Lombardy, or Zocca di ogni bene . e Tuscans call Christmas, Yule Log Easter, and make use of an Olive block for the fire . Upon the Yule Log, adorned with th paper flowers and brightly coloured ribbons , e youngest h child present poured some wine, and prayed t at this th h blessed night fire might warm the cold, e ungry might h find food, wanderers gain t eir rest, and all might enjoy ’ . h t Heaven s peace Placed upon the hot as es , h e block

of wood was soon ablaze, and there it burned all through ‘ th ’ the night, to keep the Divine Infant from e cold, as

they say in Tirol .

05 2 Qli ri t i r 0 b a mas B tan . It does not belong to our

study to speak of the games, fare, and oth er festivities th at marked th e season ; yet we feel tempted to allude to some of these that are practically forgotten in their sig ’ ifi n h - n ca ce . Just as the c ildren s game of Cratch Cradle

takes its name from their sports at this season, when ‘ Mary brought forth her fyrst- begotten Sonne and ’ l a d cr tch - y Him in a e e, so did the form of the Cradle Cakes

’ - tell of the same . Selden, in his Table Talk, speaks of the

coffin of the Christmas pie, the prototype of our mince

pie, being in shape long, in imitation of the manger, and 77 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY we find outcries in the seventeenth century against this ‘ Idolatrie in crust l In Picardy and other parts of France cui n ets ‘ they have cakes called g , because in cun eoru m varias ’ efform a n tu r species , as Dufresne says, and their cross

latticed covering was to represent the rack of a stable . Cakes made in the form of the Madonna and her Son are

still sold in the back streets of many towns in England,

- and are known as Yule doos , dows, doughs, or cakes ; or, ‘ ‘ ’ ’ as at St . Albans and Staines, Pop or Pope s ladies . On the Continent these are of endless variety of shape and

. Eve quality Christmas being an abstinence day, the sup

per had to be maigre ; furmety made of creed- wheat boiled in milk and seasoned with spices seems to have been a

universal dish, but various fish appear to have been de rigueur ; in Rome the cenone must be decked with a huge ca iton e indigestible eel called p , in Hamburg it was carp, in ’ R um b old s Kent a St . whiting, and so forth . After the M Midnight ass abstinence was, of course, over, and anything could be taken . In every land hospitality rules with u n grudging hand at this time, and in Eastern Europe they say that at the moment when the Saviour was born the heavens ’ open and Jacob s Ladder may be seen stretched to earth,

- and angels descending to visit men . Many folk lore tales are told of the punishments that befall those who are not ready to help Christ in His poor upon this night ; in Tra n sylvania the master of the house, as he takes his seat at M table, prays that our Lord and His other may visit him as they pass through the earth and bless it ; he asks that

‘ I h This n ight tw o Gu ests ope to see, An d both I ’ m su re shall welcome b e ; ' t m e I tru t th e 11 e n to re t Wi h s y d ig s , ’ ’ Of all I ow n th ey 11 h ave the b est.

In Brittany the same pious thought prevails, and in every country it was deemed the height of impiety to turn the stranger away unrelieved from the door, lest it should 78 THE HOLY NIGHT

be the Lord Christ Himself. It was in hopeful trust that the Great Friend might come that food was never refused h to any wh o besought it, and it was said t at wherever the crumbs of the Pain de Noel fell that th ere sprang up the ’ o r ca d ia ca herb we call (Our) Mother s Wort (L e n u us r ). It r k is the En gelt a n of Germany, and the Manus Beatae Mariae h of the early herbalists, a plant pregnant wit virtues, whose h ’ young leaves are marked by the Maiden Mot er s Milk, and it is one of which old Culpepper states ‘ there is n o h better herb to take melancholy vapour from the eart, to ’ strengthen it, and make a merry, cheerful, blythe soul . Some of the legends of the coming of Our Lord under the form of the wayfaring man to beg th e Christmas bread h are singularly pretty . We have traces of t em in th e custom that once existed of our peasantry going to Raleigh

Vale in Essex, and also at Preston, Lancashire, to listen for the bells of a subterranean ch urch that once stood in the midst of a fair town all engulfed for its sin in not re cog n is h h ing the eavenly visitor . A Net erlands saga tells of a place called Been close to Zoutleeuw, now beneath the sea, which was once a stately city ; but it became engrossed h ff wit commerce, indi erent to the life of the soul, and

hardened in its heart to pity . Our Lord came th ither one h Holy Night, for the houses were bright wit lights, filled h wit plenty, and resounding with songs of wassail and gay h voices . The bells were ringing t eir j oyous peals out to th the crisp night air, and e Mary ch imes were sounding

clearly across the snow- covered plain from many a noble

tower as the Divine Guest drew nigh . He begged from door

to door, but was repelled from each . He even took the

form of a little child, and in that touching guise He asked for food and shelter for the sake of Him whose birthday it h was ; but all were too occupied with t eir business, their

pleasures, or their sin to listen to the wandering Boy, and ff th e ’ He was rebu ed and shut out in winter s cold . Every 79 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY heart h a d become r uthless and indifferent ; no sweet pity existed even for childhood, no tender reverence for age ; the music of the bells spoke to no listening heart in that wicked city ; th e rej oicing was not for the Saviour’ s

Advent, nor the gaiety at His coming ; its lords recognised not that they were but the stewards of His wealth, but personal luxury and indulgence, vulgar proudful display alone prevailed . Yet His was the hand that h a d given the

s ea n rich harvests of and land that had enriched the tow , He the King who had placed His guarding sentinels along ’ the ocean s bourne and restrained its eager herd of waves, and yet no recognition was given of His Presence on this h His birt day morning . So the great God withdrew His warding angels and sent them back to Heaven, and that night the h u n grin g waves burst impetuously in through

- sandy dune and stone heaped dyke, and the cruel town was ’ lost so th at it could pollute God s earth no more . On h th e Zu d er C ristmas Eve, as the benighted fisherman of y

Zee hears th ose bells coming up through the waters, he hastens away from the spot in fear, and thinks of the city ’ that knew not the time of its visitation .

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY return to the dry stocks in winter ’ s cold ? Every land has loved to recognise amongst its vegetation instances to h h confirm t is tender sympat y . The patristic legend of how E n a d d i the Vines of g burst into leaf, flower, and fruit when w s He who a the True Vine appeared, had been a favourite illustration, and we shall see the desire to make th e blossoming of plants and th e ripening of various fruits do honour to the little Savio u r . Th ere appears to h ave been an instinctive feeling in the world immediately anterior to th e Birth of Our Lord that b e n eficen t some great and potentate was about to be born . h Virgil, in whom all C ristian antiquity saw a kind of h prop et of the Messiah, and whom Dante chooses as the h type of human reason leading to Fait , expresses in his h fourt Eclogue this expectation of a coming Redeemer . He was probably led to write upon it from the prophecies related by Josephus (Bell . Jud . vij . Tacitus (Hist . v .

Suetonius (Vesp . c . or Dion Cassius At this Advent he says

His r e h l th r n fl er b e r n e c adl s a l wi isi g ow s c ow d , ’ Th e s erp en t s b rood sh all d ie t h e sacre d grou n d Sh ee a n d n u n t r e u e t o e r all w ds poiso o s pla s f s b a , E h n u h h ’ ac commo b s s all Syrian r oses wear . This same idea is very prominent throughout the

Christian offices of the season, and it was in these that they of former days found their inspiration . All through Advent there is this calling upon the natural world to arouse itself and be ready for its Creator ; ‘ Rorate coeli d es u p e r e t lu a n t Ju s tum a ri t r et erm in a t nubes p , p e a u terra g Salva ’ torem, begins the season . ‘ L a eta b itu r deserta e t invia et ex u lta b it s olitu d o e t re b it r in n s rm in b it t x l t flo quasi Lilium, ge m a ge a e e u ta b i l a e ta b u n d a et l a u d a n s ; gloria Libani data est Bi z decor

C a rm eli e t Saron, ipsi vid e b u n t gloriam Domini e t decorem i ’ Dei nostr , this is the Lection for the Ember Saturday . 84 SOME FLOWERING TREES, ETC .

‘ Th e Such passages continually are chosen as tell that, mountains and hills shall sing Lauds before their God, and all the trees of the forest sh all clap their hands ; while at th e midnight solemnity th ey bade the heavens rej oice and earth be glad, the fields be joyful and all that is therein, let th e trees of th e wood exult before th e face of the Lord, ’ for He cometh . The early Christian poet Prudentius in the fourth century in h is hymn upon th e Nativity commencing, ’ ‘ : ‘ th e h Vagitus ille exordium, says The cry of Holy C ild imparted to the earth a verdant spring at its sound, a revivifi ed globe cast off its ancient slough, the land was c overed with flowers, and the dry sands of the desert ’ became redolent with frankincense .

Abrah am a Sancta Clara, in one of his sermons, also s pecifies some of these old traditions of what seemed most naturally accordant to affectionate piety to have occurred . He says : ‘ The deep snow which had covered the ground ] h h its i n t e same neig bourhood at once disappeared, and in place were to be seen trees covered with a thick foliage o f leaves, while the earth was decorated with a rich and ’ thick crop of the most beautiful flowers . Even in our own Shakespeare ’ s time the belief was ' g e n era l th a t the Holy Night was marked by unusual phenomena

’ ‘ Some say th at ever gain st th at h allowe d season ’ At which ou r Saviou r s Birth is c elebr at ed Th r : n n crow eth n h t n e bi d of daw i g all ig lo g . Th e n h t /a re h e e th e n n o e ig s w ol som , mild w falls, N o n et tr e n o r r t r pla s ik s , spi i s walk ab oad ; N o fairy takes n or witch h ath power t o ch arm ; ’— So r u a n d h e th e t e . Ha m1et g acio s so allow d is im .

Let us then gather up what remains to us in Christendom, ’ so far as we can, of these tokens of the tradition of Nature s th e tribute to Nativity, at least in the realm of botany ; and

form our Christmas garden, which if not as radiant in colour 85 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

as modern luxury demands, will at least be far more full of mental interest to artist, poet, and ecclesiologist, and far more delightfully expressive for all who care for the sacred legends of the trees and herbs than an ordinary one can be .

fltbt {on ly fi bfltn Of ®lfl§t0flhfltp. Among the trees ’ that blossomed as if to welcome the Saviour s birthday, none is more remarkable than the Thorn which takes its name from Glastonbury, where Drayton sang

' ree et in n ter a n d e r th e r u er reen —P o i T s y wi bloom , b a i s mm s g ly ii . To all appearance it is a common Hawthorn (Cra ta egus ox a ca n tb a y ), but it is of so unusual a habit that in the classi fi ca tio n of modern botany it has been placed in a subdivision ' of its own (variety p ra ecox) . Externally it can scarcely be said to differ from White Thorns generally ; some have thought that its leaves were of a somewhat paler green, and slightly larger, and that the stipules or appendages at the base of the stalk possessed a more leaf- like character than in the ordinary Hawthorns, but practically there is no

ff . marked di erence Yet it is a tree which, as old Fuller puts ‘ it, rides post to bring the first news of the spring holding alone (as it may seem) correspondency with the trees of the ’ Antipodes . We should recollect that all the old traditions and proverbs relating to time were the result of observations made by those who lived prior to the introduction of th e 582 Gregorian Kalendar of 1 , which was adopted in England in 752 1 , so that if we desire to prove their general accuracy we

e . . must add eleven or twelve days to our present date, g 12 May Day Old Style is our present May ; Midsummer Day,

5 5 . July ; Christmas Eve , January , and so forth We shall see this especially necessary to be noted in the case of the

Thorn of which we are speaking . At the Nativity season when the sap of all other Thorns 86 T . SOME FLOWERING TREES, E C

is at its lowest point, the Holy Thorn, regardless of the severity or mildness of the temperature , revives , leafs, and

flowers usually within the very twelve feastful days (viz .

Jan . 5 and frequently it would seem upon the very night = a n of the Nativity itself (0. S . J . For a few days previous signs of returning life are traceable, then its small buds come forth and burst open with a slight crackling sound, and gradually the whole tree becomes powdered with tiny blossoms , somewhat smaller than those of the ordinary

Hawthorn ; after a few hours the petals fall away, leaving the fruit to ripen and the leaves to wither, and the tree becomes to all appearance like its fellows, hushed in their ’ winter s sleep . No words have been too ugly during the last century or so for writers to employ when referring to this tree ; even when conquered by the weight of testimony to its truth, its flowering was attributed to being an imposi tion upon the credulous by the Benedictine monks of the h d neighbouring abbey, who a grafted a Thorn upon a Holly stem, poured hot water on its roots, or obtained the help of the Master of all Black Arts himself ! In modern time it has been suggested that it is the Oriental Thorn, but this too is incorrect, for that is a very different tree . The old monks have now gone, and th e pious eyes th at once revered h the sight of its flowering ave now been long closed, and the original Holy Thorn cut down, yet still descendants of it remain scattered about the sites of old religious houses, or on our byways , and continue their interestin g habit of marking with their tribute the Holy Night .

Parkinson, who was herbarist to Queen Elizabeth a n d

K . ing James I , and who lived therefore in difficult days to speak reasonably upon such things as were labelled as ‘ ’ i superstitious, qu etly suggests that men should not ‘slightingly pass by and so smally respect this wonderful

’ ‘ phenomenon, for it was a strange work of Nature, or of the God of Nature rather, to cause such a tree, being in all 87 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

’ l n . parts like the common Hawthorn, to b os s o twice a year

. h Dr Montague, a Bis op of Bath and Wells, sent a branch as a present to Anne , the Queen of James I ., and probably he gathered it from th e tree th at still grows in the grounds of the palace at Wells , an offspring from that on the side

h . of the ill at Glaston The custom appears to have existed,

th e h . at least in reign of C arles II , of carrying a bough of th e Blossoming Thorn in procession upon Christmas

Day, and presenting it to the sovereign . Miss Strickland h h gives from t e MSS . of Pere Cyprien Grem a c e a dialogue which took place when first it was brought to the restored monarch . Taking the branch in his hand, the King made it ? ’ the occasion for a jest Well, this is a miracle, is it said ’ ‘ h e . Yes, too readily responded the courtiers, a miracle peculia r to England , and regarded with veneration by the ’ ‘ Catholics here . How the King, when the ! miracle opposes itself th e Pope ? You bring me this miraculous branch Christm as Day . Does it always observe th e Old Style by wh ich we in England celebrate the ’ ’ fl w rin ? . Nativity in its o e g Always , was the answer ‘ ’ i ‘ ff Then, sa d the King, the Pope and the miracle di er not a little, for he always celebrates Christmas Day ten days earlier at Rome by Papal orders for nearly a century ! ’ It should be remembered that England had not then adopted the Gregorian Kalendar, and was consequently still th e following the Old Style ; indeed, when alteration was 1 52 m a de in 7 , it became the custom for people to resort to places where any of the trees sprung from the Holy Thorn ff were known to exist, and to consult them as a ording an unerring proof of the true day of the Nativity . The Rev .

Wm . Gilpin tells us how the caretaker of the ruined Abbey at Glastonbury was so perturbed at the profanity of changing the dates, that although he believed it to be possible that his temerity might cost him his head, he wrote to King

George, and gravely warned him not to make a decree that 88 SOME FLOWERING TREES , ETC .

’ . was against Nature, God s infallible witness in this matter th e Vast crowds, we are told, assembled around scion of the original tree th at grows at the Abbey hostelry, upon the ‘ first Ch ristmas Eve under th e New Style . To their great dis of h appointment, there was no appearance its blowing, whic made them watch it more narrowly th e 5th of January th e Christmas Day Old Style, when it blowed as usual . Anoth er gathering for the same purpose is recorded in the ’ 7 3 Gentleman s Magazine for 1 5 , as taking place at th e Quainton, Bucks ., in which writer incorrectly speaks of th e tree as a Blackthorn . Above two thousand persons, he ‘ h says, assembled wit lanthorns and candles to view a ‘ h Blackthorn wh ich grows in t is neighbourhood, and which was remembered (this year only) to be a slip from th e famous Glastonbury Thorn but upon finding th at the tree did not ‘ h h h . 25 confirm t e c ange of date, t ey agreed that Dec , New th h Style, could not be e rig t Christmas Day, and accordingly h h refused to go to churc , treating their friends on t at day ff as usual . At length the a air became so serious that the th ministers of e neighbouring villages , in order to appease h h th e people, t oug t it prudent to give notice that th e old ’ Ch ristmas Day should be kept h oly as before . Many similar instances might be quoted of the fidelity of the blossoming of this tree upon old Christmas Eve . Descendants from the original Holy Thorn are to be h found in most of the southern s ires of Britain, and probably on the Con tinent likewise ; for a spray was once a th highly treasured gift, and e Bristol merchants are reported to have carried on a brisk traffic in their export . There are few old gardens of religious houses that did not possess an example, and they are to be traced not only in their native county of Somerset, but across England . The original tree

th e W rr l - grew upon the southern ridge of y a hill, commonly

- - called the Weary all, at a spot about half a mile south west of the town, and close by the old road to the west along the hill 89 THE FLORA OF THE SACRE D NATIVI TY

tops, which is now nearly entirely deserted, since the traveller by the draining of the Sedgemoor no longer needs to keep to the high ground . At the Revolution the venerable tree was cut down, but its stump remained until early in this century, when it was senselessly grubbed up against the protest of

- local intelligence, and to day its place is marked by a stone h slab . Bot before and at its destruction many a slip had been taken from the tree, and it is to be hoped that a successor will be planted by the good folk of Glastonbury upon the spot to continue the historic tradition . At the

- inn, which was once the guest house of the Abbey, there is h th to be seen a fine tree ; and another, whic is in e grounds of the Abbey itself is often to be found on Old Christmas morn h ing white wit blossom, while the ground beneath is white with snow . We have mentioned the handsome specimen in the grounds of the palace at Wells ; another is in the garden of what is now a farmhouse at Evercreech, near Bath ; and we read of another at Chillington , near Ilminster . A writer

’ ‘ u : ‘ in Notes and Q eries (iii . says In my neighbour hood (near Bridgewater) the Christmas Thorn blossoms on

th e 6th . of January (Twelfth Day) , and on this day only

The villagers in whose gardens it grows, and indeed many others, verily b elieve that this fact pronounces the truth of ’ ’ this being the day of Christ s Birth . In many country places it still continues an annual custom to visit any tree of the :kind that exists in the vicinity, and we read of lads and lasses assembling about ‘ th e them in west to b ea r the buds open . A writer in Notes ‘ and Queries instances how the people say, As they comed ’ ’ a ér out you could here em b fi , a good old English word ‘ signifying to crackle, to patter, to make repeated loud noises ’ (Jennings and Halliwell ’ s In 1893 a gentle ‘ ’ man wrote to the Standard newspaper from Ledbury,

Herefordshire, stating that he had seen this Thorn in bud and leaf in spite of the frost and snow that year, and that 90

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

L n ’ o gla n d . Wa rb stow Cornwall possesses a Holy Thorn at l , w near Launceston, hich a resident testifies to have himself 6 seen in blossom on January , not only that year, but annually January 27, In Monmouth

- u - h shire, at Llangattock Vibo Avel, t ere is a granddaughter of the original Glastonbury tree, and its parent is one th e Th planted on mountain called e Skirrid, i n memory of its old h ome on the Wyrra l - hill ; both these continue to be visited annually by the peasantry around . In Bucking h th e amshire there is one at Quainton, and another stand h ing in a field by itself at S enley, about three miles from

Stony Stratford, within a hundred yards of the historic

Watling Street . In Essex we find one at Coggeshall, and

another at Woodham Ferrers , that at the latter being ‘ h ’ h known as the Holly Bus , and was t e source of some ’ ‘ a comment in the Standard in 189 3 . This paragraph p ‘ p ea re d in January : A remarkable scene was witnessed sic in the parish of Woodham Ferris ( ), Essex, on Old h Ch ristmas E ve . On t at night a number of persons went on a pilgrimage to a village to witness the bursting into “ ! leaf of a bush known as the Holly Thorn . It is a fact h th e t at at midnight bush did burst into leaf. The peculiar features of th e phenomenon are that the bush assumes its normal condition a few hours afterwards, and breaks forth th ’ with renewed vigour in e spring .

Aubrey tells us of one in h is day at Parham Park, in ‘ f . Su folk, and another at Bulstrode, while he adds that Dr

r - E z e il Tony said that about Rummy marsh [Romny], in h Kent, are thornes naturally like t at at Glastonbury this

- h was at a place called Whey street, we believe . T ere was ’ one also growing in Lord R a ve n swo rth s garden at Walham

Green, but now th is spot is covered with houses ; and ‘ Culpepper mentions another as being at White Green, ’ h near Nantwich, Ches ire . We have collected these memorials of the existence 92 SOME FLOWERING TREES, ETC .

of these Thorns, and wish we were able to make their enumeration more complete ; for unless attention be given to them, they will probably disappear in these days of th e building and change, and from their similarity to ordi nary Hawth orn they are liable to be destroyed unwittingly unless local interest be aroused in their historic value . We can scarcely part from the record of

‘Th e n ter h rn h h wi T o , w ic ’ B a t Ch r t n u o u r r lossoms is mas , mi df l of Lo d, as Tennyson says ( ‘Holy with out alluding to th e w a s legend of its introduction to Glas tonbury, for it also ’ h h ff . spoken of as St . Josep of Arimat aea s Sta The local story was th at this pious disciple of Our Lord came from

th e W rr l- France in a boat to the foot of now inland y a hill, h is ff and upon arriving there struck sta into the ground, his h as if to mark the limit of eart ly pilgrimage, and th at

h . h this became th e tree . Whet er St Josep ever did come th to Avalon will perhaps be doubted, still e tradition in France is very strong of the saint ’ s landing with oth er h oly persons at Marseilles, and of his subsequently making h is way into Northern Gaul, and th ere is no such tradition of

h . his dying t ere As to his arrival at the foot of the hill, now some miles inland, that would have been quite pos th sible, since formerly e Sedgemoor formed an arm of the

- Severn Sea, and up this land locked mere a boat, such as th e that recently disinterred near very spot, could easily Th h is have come . e placing of staff in th e ground is an ’ act recalling to one s mind the practice of the early bishops , th e sta uro e ion d io ce s s preserved in word p g for a , of setting up th eir staff as symbol of th eir authority ; and if th is

h h h - were of T orn, it mig t ave taken root ; for Thorn trees are not only ageless, but their stocks are singularly tenacious of life, and even wh en they h ave been cut away from the root for a long perio d they will often renew their existence th e h L n n when stuck in eart . o d o , in his account of the 9 3 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

: ‘ tree, says As the Thorn will root from the cuttings of ’ the old wood, on the supposition that Joseph s Staff was a green cudgel, perhaps cut from the first bush he met with after setting his foot on shore to defend himself from the savage inhabitants, the fact of its rooting and becoming ’ a tree may be literally true . Lastly, the alliance of King h Art ur with this town of Avalon, and the quest of his banded knights for the reliquary containing some of the ’ earth from Calvary s Hill, stained by the sacred Blood of the Saviour, and brought hither by St. Joseph, all tend to make one hesitate before dismissing the beautiful mediaeval ’ romance . It is sometimes given as a proof of its having been invented in the tenth century that it is only then to be found in writing, but that is no kind of proof, for it is far more probable that the writing was but the em bodiment of tradition that had existed for ages before .

However, with this we are not now concerned ; we need only remark that our forefathers had at least the support

of th eir chroniclers, or, as we now call them, historians ; C a r for William of Malmesbury, John of Glastonbury, pg a ve,

Matthew of Paris, and many other old, writers recorded the belief; and it is quite inaccurate to speak of it as a ’ Roman fable, since the Acta Sanctorum consider the story as not proven . An old writer remarks upon the Thorn of Avalon that ‘ God sometimes puts forth such questions and riddles in Nature on purpose to pose the pride of men conceited of ’ th eir skill in such matters . To those of old time coming forth from the Midnight Mass where they had heard words ‘ like unto, Let the trees of the wood exult before the face ’ of the Lord, the blossoming of the Holy Thorn would

appeal as a very wonderful and beautiful illustration, and it would be a very seemly thing to have one of these

- trees planted in every churchyard . In folk lore Hawthorns are frequently connected with events in the life of Our 9 4

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

Loire one Christmas Eve ; and being unable to find any means of transit across its waters, boldly swam to the h other side, and ung up his cloak to dry, when to his astonished eyes th e tree upon which it was stretched w gradually unfolded its leaf and flo er, and every year since h a s continued to mark the N O61 festival . We may be sure th at th e preacher wh o sh owed himself so ready to illustrate th e doctrine of the Blessed Trinity by th e Sham rock ’ s leaf woul d not fail to make use of the flowering of this winter Thorn to rouse his audience to do th eir h omage at the Feast of the Incarnation, and would make

Nature the parable of things spiritual .

. dtbz D agn y dtbom . At Dagny, in the Department

- t- h of Seine e Marne, t ere is the second Thorn of which we can learn as existing in France, and th is again is embodied

th . 11 with e story of a local saint In the year A D . 6 , the th e h e r curé of Dagny was oly pri st, the Abbé Ge och e, who has been canoniz ed ; the commune observes th e day of his 2 death, July , as its patronal feast, and preserves his bust in the church . He was not only priest of Dagny, but also F a r t r confessor to the Convent of m o u ie s, where about the same time lived our Saxon Princesses Ed elb u rgh a and t h E a rco n go a as Abbess and nun, and both of w om have ' also been enrolled in th e Kalendar of the S a in ts o f th e th e Church . One Christmas Eve good pastor was sum Ma l a n e m o n e d to bear the Viaticum to a woman of g g , a h amlet in the commune ; the ground was slippery with f th awing ice, and the priest took his sta f to steady his

‘ c a re h e steps , but notwithstanding all his fell and only saved h is sacred burth en from accident by leaning so heavily upon his stick as to drive it too far into the earth to be h withdrawn . He t erefore left it, blessing it for the service 10 ! it had done to its God, and it took root, and every

‘ ’ Noel it flowered as if to recall the old man s blessing, and 9 6 SOME FLOWERING TREES, ETC . tender under its new form of utility the tribute of its adoration .

al me QEaDn am flDak, At Cadnam, about three miles from Lyndhurst, in the New Forest, upon the Salisbury

Road, there are the remains of an Oak, whose brumal b udding and l ea fin g marked it out as strangely exceptional to other trees of its kind ; and since this reflo res cen ce took d place about the Feast of th e Nativity it became regarde , like the foregoing Thorns , as being a tribute of Nature to the Saviour. It is difficult to gather the real facts con n ecte d with it ; for when writers upon the Forest come to h S speak of it, t ey are carried away with the zealous pirit of abusing the old monks of Lyndhurst instead of quietly recording and examining any evidence there may be as to th e strange habit of this tree . Like as has been so usually the case in reference to the Thorn of Glaston, so with respect to this Oak at Cadnam every base motive has been

suggested for the story of its Christmas blossoming . Some repeat the nonsense of paper leaves having been attach ed

during the night, or old leaves which had been preserved

in some spirit being hung on to the branches, while others th straightway deny e fact of its winter virescence . Mr .

’ ’ h his ‘ Heat , in edition of Gilpin s Forest Scenery

states that the Oak is still living, and he adds that he

was satisfied as to the correctness of its midwinter l ea fin g . The tree he saw is probably that part of the original which h h escaped uninjured, alt ough t e greater portion died ; for th e during the process of demolition of the venerable tree,

the ill- tempered vandal proved as misguided in his strokes

as in his zeal, for one of them fell upon his own leg, and

from that injury he died . Mr . Heath says that the trunk

is now hollow, and half the shell is gone, but that taking the girth of the remaining half bole —at three feet from the - - a ground, he found it to be eight and half feet . Old people G 97 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY can be found who have gathered S prigs from its budding branches upon Epiphany or Old Christmas Day, and who can remember th e time when the Southampton folk used to come and ligh t bonfires around it and make festival about th e weary- looking old tree upon that day in the th year . At e present it is utterly neglected, its hollowed “ trunk serving as a place to stack fagots and throw rubbish, but we have pleaded that a tree of such hi’storic interest may be protected by those who have the interests of the

Forest at heart ; and perhaps when this has been done, sufficient curiosity at least may be aroused to recall atten tion to its remarkable peculiarity, and to plant a young f successor by its side rom its acorns . The best account of the habit of the tree with which we have met is that given by Dean Christopher Wren, who tells us that King James could not be induced to believe in this strange winter budding, and that Bishop h ‘ Andrewes of Winc ester, in whose diocese the tree grew, h in in caused one of his own c a pl a es, a man of known t rit eg ye, to give a true information of itt, which he did 5 Na tivit e i e. . for upon the Eve of the y [ . Jan , he gathered about a hundred slips, with the leaves newly , opened, which he stuck in claye in the bottom of long w hite boxes, and soe sent them post to the courte, where they deservedly raised not only admiration, but stopt the h l ’ mouth of in fid elitye and contradiction for ever, of t is , ‘ says Dean Christopher, was both an eyewitness and did distribute many of them to th e great persons of both sexes

i . in court, and others, ecclesiast cal persons But in these ’ last troublesome times a d ivelis h fellow (of H erostra tu s r te his humour) having h ewen itt round at the o o , made h last stroke on his own legg, w ereof he died , together with the old wondrous tree : which now s p row tes up i h a ga n e, yf some such envious chance doe not inder or

‘ prevent itt : from which the example of the former villane 98

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

and we may see, perhaps, the desire to unite that patristic th e story in naming of some old varieties of Vines . The Ch ristkin d elsta u b e of Germany, the Muscat de Jésus in

France, and that also which they call La Terre de la f Promise, seem to be examples O this .

So, too , with regard to other fruits . There is a late w st f e , o Christlin Plum of the England known as the g, e and late Pears in Franc called Fondante de Noel, like th e

Piru di Natali of Sicily . But it is the Apple that Northern Europe has chiefly regarded as its most useful and charac teristic tree ; and just as it has been taken to e m b o d y the fruit which the Rabbins considered to be that of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Greek emblem of Discord, so in Teutonic and Keltic mythologies this was the fruit with which they deemed the Paradise of Gla es vellir abounded, and which at Avalon was ever ripe . In all old Kalendars, especially those of Germany, we may see ‘Adam et Eva placed as commemorations for Christmas

Eve, as typical of the Fall that necessitated the Incarnation for Redemption ; and the connection of the Apple with the expulsion from Paradise , and the means of restoration, led to such names as we have for the cider variety Pommier ' ’ d Ad a m ; the valuable and deliciou s Christ s golden Reinette ;

- e the Cross cored cooking variety, Pomme de J rusalem, and several oth ers which are in season during the last month

of the year .

In many parts of the Continent, as in Brittany still, it h is , or was, the custom to go into the orchards on C ristmas

Eve and drink wassail to the trees . This habit prevailed very generally in England up to late years, and in some orchards fires were lighted in honour of our Lord and His

Apostles . Among the German peasantry it is the Apple tree that they say blossoms on Christmas Eve ; but whether u n su c it be only one species or in a few places, we have been ces sfu l in ascertaining . We find, however, casual mention 100 SOME FLOWERING TREES, ETC .

of one at Gera, another at Tribur on the Rhine, and two r others in the diocese of Wiirz b u g, as being possessed of the habit of Christmas flowering, but hitherto have been unable to gather any further information concerning th ese or others .

The Germans have made an acrostic out of the names of trees and plants wh ich seem connected with the Nativity in their land, the initials forming their word for the Holy Night W elke Poley E pp el I n d ia n s ch e Nelken N is ew urtz A n d ria n a C ro cu s Al u n w urtz H exin, oder a

T elge, oder Zweige von Kirschen .

Of these, the Dry Poley is the C u n ila go or Thymus Ser h p illu m , upon which we shall speak under t e Cradle worts ; the Indian Ch rysanthemum flowers in late autumn ; the Hellebo’re or Ch ristmas Rose we deal with in our next division ; the Andriana is probably the Archangel, or Lamium purpureum or album, to which we refer under the Milk worts ; the Crocus n u d ifloru s or Filius ante P a trem and other species appear from October onwards, and are found under the Types of the Incarnation ; the Hexin is perhaps

— ‘ the beautiful Staghorn moss (Lycop od ium cla va tum); and the

Telge one of the early flowering cherries . We may trace to the New World this same habit of connecting their flora with Christmas and other seasons th of e Church, and thus carrying on some tradition that

existed in the Old World, although united in the New, to ff di erent botanical species . In the Mauritius the beautiful 101 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

' December flowering Cb msa n t/zem um I n d zcum is the ‘ Christ mas Flower p a r excellen ce ; the Ipomoeas or Morning Glories of the West Indies and Central America have a variety of

‘ I omoea sid oli names, the luxuriant twining p if cz being the Christmas Gambol of the Barbadoes while other species '

1 . Scfzzed ea n a . ( , etc ) are the Manto de la Virgen in Mexico , d 1 . issecta Flor de Pascua in Venezuela ( ), and Morning Star or Etoile d u Matin in the English and French possessions . The unattractive P som lecz pim mm is the Christmas Gobble gheer of the people of St . Helena, to whom it is said to be like Holly or Mistletoe with us in England . We read, too, of the striking appearance in the British West Indies of the ‘ ’ Christmas Pride (R uellicz pa n iculczm) among the bushes in ’ December ; while the E up a ton um a rom a ticum is spoken of as another Christmas Bush in those islands, and known in

Mexico and Guiana as Yerba del Angel . In Europe our E u a torium ca n n a bin um on cord ia Tox ites p was known as C , as relates, so that there may be found some connection between these Agrimonies and the Angels ’ Song of peace to men of goodwill . We have thought it well to record these examples under the division of Christmas flowering plants, since they appear to have become marked in the abundant flora of this season in equatorial regions from a similar idea to those which we mention here or elsewhere .

fithe B uszz gjyatp (R osm a rin us From its use on Christmas Eve and among the Christmas decorative flora of former days we should have to speak of this aromatic shrub , and we ought to include it perhaps among those plants that flower at the Nativity ; for although with

. in us it does not usually blossom before Lady Day, yet the n southern parts of Europe, where it is i digenous, it is no doubt earlier ; and it may be true, as Henry Kirke White ‘ ’ apostrophises, that there it loves to bloom on January s 102

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY With the Mother and her Holy Child it has thus been allied in affectionate devotion through long ages ; and on the Vigil of Mary, as Christmas Eve was called, every home was wont to be fumigated with the fragrant incense of its burning wood . In Spain still, on the Noche buena, as the posada procession wends its way through the corridors and rooms, each person lights at his taper a sprig of the ' E ce zer h n m , as the French call it, for it bears wit it a promise of good fortune and happiness for the coming ’ year . Even as late as 1790, as we read in the Gentleman s

’ 0 1x . Magazine for that year (vol . . p it was the custom in Ripon Cathedral for the chorister boys to bring to the church baskets of apples stuck with a sprig of Rose - Mary, and present one to each of the congregation as a token of goodwill and memorial of the Mo th er a n d Son ; for the apple was the invariable emblem in th e hand of our Lord

as the Second Adam, bringing life to the world through the ’ h obedience to God s will of t e second Eve . H R I STM A S R O SE S

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

ff th when its leaves wither and fall o , e branching stems curl inwards and form a round ball ; the roots loose their hold upon the desert soil, and the winds r oll the globular mass

' m is t l a ce across the sandy wastes , until coming to a o p created by the winter rains, it is affected by the damp and strangely unfolds, shedding then its seed where it may germinate . This reviving power that it exh ibits led to its being called An a sta ticcz or the Resurrection flower, and any one might ‘ ! well ask, Can these bones live P when looking at the plant in the state with which we are usually acquainted, for nothing can appear more sere and lifeless ; but place the root in moist sand or water, and gradually it will expand and sh ow the truth of th e simile that mediaeval eyes

. R a d er itie tz saw For Mary was the dix e t m s n , the root th e t out of thirsting earth, who, when h e dew of the Holy th h h r Spirit fell upon her, bore e Divine C ild in e breast,

h - u and gave Him forth to a parc ed p earth, and it was this symbolism that made the Jericho Rose connected with the r Christmas night. Few pilgrims returned f om the Holy

Land without bringing one from thence, even from

Bethlehem itself, and they do so still , for they are attractive h h as curiosities to ordinary visitors, althoug the c erished tradition is frequently unknown . They liked in old days to have them upon their altars at the Midnight Mass , and within their homes, not for the indulgence of the eye, but as a venerable simile that came to them straight from that

Eastern land which gave the Saviour birth, and about whose deserts and mountains Mother and Son had roamed : ‘ together . An old seventeenth century physician says In some churches this Rose of Jericho is piously plunged in tepid water upon the Holy Night of the Nativity of the Lord Christ (I fear not with out superstition) about mid night (a t which hour Christ the Lord was born) as an ’ ‘ emblem of the virginal birth (W. Du Val, Hist . mono ’ gramma, Paris But there need be no superstitious 1 08 CHRISTMAS ROSES

feeling with regard to it, any more than with any other natural type ; and it would not be an inappropriate one to th r be placed again upon e altar for the priest, o upon th e the household shrine for family, to feed their minds h with pious thoug t . Th is domestic use of the Jericho Rose is followed to this day in some quiet h omes ; for

’ ‘ ’ we read in L e o n h a rd i s V ie rte lja hrs ch rift an account of a ceremony th at takes place annually at Poschiavo at the foot of the Bernina Pass, and wh ich th ey call The Vigil ’ . th of the Christmas Rose After the service in e church , the villagers adjourn to one of the houses in the town, where the h ousewife places candles upon a table with a Rose of h Jericho in a bowl of water between t em . Th e company stand round watching the expanding fibres ; and wh en th e h last has uncurled itself, the head of the ouse announces, ‘ The Christmas Rose h a s opened ; immediately all th e bells ‘ e ! ’ are rung, the shout of No l l Noel is raised, a hymn or song of joy is sung in chorus, and all disperse into the h h crisp nig t air singing carols on t eir way home . Th ere were many traditions that became connected

‘ ’ through the long ages with this Rose of the Holy Night ; it was said to have Sprung up wherever the Holy Family rested in their Flight into Egypt ; and quite certainly it would be found by the poor fugitives across the desert sands . b lo ss om e d th e ’ Some told how it first t at Saviour s Birth , closed at the Crucifixion, and revived again at Easter, while th e others would relate how it opened at all feasts of Mary . It was deemed to be welcome to all women in their h our of h h travail, as fixing their t oughts on the Bethle em scene, and even by Moslem and most Eastern peoples it is spoken ’ of as Kaf M iria m or Mary s hand ; for it is placed by th e bedside of the matron with the belief that when it has fully expanded, she will remember no more her anguish for joy i that a man is born nto the world . The An a sta tica fiierocum‘ica is universally known as the 109 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

Rose of Jericho ; in Germany and Switzerland we hear it spoken of as the Weih n a chtsb l u m e and Ma rien ro se ; in Italy as Rose de la Madona ; in Boh emia as Ruze Panny Marie ; and in France as Rose de Marie . But notwithstanding w h o this, there are some question if it be the true flower referred to as the Rose of Jericho , since it cannot be said to be possessed of any beauty in appearance, and this from its alliance with the Blessed Virgin they say might be expected to exist . It is stated, moreover, that the plant is not to be found at Jericho , but it may be mentioned that neither are the trees which once led to that city being named the ‘City of ’ Palms . It is certainly abundant in other parts of Syria and

Arabia ; and even if it do not satisfy the eye by its beauty, yet this was little regarded when compared with the simile it bore in its hygrometric sensitiveness . It is certainly this plant that is held still in the esteem of all Oriental peoples, and about it and no other are entwined all the traditions th at in mediaeval time were prevalent concerning the Rose h of Jericho . MM. Saulcy and Mic on consider a plant

Asteriscus a ua ticus . known botanically as the q (Moench var.

Pygmaeus DC .) to be more truly so called, since it pos th sesses e hygrometric qualities even more remarkably, and under the influence of moisture its fibres immediately ‘ disentangle and stand up . In their work, Voyage autour de la ’ th Mer Morte, they say they found elatter abundant in the plain of Jericho ; moreover, they discovered upon looking at the h armorial bearings of families reaching to t e Crusades , that it was the Asteriscus and never the An a sta tim that was employed . But notwithstanding the opinion of these worthy people , we do not think that there can be any hesitancy in favour of the An a sta tica , the continuity of its name and use up to the present day is too solid a fact to allow of doubt ; heraldic botany is entirely uncertain, and the two plants have not sufficient divergency in form for us to rely upon this argument ; finally, the instantaneous 110

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY many for the Hibiscus or Rose Mallow of the tropics (Hibiscus R osa Sin em is); but perhaps more for its poetical beauty than as a devotional memorial . The Rose of Jericho h a s th us evidently been a very favourite designation for various kinds of herbs, but the true one is more curious than decorative, a venerable symbol or type rather than a beautiful one . In the Helle bores (Helleb orus n iger) we have Christmas Roses not only lovely to the eye but appropriated to the season by very delightful association . All are acquainted with the waxy

- white or delicate, blush tinted flower that braves the rigours of winter to welcome Christmas, while its leaves, with

h - their vigorous growt and their pale green mottled stems, bring verdure and gladness to the solitary places of earth . Throughout northern Europe this plant is known as th e N ] ’ Holy Night Rose, Rose of 06 , or Christ s Flower or

Bloom, and the origin of the names is worth the telling.

- In the old mystery plays of the Nativity a maiden, named

Madelon, was represented as coming with the shepherds to Bethlehem to see the great thing that had come to pass, and of which the angels had told them . She was very ’ poor, and her woman s heart was so moved by the penury of the manger scene that she burst into tears at h avin g noth ing to offer to comfort the Blessed Moth er and show her sympathy a n d love for the little Child . The shepherds played a lullaby upon their rustic pipes, and perchance brought a fleece to warm the cave that made the bed of ff Mary, but Madelon had nought to o er but her prayers and wh o tears . God seeing her, sent Gabriel to her said , ‘ ? ’ Madelon, what makes you weep while you pray And ‘ ff she answered, My Lord, because I have nothing to o er to the Infant Jesus ; even if I had but some flowers to give

Him I should be happy, but it is winter, and the frost is in the ground and spring is far away ; good angel, I am ’ n most distraught . Then the Herald of the Annunciatio 112 CHRISTMAS ROSES took her by the hand and led her forth into the dark

night, but as they went the cold seemed gone, and a golden h light to envelop them, and they came to places t at Madelon

knew not of. Gabriel paused and touched the rigid earth

with his staff, and 10 ! on every side sprang up these pure h blossoms of t e Holy Night Rose, and running from his side the shepherd maiden filled her arms with their flowers

to deck the cave upon the first Christmas Day . Hence it ’ ’ i i s is that in some painters works, as in Filippino L pp

picture of the Holy Family in our National Gallery, they

N l th - introdu ce a vase of o é Roses, and in e mystery plays Madelon is usually represented as offering a garland of

these flowers or wreathing them about the neck of a lamb . h Bl m n t A modern Frenc poet, Emile é o , has very charmingly

told the story, whose moral was

h u h th u a rt r a n d h t n o to r n T o g o poo as gold b i g ,

h u h ice- u n e rth n o H e en - en t fl er e t T o g bo d a av s ow s b s ows, Yet give thy h e art th is No él to thy Kin g . ’ This is th e Leg en d of th e Christmas Rose . But beside the beautiful Hellebores there are other flowers wh ich claim a place upon the Holy Night in our th homes and churches . In Spain e magnificently coloured Poinsettia is known as the Flor de Noch e buena as well

as Flor de Pascua, for its flaming star is one of the most beautiful emblems of th at of Bethlehem th at this season

ff . a ords It is now a familiar sight in our greenhouses, but in more southern Europe it is to be seen growing in the open air with its fiery burst of crimson gazin g upon the midnight sky . Its popular introduction into England of recent years makes it easy for us to add the Poinsettia to our Christmas flora as one of the most striking of the ’ season s dedicated flowers . In Sicily we read of a lovely blue Gigghiu di Natale that comes at this season of th e year with delicate colour ing and a fragrance that makes it especially welcome ; H 113 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY r while in northe n Italy, at least among the Friulani, they ‘ ’ call either the same or another plant Rose di Nole . We u nderstand that one is probably a Gladiolus and the other an Iris , but have been unable at present to identify them . It is worth remarking that th e garden varieties of our common Corn- fla g (Gla d iolus comm un is) have the name of ‘ ’ ’ Jacob s Ladder in th e old - fashioned nomenclature of the counties of Devon, Gloucester, and Suffolk, and that this was a constantly used mediae val type of the

Incarnation . There is still another Christmas rose for us to mention before we have exhausted our list, and that is not only true in its flowering at this season of the year, but it also ' fulfils the prophecy as to earth s welcome to the Saviour. The winter Aconite (E ra a tliis lzyem a lis) is to the French N l ‘ ' still the Rose de o é , as it was our Christmas flow er ‘ ’ in the days when Coles wrote his Art of Simpling . Its yellow flowers, surrounded with a whorl of shining green th foliage , love the wilderness and desert places in e garden,

- covering waste spots with their much divided leaves, and lifting a golden blossom to the Christmas sun . Nor should we omit to mention the Rose of Ma ria s tern in Alsatia, that h is said to flower upon the feast of t e Nativity, but of whose S pecies and exactitude of blossoming we have been

unable to obtain reliable information .

TYPES OF THE INCARNATION

Tm : thought of Ch ristendom was united at the Nativity in contemplating the Humanity of the God and the Immaculate ’ Virginity of the Mother . The object of the festival s teaching was the bringing home to man ’ s mind the infinite wonder and humility of the God clothing Himself with human flesh, and next, that if it had not been for the consent of Mary and her correspondence to the Divine‘

Will, the Incarnation could not have taken place . Hence it is that in art and liturgy, carol and custom, the Mother and Son are continually together ; but the part taken by ’ each in the work of man s Redemption is entirely distinct, and their relative positions are never confounded . It is

‘ r th e R t b ut Ch r t th e t n e Ma y oo , is Mys ic Vi ,

ry th e Gr e, b ut Ch r t th e S re n e Ma ap is ac d Wi , r th e C orn sh ea f Ch r t th e n B re d Ma y , is Livi g a , ’ r th e R e - tr e Ch r t th e e - Ma y os e , is Ros blood red .

The “ great 0 Antiphons ’ that precede the festival all th 23r refer to Our Blessed Lord and end upon e d , but there 24th was one once employed upon the , the Vigil of Mary, h as it was named in some places, w ich is very beautifully eloquent of the wonder of the Virgin Mother and of her ‘ submission to what was the Will of God . 0 Virgin of ’ ‘ ? Virgins, it sang, how shall this thing be For neither before thee was there any like unto thee, nor shall there ' ‘ be hereafter ; and the Virgin answers, Daughters of ? Jerusalem, why marvel ye at me The thing that ye ’ behold is a Divine Mystery . THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY There were several types of the Incarnation which were so prominently employed in the divine offices from the earliest times, that we should be surprised to find them absent in the sacred flora of the Christmas season .

dtbe fittee of sleazeormen of zlaeob . The prophecy of the dying Jacob which had sustained the hope through the long ages of a coming of a Messias, was that the sceptre and legislative power should not be utterly taken away from the house of Judah until about the time when One who was also the Expectation of the Gentiles should 10 appear (Gen . xlix . , Micah v . Again and again in the ‘ Advent offices the promise is re - echoed E rit radix Jesse r t B et Qui ex u ge regere gentes, in um gentes sp erab un t or ‘Egred ietu r Virga de radice Jesse et Flos de radice ’ n t t r u i t B u ejus a s ce d e ; e eq esce super m Spiritus Domini . The wail of one of the great 0 Antiphons continues the ‘ ul orum cry, 0 Radix Jesse Qui stas in signum p op veni lib era n d u m nos, j am noli tardare and finally at the Nativity the announcement is heard : Germ in a vit Radix ’ e erit S a lva to rem . Jesse, orta est stella ex Jacob, Virgo p p

In the similarity between the words Virga, a Rod, and

Virgo, the Virgin, the early symbolic writers found a fruitful source of speculation . A Bishop of Chartres in 1007 composed the introit for Mary ’ s birthday which shews how they loved to play with the words

Vir a m ro d uxit Vir o u e re Stirps Jesse g p , g q Flo m ie it S r tu u Et su p er h u n c Florem requ sc pi i s alm s ,

r r est u e u s . Virgo D ei gen it ix, Vi ga ; Flos, Fili s j "

It was but the versifying of the text q uoted above, taken from the prophecy of Isaias, and used in the Little

Office of the Blessed Virgin in Advent and elsewhere . It was from this simile that the luxuriantly designed

Jesse- trees arose with which most of us must be familiar a in every form of work of medi eval times, whether 118

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

’ super Bu m Spiritus Domini ) the double- headed Eagle or th the Dove , or else there stands e Mother with her

Divine Son . We find the name of Vara di Jese or Rod of Jesse given

‘ in Spain to the Tuberose (P olia mlzes tuberosa ) whose long bare rod rises several feet from the ground and at its summit is thickly studded with the flowers of this deliciously scented dweller in the South ; and the same land carried the name to the Ph ilippine Islands and gave D t it to the ra ca eiza ermin a lis of a S imilar kind of growth, a plant which has become a graceful addition to our own conservatories and winter gardens . The Spaniard has H o l h o ck Alca ea rosea also called the y ( ) Varitas de David, its flowering stem suggesting the stages of a soaring genealogical tree, and the French name for the same, of

Baton de Jacob and probably our own Holly or Holy- hocke may have originated in a similar connection . Those plants which now simply bear the name of Rod or Staff of Jacob

f - had possibly the same re erence as the Jesse tree, for as i 31 the Douai translation explains in its notes to Gen . x lv j. , 21 ’ and Hebr . xi . , the patriarch s homage to the top of his f f staff was an act of aith in the coming Messias, the sta f

being the patriarchal sceptre whose flower was Christ,

the end and completion of the house of Jacob . It is likely that it is this that led men to name the climbing flow e r stalk of Yellow Asphodel in England and Ireland Jacob ’ s n Rod or Staff, just as in France it remai s Le Baton or La ’ Verge de Jacob . Many a Campanula is not only Jacob s ’ P er Rod but also Mary s Bell, and the species known as sicifolia is the Baton de Jacob in France and the Rosa i E ri eron m yst ca of Verona and northern Italy . The small g l i s fiffil i A p mc in Iceland called Ja kob s is a sim lar example, while in Cumberland the Great Mullein or Verb a scum is as well known as Jacob ’ s Staff as elsewhere it is Mary’ s

Taper. 120 TYPES OF THE INCARNATION

But we believe that it is in the Mistletoe (Viscum a lb um) that this type of the ‘ Virga de radice Jesse was illustrated

, by our Christian forefathers in northern lands, and that it is to this that we may attribute its prominence amid the

- Yule tyde greenery . It is the custom of late years to exclude the Mistletoe from ch urch decorations probably for reasons of propriety, and to retain it in the homes of ae the people, but it certainly was not the habit of medi val days to h ave in the one what was discountenanced in the other ; th e home was but the reflex of the church ; th e th e habit of life, the customs and domestic rites of one were the expression of the dogmas and ritual of th e h other, and you could not be pagan in one and C ristian

v in th e other with any sin ce rity to the time . The old h Druid reverence for the Mistletoe would strengt en , not lessen the interest with which Christians regarded it wh en once they perceived in the weird parasite an emblem h h of one of their own dogmas, for they would feel t at ot er forms of faith had also recognised someth ing uncommon

and remarkable in it, and they would find in th at very fact a foreshadowing of the strivings of th eir pagan ancestors th rough natural “ religion to attain to truths h w ich to them were assured by revelation ; moreover, as

far as our imperfect knowledge will allow us to j udge, this Druid reverence for the Mistletoe bough was prompted by the same mystery which led to its Christian in terp re t ti n e a o and may have even suggest d its application . If investigation were made it would probably be found that th e exclusion of the Mistletoe from the church has no ‘ authority in ancient practice . A writer in th e Folklore 189 6 j ournal (for December, ) remarks that in N . Stafford ‘ S hire, and in th e Black Country it was formerly used to ’ ‘ decorate churches . Mr. Lawley, he adds, quotes entries of payments for Mistletoe for this purpose from Ch urch wardens ’ Accounts at Bilston in 1672 and Darlaston in 121 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

1 We might also add that Gay in his Trivia ( 1 . 437) bids us ‘Now th r ht H th e te e tr wi b ig olly all mpl s s ow , ’ th u re re en a n d re t et e Wi La l g sac d Mis l o , thus testifying th at in his day its banishment was not h needful, and per aps if we regarded it with something of the meaning with which we think it was invested by

Christian eyes, we should feel that it was well worthy of our retention . The Mistletoe furnished a singularly striking and arrestive emblem of the doctrine of the Incarnation . The Saturday office of th e Blessed Virgin thoughout the h year, as well as the teac ing of the Nativity itself, vividly impressed upon the minds of the faith ful the mystery of God springing from a human source, perfect God and perfect man . In the Mistletoe which Nature gave them to become most verdant in winter they beheld a rod ’ S pringing from Jesse s stem, an ordinary tree having upon it an offshoot different and unlike any other it produced ; a golden bough distinct and peculiar to every thing th e old stock had even seen or known before ; an innovation, it seemed, of natural law, for though taking

fibre and substance from the womb of the parent tree, ff it possessed a nature and essence quite di erent, and an origin apart from the wood upon which it grew . No one wandering through the woods in winter when all the trees are leafless, and seeing a branch of fresh

Mistletoe shooting forth from some lichen- covered trunk, could fail to recognise the beautiful emblem it was of th e Rod of Jesse arising in vigour amid a world of death from a source which looked like unto its fellows . The words of the Church ’ s offices seem to be extraordinarily —‘ exemplified in this emblem, such as Mirabile mysterium d ecla ra tur hodie : in n ova n tur naturae, Deus homo factus it et est : id quod fuit p erm a n s quod non erat assumpsit, 122

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

’ This use of the shrub in St . Valentine s sickness will explain how that saint in France is often Spoken of as

St . Gui or St . Mistletoe ; but it is not from this connec tion that it has obtained the association most popularly now united to its presence . It is exceedingly probable that the custom of saluting beneath the Mistletoe had its origin in the practice of giving the Pax universally

at this the great feast of Reconciliation of God to man . This salutation has now for many centuries been restricted in the West to the clergy or ecclesiastical bodies, but formerly, as in Russia still, it was the habit at the Ch ristmas Mass for the congregation to salute each other ‘ ’ - with such words as Christ is born to day, and after bowing to kiss each other on th e cheek or place th eir lips on the little metal tablet known as a Pax wh ich was passed from one to another . In many old pictures, such as that of the Nativity by Botticelli in our National

Gallery, the angels with olive boughs are represented as saluting the shepherds as typical of the peace sent from im Heaven to men of goodwill, and it is not at all probable that in the merrie England of former time the interchange of a salute and taking a berry from the

Mistletoe - type of the Incarnate Prince of Peace was a

- pretty token of good feeling at this season . Stukeley, in ‘ ’ i h is Medallic History of C a ra u siu s ( j. speaks of a custom that existed ‘ lately at York ’ and ‘ still preserved ’ h ‘ in the North , of carrying a boug of Mistletoe to the ’ high altar of the cathedral, and proclaiming towards the four quarters of th e earth a general freedom and liberty . We cannot learn anything furth er than this concerning th e custom now apparently forgotten, but it reads very ’ like what may be seen upon New Year s Eve at : Notre

Dame in Paris, when the archbishop, on behalf of himself and the clergy of his diocese, pronounces solemnly from ‘ ’ the high altar the Amende honorable, in fulfilment of 124 TYPES OF THE INCARNATION

‘ h om in ib u s the angelic salutation, In terra pax bonae ’ volu n ta tis . The legend connecting the Mistletoe with the Tree of the Cross we shall have to consider in a future volume, when we speak of the Flora of the Passion, and need not now stay to relate, since we have here but to regard its presence in the Nativity flora as a parable of the dogma of the Incarnation . We would venture to suggest that in what we know as

- the Ch ristmas tree, we have also another very beautiful

- h illustration of the Jesse tree, for in every complete tree t ere h h is upon the summit the Mother and Son, w ile the lig ts upon its ascending branches were like those in th e brazen th e h h Jesse candelabrum of churc es and ouses, to represent th the prominent persons in e human ancestry of our Lord .

We cannot but recognise, in the great popularity of the custom of having these trees at the Ch ristmas festival more especially in Austria and Germany, lands where the genealogical emblem of the Tree of Jesse was employed in every form of decorative art with a richness of h eraldic imagery and beauty of invention unknown elsewhere, that we have the same idea brough t into the homely life of the people, and adapted to domestic decoration . The custom, as far as we can learn, is connected in Germany with the early M t r apostolic labours of St . a e n u s in th at country ; investiga tion is almost sure to prove its religious symbolism , as in the case of most ancient rites . Human nature has so often found the same methods of expressing th e mysteries of faith s that differ in themselves, that men seize upon the coincidence as if it proved identity of meaning . We are often told that ‘ the Christmas- tree customis but the Assyrian Tree of the h ’ great Lig t, or some Aryan equivalent ; others will be equally sure that it is a continuation of the Scandinavian

Yggdrasil ; but even if it were these, it is not with their d meaning that it has been a opted by Christian peoples, any 125 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY more than a pagan temple when used as a church was to

continue the same worship . It is said that before the

Hanoverian house came to the English throne, the pretty custom was apparently unknown in this land of having

- t this lighted Pine top, but ye there are indications of some

thing similar having existed . In the north - east Riding of

Yorkshire, and also about Leeds, places where the songs of Wassail are still sung (although the word has been cor ru ted p into Vessel, Wessel, or even Wesley children

bear about a kind of portable Christmas - tree hung with ‘ ’ - oranges and apples, which they call their Wessel bob .

Within a bower among its branches is placed a doll, no doubt

formerly that of the Madonna and Child . In other parts of Yorkshire the same is to be met with amid the con s r tiv e va e republic of childhood . There was a very ancient custom also of drawing upon a trolley through the streets

of Brough, a tree illuminated with rush torches upon Old

Christmas Eve (Jan . and accompanying it with music .

- It was known as the Hollins or Holly tree procession, but

has probably now fallen into abeyance . In Monmouthshire we learn there is the practice remaining of carrying about

a similar tree to that in Yorkshire, but it is of Yew instead

of Pine . We read of a Christmas pageant given before vui Henry and recorded by Hall the historian, where upon

‘

a mound was a tree of . golde, the braunches and bowes s re d n e frys ed with golde, p y g on every side over the ’ n P o m e a rn ettes . m o un ta y e, with Roses and g These are some signs of a Christmas - tree having once had a place in ’ the season s ritual in England, and probably others might revivified be found . It was, if not introduced, at least and

accentuated by the German house coming to the thron e, just as the same nationality has restored Santa Klaus both here 1789 ‘ and in the United States . In we read in Mrs . ’ ’ i 1 58 ‘ P a p en d ick s Journals ( j. ) that this Christmas Mr. P a p e n d ick proposed an illuminated tree according to th e 126

THE FLORA OF THE SACRE D NATIVITY

’ its branches of grace and salvation is n ot unc ommon in e sermons of the twelfth c ntury (Peter of Blois, Archdeacon of London) .

Bright with candles the Christmas - tree makes one of the most delightfully festive additions to the domestic expres sions of rej oicing at the Nativity, for it seems to proclaim the creed that in the stable of David ’ s city was born of her ‘ ’ who was the Virga de Radice Jesse, the Christ who was ’ Lumen de Lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero .

’ matoh s iLan Der or %eala Qtoeli. The Incarnation being the union of Heaven to earth, of God to man, it was ’ symbolised by the Ladder of the patriarch Jacob s vision, and since Mary was th e means by which this union took th e place, this type of Scala Coeli became one of her titles .

In many parts of Europe it was a tradition, and is still in h ’ Poland, t at at the moment that marks the Saviour s birth ’ the high heavens open , and the scene of Jacob s vision is once again repeated of angels descending to earth . Many a folklore tale exists of heavenly visitants coming to m a n under the guise of the wayfarer at the Christmas season, and no petitioner was ever turned away from the door unrelieved by an alms, lest it might perchance be some divine person in reality . Although there is no flower employed at Christmas which bears the name of this type of the Incarnation, still there are two or three that come later in the year by which they recalled this title . That most generally known in northern Europe is the useful common border- plant called olem on ium coeruleum Greek Valerian (P , ), the Himmels or

Jakobs - leiter of Germany ; the Echelle de Jacob of France ;

Ja ko b s steige or - stige of Sweden and Denmark . It has the b same names with us in England, and also that of Her

Charity, the first of the virtues mentioned by St . Paul

- w a s v . 12 (Gal . ) in his Ladder of human Perfection, which 128 TYPES OF THE INCARNATION

often frescoed upon our church walls . The Polemonium has a stem th at rises eighteen or twenty inches h igh with foliage branching from either side of it in regularly succes sive stages , and mounting upwards to a spike of purplish blue or wh ite flowers ; and although it seems to be better h known as Greek Valerian, it has no kind of affinity wit that family of herbs . The old botanical title of Scala Coeli is also borne by ’ ol on a tum m ultz orum the Solomon s Seal (P yg fi ), which in Berk ’ S sh ire is still spoken o f as Jacob s Ladder, and ince each pair of leaflets is accompan ied by the interesting flower of th is beautiful h erb , it made a very pretty parable of the th progressive stages in th e life of virtue . In France e ' Persicaria (Polyg on um orien ta le) h a s th e name of La Montee h th ’ a u Ciel, and in S ropshire e Jacob s Ladder is the Greater Cb elid ouium m a us e h Celandine ( j ), whil in Devons ire the spire th e D el hin ium of Larkspur is so known ( p ), but perhaps th eir enumeration is sufficient to S how at least that the title was once a familiar one .

' dtbe l Butmn g It was a favourite practice of th e graphic artists of medie val time to oppose type and h antitype for the consideration of the faith ful . In suc ‘ ’ works as the Biblia P a up eru m we see the Old Testament type of Moses before the fiery thorn on Sinai correspondin g to the New Testament antitype of the Holy Babe in the cradle at Bethlehem, or in th e ancient glass left in Canter ’ h ‘ ’ bury s Cathedral Churc , Moses cum Rubo has its com ‘ ’ plement in Angelus cum Maria, while beneath is the ‘ n ejaculation Rubus non co su m itur, tua nec com b u ritu r in ’ carne virginitas . This was one of the most prominent types of the immaculate purity of the Virgin Mother at the Incarnation and Birth of her Lord and Son, and would belong more strictly perchance to h er flora if it were not so inseparably I 129 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY connected with the offices and the greenery employed at the Feast of the Nativity . In the former we have one of ‘ 0 the great Antiphons in the novena, beginning O t M Adonai, e Dux domus Israel, Qui oysi in igne fla m m a e ’

r i ti . Rubi a pp a u s , etc , to which at the octave th e fulfilment ‘R u b u m vid r t M in is given, quem e a oyse s com b ustum con s erva ta m a gn ovim u s tuam l a u d ib ilem virgin ita te m sancta ’ th Dei genitrix . For Mary was e Bush on fire with the Holy

Spirit, that concealed the Deity and gave Him human shape ’ and substance and yet remained a Virgin . One of Chaucer s ‘ ’ ’ addresses to her is that invocation in the Prioress s Tale, beginning 0 Moth er Maid ! 0 Maid a n d Moth er free ! ’ ’ 0 Bu sh u n bu rn t bu rn in g in Mos es S ight !

’ or as he says in the A . B . C .

‘ e th t u h th e B u h th fla u m es r e e Mois s , a sa g s wi d B ren n in e h h th er n e er stikke ren e g , of w ic v a b d , Was S ig n e of th yn u n wemmed m a id e n h ed e . Th ou a rt th e bu sh o n wh ich th er g a n de sc en de Th e H G t th e h h th t e en e oly os , w ic a Mois s w d

H a d b n - in fi ure e a fyr ; a n d th is was a g . N ow r th e f r th u u s e en e Lady, f om y o d f d ’ Which th at in h e lle etern ally sh al dure .

It was once a favourite device for ecclesiastical artists, h both in the East and West, to depict or carve the Mot er

and Son enthroned in a tree of flame, and few motives could be so full of inspiration for both the designer and

h - beholder, yet, like the ric tracery of the Jesse tree, we seldom or never see it employed in modern work ; both

contain quite unlimited scope for decorative purposes, l whether in stone, glass, or embroidery, and seem comp e ments of each other in their dogmatic teaching ; wh ile the trees and herbs that have been associated with them in

Nature are also highly capable of artistic treatment .

The especial tree which we, in these northern latitudes, have chosen as our type of the Burning Bush is the Holly flex a ui olium or Holy tree ( q f ), one which we have pre 1 30

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

In France it is known as Epine de Christ ; in Germany as Christdorn, and in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark as the same ; but there are some other names which exist for it in France that need explanation . It is very widely known as Le grand Pardon, and in Provence as Garrus de la Santo : Baumo the latter title refers, we suppose, to its growing at the famous convent of the Holy Cave of St . Mary Magdalene between Toulon and Marseilles, but whether the former be connected with this place of pilgrimage or the Christmas festival we cannot be sure .

If the Holly- tree emblem of the Burning Bush recalled ’ h to men s minds t e Maiden Mother, the sharp crisping of its leaves also told them of th e spiny crown that awaited ’ Nem n ich his that Mother s Son, and hence we find in, ‘ ’ ‘ Nomenclator speaking of it as Christdorn, etc ., soll sie H i n d s heissen, weil die Dornenkrone des e la e daraus bes r tanden haben soll auch hat man sie fii den Dornbusch, h h ’ aus welchem Gott mit Moses sprac , alten wollen . In parts of Denmark also we learn that it is known as Kristi — “ - tvo n Krii n or Kron torn , and probably to them the red berries were the beads of Blood that came from the Saviour’ s brow . ’ The Wild Myrtle, Box Holly, or Butcher s Broom , as the

R uscus a culea tus is variously styled, is as popular in use at the Nativity in southern Europe as the flex a quifolium is with us . It is one of the s hrubs always to be seen em ployed in Spain and Italy, and to be found near the

Christmas cribs or pietas of every household . It grows abundantly in our copses and hedgerows in England, and, R uscus ra cemosus together with other varieties, such as the or Alexandrian Laurel, should be more cultivated in our gardens to furnish us with winter greenery of a beautiful as well as of an interesting character . Its bright scarlet berries make it attractive ; but it also possesses the singular property of giving of an inflammable gas which is said to 132 TYPES OF THE INCARNATION

be ignitable under certain conditions of the atmosphere, and th is made it a very remarkable representative of the

Burning Bush . In Provencal France it is especially known ’ n ‘ as C a le d a u or Christmas, just in the same way as our

Holly is in England, while in the Balearic Isles its fruit is i r t spoken of as C ce e a s del Bon Pastor, which may have ’ some reference to our Lord s title or to th e Bethlehem shepherds . These trees are often to be found in Lancashire

and north country cottage gardens, where they are called ‘ h ’ Jerusalem T orns, and have usually connected with them there the story of the Glastonbury Thorn, being said to ’ h flower upon the night of the Saviour s birt .

A favourite old plant, once to be found in most old garden plots where soil was light and dry, was the Wild Dittany or D icta m n us h Fraxinella ( ), w ich is still known to our peasantry th as the Burning Bush . It is a native of e Taurus and

Caucasus, but seems to have been introduced into England for a considerable length of time, and is certainly deserving of a place in every flower enclosure . Its erect stems form pleasant masses of foliage, rising about two feet, and its racemes of purplish or white flowers appear about mid summer. When these dense tufts o f blossom h ave faded th e seed - vessels are found to be eminently aromatic and h h resinous, and the w ole plant exhales an aet eric vapour, so powerful that if a candle be brought near to it the air around will burst into flame of greater or less intensity, h f and t us a ford a remarkable illustration of its name . At the convent upon Mount Sinai and in the East generally, the species of Acacia known as th e z ica cia seize/z h is identified with the real Bus of Fire, and it is curious to mark how the traditions of the East connected with th e Acacias have in the West become allied to the Haw h t orns . In this instance we find in France that the Pink ’ Hawthorn (Cra ta egus pyra ca utlza ) is known as L A rb re i’ de Mo se or Buisson ardent, and in Cheshire as the 133 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

Egyptian Thorn ; and its thickly powdered head of the exquisite pink blossom renders the name singularly m appropriate . For the sa e reason we find the title of Buisson ardent conveyed to the Mauritius where the rosy flow ered I xora h is so known, and probably many ot er

modern examples might be found . Mateo de Cerezo painted a picture for the Franciscan

Friars of Valladolid, in which he placed the Blessed

Virgin seated in a cherry- tree : it may have been as a

play upon his own name, and to indicate the place he

desired his patroness to occupy in his heart, but there is a species of Cherry (Cera sus pyra ca utfia ) known as the t ‘ n in s Burning Bush, and perhaps the artist united b o h m ea g

in one . Certainly, if those who employ the device will

place her figure in clustered Holly, pink Hawthorn, or

wild Myrtle, they will not o nly have excellent subjects

upon which to exercise their skill, but also prove in

unity with the historic flora of christened folk .

6 1112011 3 jFlBECB. There are very many similes to be found illustrating from botany the doctrine of the Virgin ’ motherhood of Mary, such as that of Aaron s Rod or the

Mystical Almond, but since these belong more particularly

to the flora relating to the Blessed Virgin, we have trans ’ ferred them there . This one of Gideon s Fleece we retain

since it occurs in the offices for the Nativity season ; for, like the voices of sentinels giving the watchword around d the ramparts of the Church of Go , so do the antiphons sound the keynote of the Christmas thoughts that should

possess our minds . ‘ ’ Rorate coeli d esup er et nubes pl ua n t Justum had

commenced the Advent cries, and upon the eve of the ‘ rietu r sicut Nativity the prophecy is heard, O Sol Salvator Mundi et d escen d et in u terum Virginis sicut imber super ’ ‘ gramen . Again upon the octave is sung Quando natus 134

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY Of this profound mystery in one of the humble plants

- D rosera of their moorlands, viz . the Sun dew or , all of whose hardy species, save one, are natives of Britain . Few plants present a more lovely type of Christian

h . doctrine, or are more interesting in t emselves Upon h the ottest feast of the Assumption, when all the herbage around is dry and panting and no rain or dew has t e th e freshed earth, the Drosera may be seen sparkling with clear, viscid globules that ornament the margin and surface of its leaves so that it forms a striking memorial of the Scripture analogy . Its star of red and green lies

flat upon the ground, its green foliage being covered with dense glandular hairs or bristles in which a red speck is noticeable, and upon their tip is a dewlike bead ‘ ’ of moisture . It is still called Gideon in various parts

‘ ’ ’ of Germany, or Heaven s Dew in Denmark, and in this latter country they have the pretty saying that the little ’ fleece is wet with Mary s tears, hence both there and in ’ i n ta a re Scandinavia we find for it the name of Mariae o o , or the dialectic equivalent . The redness in the downy surface suggested the title we sometimes meet with in th e Fatherland liit h of Jungfern b h e, w ile the shape of its leaves has induced

the children to call them Unseres Herrn Gottes Ld ffel . It is characteristic of th e art of the thirteenth and four teen th centuries to be marked by exquisite taste and poetic

feeling, and we do certainly think that some of these parables of Christian doctrine from th eir waysides and moorlands

are singularly redolent of the faith, poetry, and refinement of those ages ; and perhaps few of th ese dedications can

surpass that of the Drosera or Ros Solis .

An old fi fte e n th - century carol upon the Incarnation sings in its quaint way as follows :

‘ t He came all so s ill , Th ere His Moth er was As Dew in April Th at falleth on th e g rass . TYPES OF THE INCARNATION

‘He came all so still ' th er B er To His Mo s ow , As Dew in April h e r Th at falleth o n t flowe .

‘ e e t H cam all so s ill, Th ere His Moth er lay As Dew in April h r Th at falleth o n t e sp ay.

‘Mother a n d Maiden e b u t h e Was n ever n on s , We ll may su ch a Lad y ' ’ G od s Moth er b e .

’ f ilillfi an te p strem. Before we pass away from these types and parables from Nature of our Lord’ s Humanity we ought to mention that it is not improbable that those plants which bear the above title of Son- before the- Father became allied in Christian thought with the

. position of St . Joseph in relation , to our Blessed Lord Th us we find the Coltsfoot (Tussilago fa ifa ra ct fragra n s) th P a trem known in England, Italy, etc . , as e Filius ante , Hi and also in Walloon ep p e di Sain Joseph, or as Marie

licko in Bohemia. Its flowers appear on a short stem

before the leaf is out, contrary to the usual evolution

of the organs of herbaceous plants . There are also several species of Autumnal Crocus wh ich have been called Filius tr m rocus uud orus medius ante P a e (such as the C ifl , , and r s irid i/Io u ) from their flowering about September or October, h but only producing t eir leaves in the following spring.

- h The seed vessel, whic has remained underground since

the preceding autumn, then appears, and, growing with

the leaves, ripens in June . Thus the seed comes before the

parent flower ; and what appears as the flower- stalk is

really only the tube of the corolla, as in the ordinary

spring crocus . The ancients used the name of Son before- the- Father for the Common Cudweed or Guap/za lium

erm . G a n icum, Huds , because the branches bearing the lower 137 and younger he ads o f flower becom e elongated and overtop the older and original terminal heads . This w as made a type of undutiful child re n behaving irreverently to parents .

“ ‘H‘ I m i From this point of view they styled it erba p a ,

‘ ‘ a r n m ’ m ‘ t Quoniam liberi super p e te excellant (Pli , Na . ’ ‘ s o f F P a tr m Hist . xxiv . thi title ilius ante e , although of classic origin, had b u t to Christian eyes,

CRADLE—GRASSES

‘0 praesepe spl en d id u rn in qu o n on solu m ja cu it foen u m a n im a llum s ed ’ u st An el orum Cib u s in ven t s e g .

A VERY pretty custom has grown up S ince the thirteenth century of having in the churches and homes of the people at Christmas - time representations of the Bethlehem crib . Within a grotto or shed the Holy Child lies in a cattle stall ; St . Joseph stands near with a lantern or taper in his hand, indicative of the midnight darkness when the ’ ‘ Light of the World was born ; the Blessed Mother is there too , while an ox and an ass are in the background . The shepherds are represented as drawing near in various

attitudes of respectful wonder, clad in their sheepskin coats ; one perhaps plays upon his pastoral pipe and c orn em u s a another upon his , to soothe the tearful Mother

and cheer the desolate scene, while a third lays a fleece ff as his o ering at the foot of the crib . Their dog, which in Spain they name Melampo, accompanies them, and

- Madelon, the shepherd maid, is presenting a wreath of

Christmas roses . A wren or two doves are also some

times to be seen upon the rafters, as connected with the h Bethlehem grotto, while as t e Epiphany comes round a

lighted star is suspended over the place, and lastly, the

gorgeous group of the Magian sages is added, and treated

with every kind of imagined pomp, beauty, and variety

of detail .

In Italy, Spain, France, and elsewhere these presepi, 141 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

nascimenti, or creches were constructed often with great

magnificence, and prominent artists were employed both for modelling and designing the groups or pain ting the scenery . Political and social disturbances have deprived the Church in Europe of a gre at portion of her ecclesiastical

art treasures, but we may see oftentimes in the museums exquisitely executed examples of these groups, which now are replaced in the churches by French plaster . There are several collections of these figures, designed and carved by celebrated craftsmen, preserved in private galleries in

Naples, and in the museum that now occupies the old Carthusian monastery of San Martino in that city there is ttr a very fine one, which is still a constant object of a a c tion and popular delight among the peasantry . It is said that the manufacture of these stable groups in France is one ’ of the most prosperous of that country s industries, while

Germany is also a powerful competitor in their production . There are signs of a returning desire that these tableaux in the churches at least S hould once again be redeemed from the tawdriness into which most ecclesiastical art has fallen through the loss of the old models , the degradation of modern taste, and the evil search after cheapness ; and in many places well - carved figures and appropriately painted scenery are replacing the plaster, pasteboard, wax, or even z inc that we frequently see employed . Many of these representations had regular endowments left to main tain them, and were rich in j ewels and rare fabrics ; those of the Santissimo Bambino at the Ara Coeli in Rome were most extensive . A century ago there was a special bequest left for the manger in the Church of Jesu Nuovo in Naples, and the scene used to occupy the S pace of two large chapels ; and many others might be enumerated . It is the custom to place a figure of the little Saviour in the straw above the tabernacles in the churches for the priests ’ eyes to rest upon during this season, and it is to this that 142

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

Llw n m a en of y y , two miles from Oswestry, were wont to visit the houses in the town at this season, carrying a little clay

- grotto with a light inside ; about Hucknall Torkard, in ottin h a m sh ire N g , they also had similar customs, and in many other parts of England this practice of having Christmas s crib lingered on . We have collected these together, and hope that others may be induced to note further examples of n this custom , for it is fast becoming extinct, u fortu n a tel y, and has been disregarded by students of folklore generally . In every rural homestead in Derbyshire a ‘ ’ - kissing bunch was hung till recently in the house, formed of two crossed hoops entwined with greenery and

- enshrining two figures, once the Madonna and her Son, and beneath which the Pax was given as beneath the Mistletoe bough . All these seem tokens of English people having been in unison with other lands in having these crib scenes in their homes . About them the members of the household would gather morning and night and recite their family

- prayers, and sing those lullabies and cradle songs over

flowing with affection and homely allusions . The opening ‘ words of one of these, Lily of Nazareth, sleep upon my h ’ h breast, My eart is Thy cradle, etc ., may ave been written mindful of th at name which Parkinson tells us the English and German women gave to the Martagon Lily (L ilium M a rta on g ), while the hymn at Lauds upon Christmas Day w a s one among many other allusions to the straw strewn crib

‘F o en o ja cere p ertulit Praes epe n on a b h orruit E x lacte modico p a stu s est ’ P er qu em n ec ale s esurit .

Hay and straw now form the chief component in this country of the fodder and bedding of our luxurious stables, but such do not exist elsewhere, far less in the East ; the earnest thoughtfulness of our forefathers through 144 CRADLE- GRASSES out Europe desired that the herbage that filled their creches should have a reason for its presence there ; they sought out various fragrant plants and flowering h grasses, downy seeds and soft mosses, such as mig t be h h found in the byre and stall of Bethle em perc ance, and about these their pious and pretty fancy played . The Holy Mother’ s name is connected with so extensive a h h flora, th at it is only w en we find some ot er distinctive sign — either in title or custom — th at we are able to select particular examples from amongst her Bedstraws, and th erefore many other cradle - grasses probably existed besides those we now enumerate . ‘ The Sage of Bethlehem ’ is the name still used in old- fashioned h omes in Lincolnshire for the Garden or M erit/2a virid is Spear Mint ( ), and no doubt this marks it h r l r out as once having been t eir c a d e w o t, since these mints th e were favourite h erbs for such use . All mints were th L e h dedicated to e a d y Marye, and t is one was known ’ generally in England , as Gerard tells us, as Our Lady s th Mint, just as e equivalent title th ereto is found for it

t - in France, Germany, and Italy . In h e last named land, however, they select for use in lining their cribs another th e ule ium h h species, the smallest of our mints, P g , for w ic our name of Brotherwort seems especially significant at h C ristmas time . Its potent smell wh en bruised led to its b eing employed to strew the path of processions or the pave

- th ment of banqueting halls, etc ., before e days of carpets, " ‘ and h ence it was also known as Ch u rchw o rt or Bishops w ’ ort . The Calabrian peasantry will never pass by a bed of its vagrant sweetness with out rubbing its leaves and uttering an Ave in honour of the Incarnation, for they say ‘ ’ Chi n tr m in tu ccia e n on 1 a d d ora r sco a la (odo a) , ’ Non e e G e u t u n u v d s Cris o q a do m ore .

It blossoms with whorls of numerous purple and white K 145 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

fl r owe ets at the birthday of Mary in September, and Sicilian children tell you that it does so again upon the birthday B t ‘ ' of her Divine Son . a ga ta in his Ad m ira n d a Orbis ‘ quotes from another the story that if the Pulegium be gathered upon the Feast of St . John the Baptist at day break, and kept until the Nativity, it will dry up as nature demands ; but that if it be placed upon the altar at which the first Mass is to be sung upon that night, ’ the dry herb will revive . It was the pretty fancy that just as the Forerunner of the Saviour recognised the presence of his Lord while both were unborn, so this ’ little plant gathered upon St . John s Day would bear its ’ witness to the Saviour s Nativity . It may be that there is some reference in the name of Brotherwort to St . John, who is so constantly present in pictures of the Holy

Family, and with whom also other Crib plants are con

n ected . Th e old botanical name of C un ila go or Cra d l ew ort for the Wild Thyme (Tbym us Serpillum ) is sufficiently dis t h in ctive of its use, w ile that more generally used for it of Sanctae Mariae lecti Stra m en is frequent with the botanists of Germany, Denmark, Holland, etc . In Norway it is n lm called Mutter Maries s e geh a , and the exquisite fragrance of this herb must readily have suggested its dedication .

. M t rin In Bohemia it is said to be known as a e a , and in Ma ci rz Poland as e a duska, which is explained as the dear ’ Mother s Love or Heart, as though in reference to Him who lay in the Bethlehem crib . In Bologna and its vicinity it is usual to see their homely cribs overshadowed with a b ranch of the Wild Myrtle (R uscus) of which we have already spoken under the types of the Incarnation, and filled with the white

silky down found in the seed - vessel of the Milky Dashel ‘ b us olera ceus S . (Souc ), which old Gerard peaks of as St ’ Maries seeds . This is a kindred plant to the Mary Thistle 146

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

more, and its flowers, which had been white, became for the future all gold . In a picture of the Nativity by Nicholas Poussin we find this story illustrated ; for he has painted its golden shower as receiving its gilding ri n t from the a u e rays that surround the sleeping Child .

Th e bracken, however, was said to have been less ready to recognise its Creator, and since that time has never blossomed as once it did ; but if you cut its stem into in sections as Christmas time draws near, you will see scribed upon its heart some symbol to tell you of its penitence and its presence in the manger . Either it bears the representation of the first Adam and first Eve on either side of the tree of th e Fall in Eden, or else the initial letters of the Holy Name IHC or the Greek Chi , and thus it has obtained for itself the beautiful name in i t u rz Ko rs b l om Germany of Jesus C r s w , or in Norway of , and in Ireland of the Fern of God .

The legend of the flowering Cradle- grasses is also to be traced in the stories told of several different species of plants, all of which bear the name of the Holy Hay . The Latin Sanctum Foenum is more popularly familiar under the equivalent Greek form of Hierochloe or the French

Sainfoin . Originally these terms seem to have been confined to several allied species of lucerne or clover which c ame from the East, known botanically as Medicagos ,

and now among the most useful of our artificial grasses . Their small trefoil leaf and bright yellow flow e ret were so valued by shepherd and herdsman for their stock that their wholesomeness was connected with their havin g been in the stall upon the Holy Night ; there were also discovered in them quite wonderful memorials of their presence there ; not only were they thought to have formed a coronal of beauty around the Head of the Holy

Infant, but they also foretold how that Head was to be encircled by a Crown of Pain, for when the flowers have 148 CRADLE - GRASSES faded and the seed has ripened, the vessel containing it is found to uncoil into a little spiny girdle forming a beautiful memorial in nature of the Crown of Thorns .

For this reason with us in England, apparently in quite m odern times, the Medicagos have become known as

Calvary Clovers, and the name of Sainfoin or Sanctum

Foenum seems to be forgotten, although in Buckingham shire the L up ulin a species is still thus known, just as the

M ed icago sa liva is Helig Heu in Germany . In the latter country most of the closely allied species are also called fkl e ma rin a Unser Frauen Hop fe or H op e , and the especially r u n has in Southern France the title of Erbo dou P a d o , just as in the same district they S peak of the Holly as L e

Grand Pardon . These names we are unable to explain unless there be some reference to the indulgences a tta in s

able by the faithful at Christmas time, or it may be that

there is a more local explanation to be found . It adds to our interest in these Medicagos or Holy Hays to know

that they come to us from the Levant, and are to be found

about Nazareth, as probably also around Bethlehem itself ; while our name of Calvary Clover given to them of late

- fl w er years is another instance, like that of the Passion o in

the sixteenth century, of the sympathy many minds find in

the sacred imagery of the natural creation . It is probably

in mistake for a Medicago, or from its close family likeness, that we find the name of Coro na de Cristo for the Starry Trc olium stella t m Trefoil ( f u ) in the Balearic Isles , and many other titles for kindred species that connect both Mother

and Son . The name of Sainfoin is now botanically confined to the pea- flow ered plants we know as the French Honey Hed sa rum Ouobr cb is sa tiv' a suckle ( y ) or Sainfoin ( y ), both of

the same papilionaceous family, and, like the preceding f a Medicagos, o very great value in pastoral districts . Th t

tireless beast of burthens, the ass, just as it is said to bear 149 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY the Cross upon its back in reference to its having S hared in the first Palm Sunday procession, so is it reported to recognise the Onobrychis by braying whenever it approaches ‘ ’ ’ near to it because it was in its Master s Crib, and from this habit the plant is accounted to receive its Greek name . They say in France that the Hedysarum is called a Holy

- Hay, because its rose coloured spray of flowers burst into blossom when the Holy Child was laid upon its sere and dry stalks, recognising, like the Galium and Medicago, the Divinity of the Babe whose couch they formed ; other herbage remained lifeless and unmoved, but these expanded their delicate little flowers, and spread out their dry leaves into a wreath or crown . The once silvery aureole of the Galium became the mist of gold with which we now are familiar, the Hedysarum flushed into the rose - colour it still retains, while the prophetic Medicagos unfolded their little trefoil leaves emblematic of the Trinity in Unity, and bore t upon them a spo of Blood . In Eastern lands there is known a species of Hedysarum (gyra us) that seems en dowed with perpetual motion, wearying neither night nor ’ day, in sunshine or rain, to attract men s minds to the memory it would recall of the sacred scene at which some of its family were privileged to assist . Still there are two more plants which have been included in the name of Holy Hays, and these are the sweet Hierocbloe smelling, reedy grasses known as Hierochloe ( b orea lis Holcus od ora tus and ). They are very rare in

Britain, but have been found in a narrow mountain valley

of Forfarshire . They are, however, so fragrant, that in Iceland and Scandinavia they were deemed in old days as s uitable tributes of earth for the components of the bed

of Mary and her Son, and known in those parts as Mary

grasses, while in Germany they are also dedicated to

Unser Lieben Frauen . They were among the herbs once used to strew churches , to hang up in homes, or for 150

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

- hand , for in its lace like foliage, which resembled the h ’ panale of their own infants , t ey have seen Nature s fi lit i memorial of the P a a o s or C a m s ita s del n ifio Jesus, and Za a tico s S h in its little flowers His p or hoes, w ile our own Dorset name for the same of ‘God ’ s little fingers and thumb ’ seems to connect this herb with that early period in His '

. r u h l a life on earth The thick, woolly, and o g e ves of Verba scum E cb ium both the Great Mullein ( ) and Bugloss ( ), h w ich are prominent at the end of the year, are still known to our Kentish peasantry by the name of ‘ Our Lord ’ s n ’ Flan el, by which no doubt they refer to the flannel

- swaddling cloth es of infant children, just as the Spaniards in the Fumaria refer to the lace or embroidery with which it is the custom in that land to cover them . So, too, at the winter season when turning over the ground they would meet with the white palmate tuber of the Aromatic Orchis (Gym n a d en ia con op sea ) and its form and fragrance suggested the ch ildren’ s name for it in various parts of

u s h n G tt s h n d n . Germany of Die Je s a d , or Herr o e a ge All this tender piety of thought when its expression takes the form of being addressed to the little Saviour of

- mankind seems far away from us to day, yet these simple tokens of affection by simple folk in real and earnest days will not appear to be wanting in beauty, nor the words of ‘ Our Lady’ s Lullaby ’ be without a responsive chord in many hearts

‘ a ta stra vi L c m Tibi soli , r N te b ellu l e ! Do mi, a Stra vi l ectu m fo e n o 11 1 0111 r a n im u le l Do mi , mi Millies Tibi lau de s ca n im u s

e e e . Mill , Mill , Milli s

e u d esit stern a m r N q id , osis violis Stern a m foen u m , P avimen ta m hya cin this ii E t p rae sep e lil s. Millie s Tibi lau de s ca n im us ’ e e e . Mill , Mill , Milli s M A RY ’ S MILKWO RTS

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

‘ ’ greater privacy and convenience, known as The Milk Grotto, and it is remarkable for the extreme purity of th e limestone in which it is hewn . Tradition has ever liked to record that this great fineness of th e material rock was the response made by the inanimate stone when it received upon its surface some drops fro m the virginal breast of Mary ; and pilgrims are wont to bring away with them from thence small tokens stamped in powdered limestone, many of which were preserved as relics, and often to be seen labelled Lac Beatae Mariae in such old church treasuries as remain undispersed . Around this grotto and that of the Nativity at Beth lehem travellers must have also remarked how earth seemed to send up memorials to remind them of the same fact as did these little white tablets ; for several herbs that are known throughout Europe as Mary ’ s Milkworts are abun u da tly evident there, and may have been introduced to the h West by crusading knight or umble palmer . There is the tradition that the grey powdery lichen that gathers o about the roots of the common Polypody (P lypodium vulg .) came first from the Blessed Mother’ s milk having fallen to earth, and that from the stained soil arose this fern ; it has been known S ince then as a Mary ’ s fern or the Sweet n elsw ort A g of Germany, Scandinavia, and France, or as

- th e Golden Maiden hair of Kent and Herefordshire . It is t fa m ilia r o every one in country places, and near the home of Nazareth it may be found with its wealth of golden seeds upon it as commonly as in this land of ours . Around the same place , too, we may gather the small, insignificant,

- flowered - a rd a min e lzirsuta white Bitter cress (C ), for whose prettier variety, C . pratensis, we have in Yorkshire the ’ - name of Our Lady s Milk sile o r stain, or that of La Vierge in France ; so also the pyramidal Ornithogalum, many o f whose family abound about the Manger City, is known in

France as Epi de Lait de l a Vierge, and both of these 156 MARY ’ S MILKWORTS dedications would seem to owe a similar origin to that of

- the Polypodium . n But these plants are not those most universally k own, and there are others wh ich when Christian matrons heard of their growing around the scenes of the birth and infancy

of the Saviour would naturally, be desired by them for cultivation within their own gardens . Pilgrims would tell how they h a d seen about th eir path as th ey trod th e sacred h soil, t istles of many kinds bearing foliage of a milk stained green, and their hearers would promptly turn to their own Milky D a sh el s (Souc/ms olera ceus) and connect ’ - h them with Mary s loved name, or to the silver blotc ed Scol m us b is a uicus leafage of the Spanish Thistle ( y p ), known

in that land as th e Cardo Maria . There was one, h owever, which to the early botanists w as especially popular as Lac h Beatae Mariae, and w ich in every land is similarly con h ’ n ected , viz . our Milk T istle, Virgin Mary s Milk Thistle, or the Blessed Th istle (Ca rd uus M a ria n us) ; it is so strik in gly handsome that it has won a place in most borders

- where fin e foliaged plants are to be seen . Its broad leaves

are cut with infinite variety, and their deep and glisten h h ing green is covered wit a w ite marbling and veining,

telling how it gained the honour of its dedication . From

Sweden to Italy, in every country of Europe where it is h found, it is allied with the Mot er of God ; and in 1370

Louis, Duke of Bourbon, instituted an order of knight f hood o which this was the badge, and entitled it ‘ ’ Our Lady of the Thistle . Like Mary at Bethlehem h and Nazaret , so the Milk Thistle with most others of its kind dwells in rough and bare places ; its bright

purple thrums rising from the thistle- head at the season

h er . that recalls visitation to St Elizabeth, and bringing the ripe woolly seeds of its down in August as if to r make the pillow fo her tomb . Many a plant once treasured in the monastic physic 1 57 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY gardens of Europe was known by the dedication of the Holy ’ Mother s milk, from its yielding alleviating remedies for various ailments . In Devon and Somerset they are said to give the name of the Virgin Mary ’ s Nipple to those Spurges (E uplzorbia ) noted for the milk- white sap that flows from

- . Sed um a cre them when plucked The Stone crop ( ), whose bril liant little flower is so conspicuous on roofs and walls about midsummer, clothing them with a cloth of gold, has the title of Unser Frauen Brostm en recorded by Tox ites as belong ing to it in the sixteenth century, and in France and Italy it is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, while in parts of

Germany it is still Herr G ottskra ut. So, too, the Arnica (Arn ica m outa ua ) whose remedial worth we know so well as a lotion, is another much appreciated plant still to be found cultivated in many a peasant’ s garden in Germany where its utility is familiar ; and from its milky sap afford ing a balm for bruises and breast troubles, it has become kkr t M ri n tr n k entitled Unser Frauen Me l a u , a e a , or Mutter Orc/zis m a cula ta wurz . The spotted Palmate Orchis ( ) and others of its genus afforded a gracious mucilage soothing in scorbutic and other affections ; and among other associa tions with which the markings upon their leaves were united was that which gave the name we hear in Sweden r B r6st of Jun gf u Mariae , or as the early botanist Bauhin records it, Lac Beatae Mariae . The double tuberous root, one black and the other white, of this Orchis was generally known as the Palma Christi or Christ’ s ’ Hand of Power, or often as Mary s Hand of Pity, and the dark one as that of the Devil ; and from the observa tion of its habit, the Christian peasant drew a lesson as he pointed it out to his children, for, as old Culpepper ‘ says , when the one riseth and waxeth full, the other ’ ‘ waxeth lank and perisheth, and the one destroys and disannuls the virtue of the other, quite undoing what ’ that doth . 1 58

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY repeated in the French and Belgian Sauge de Bethleem or de Jerusalem .

Many variations of the same names exist, but these suffice to S how how definite a place of regard the Pul mc nary has held in the esteem of quiet folk in many lands . It gets th e name of Cowslip from the flowers being some in what like form, and of Sage from its rough leaves, otherwise it is of a very different race of plants from these , and belongs to the Borage family . It is an herb of compact growth, forming thick tufts of foliage about a foot high, and attractive in S hady places in th e spring . It comes quite ’ early in the year, but usually about St . Joseph s Day in ’ March, from which it is christened Erba d San Giusep in many districts of Italy, and Joseph and Mary in parts of

England . Its leaves are handsomely blotched and speckled S with white, and the flowers are of manifold hades of red and blue even in the individual plant, and are continually changing their hue . The editors of the ‘En glish Dialect Dictionary of Plant Names ’ received the following communication from a ‘ doctor at Salisbury in reference to this Comfrey . I had to an old woman weeding in my garden , and proposed her to turn out a plant or two of it, to which she “ e strongly objected, and said, Do e know, sir, what they ! “ ’ ! “ white spots be ? No, I don t . Why, they be the ’ ’ ’ Virgin Mary s Milk ! so don t e e turn em out, for it would be very The Rev . Mr . Barnes also in his ‘ Dorset Dialect Glossary ’ quotes the following ‘ from a correspondent . At Osmington, and no doubt else in h where . our county, t ere is a survival of a sweet,

- simple, old world piece of folklore about the Spotted h Liverwort [Lungwort]. The cottagers like to ave it in “ ’ ! Ma er s . Th e l their gardens, and call it y Tears egend is that the spots on the leaves are the marks of the tears S hed by St . Mary after the Crucifixion . Further 160 MARY ’S MILKWORTS and this to me is a quite unknown tradition— her eyes

were as blue as the fully opened flowers, and by weeping ’ the eyelids became as red as the buds . These two stories connected with the plant S how how the old ff traditional lore lives on still, in spite of the indi erence t of most persons to its poetic charm, and both aken together make up the pleasant tale that once was told by many a mother to her child as she pointed to the leaves

and flowers of the Spotted Comfrey. Let us conclude

r - by e telling it again in a less fragmentary manner . It was at Bethlehem or on the way to Jerusalem upon the first h Candlemas Day, that the Holy Mot er was resting by the roadside to give the nourishment of h er breast to her r Divine Child, and nea by her grew a clump of the

Comfrey . A S she gazed down upon the wondrous Infant

S h e clasped at her bosom, and reflected upon the humility

of her God in condescending to be so weak and helpless, her woman ’ s heart swelled with loving tenderness and

the tears rose to her fair eyes, and th e more she gaz ed th e m Sh e and thought, ore wept . We still say that the h sympat y of flowers is felt in joy or sorrow, and in this instance th e secret instinct of Nature was so moved that just as the flowers of the plant at her feet had become ’ h ’ heaven s own blue in reflection of the Holy Mot er s eyes , so they varied their hues and the young buds flushed h pink as her eyelids grew red wit weeping . When sh e moved her Baby from her breast some drops of milk ’ - fell upon the Comfrey s sage like leaves, marking their verdure with their stain, and ever since this h umble herb has borne upon it these bleached spots, telling to

- off earnest eyes what it witnessed in far Jewry, and coming yearly at the season of the Holy Infancy with variegated foliage and changing buds to record its story .

THE VISITATION OF THE SHEPHERDS

THE memory of the Bethlehem shepherds is revived in

every scene of the Nativity, in the privilege once accorded

to men of that calling to be our waits in this land, as

they are still in Italy and Sicily, and by the name of pa stora le given to the addresses made by little children

before the Christmas cribs in many countries . It may be

- interesting to note that in the old mystery plays, just as

they gave the names of Madelon to the shepherd maiden, Ach el ri u s and Melampo to the dog, so Misael, a , Cy a c , and Stephanus were usually bestowed upon the men ; and ‘ ’ Dr . Ed ersh eim , in his interesting book upon The Temple, suggests that they may have been officials of the Temple

at Jerusalem, whose duty was the guarding of the sheep ’ for the daily sacrifices . In that case the angels message to them first of all mankind was an indication that this

sacrifice was now at an end, that the Truth had come

to abolish the Shadow, and that the Lamb of God was

the fulfilment of all types of atonement . Beyond the legend of the Christmas Roses (Helleb orus m er lg ) that were brought by the maid Madelon, and which

we have already related, we do not know of any plant names that refer to the visit paid by these Bethlehem pastors ; but it is not impossible that many of those which now are simply known as Shepherds ’ Burse and

the like, may have borne some such allusion . The Box R uscus a culea z‘us Cicereta s Holly ( ), called del Bon Pastor in 1 65 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

i C a len d a u the Balear c Isles, and known in southern France as Globu or Christmas, seems like the Erbo dou Bon Pastour ( la ria a ssum ly ) in Provence, to be too definitely allied to the beautiful title of our Blessed L ord Himself for it to refer to these simple herdsmen of Judaea ; but there m ay i be dedications unknown to us, or wh ch

S . Our notice, that hould be attributed to them

THE CIRCUMCISION OF OUR BLESSED LORD AND GIVING OF THE HOLY NAME E E I B N D CT x1v. remarked that artists almost invariably erred by representing the Circumcision as taking place in the

Temple at Jerusalem, whereas it was a rite administered on the eighth day after the birth of the Child, probably taking place in the Cave of Bethlehem, and might be per formed by St. Joseph or even by the Holy Mother herself. It was at th e Circumcision th at the Holy Name was formally given, and eastern tradition has the legend that at its bestowal all Nature showed its reverence, the trees bending th eir lofty summits and the herbs their heads in adoration ; h ’ h th h the Aspen, owever, t at rebel in e forest, was t ought h to ave alone refused to tender its homage, and later on it was this tree th at was said to have yielded its wood to form the Cross of its Creator . In German Kalendars the

first day of the year is marked by the Holy Name, and the th second Sunday after e Epiphany is the Feast of the same . In reference to the rite to which the Infant Saviour

was subjected, we may mention that the herb Cummin umin um (C ), mixed with wine , was that used by the Jews

a st tic . as l yp It almost seems as if in the name of Sangre h P fi lit de Cristo, together wit that of a a os (or Swaddling n iii o h bands) del Jesus, which t ey have in Spain for the

- flo w ere d Fum a ria rosy Fumitories ( ), they had sought to associate the memorial of this first Shedding of the ’ Saviour s Blood with this plant . In like manner the 169 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVI TY

- e Gera n ium mosclza tum species of Sweet sc nted Geranium ( ), with leaves bearing spots as if stained by blood, is known P a n n iz z ed d i Nostru in Sicily not only as di Sign uri, but P a n n iz z ed d i stiz z ia ti also as di Sangu, and this alliance of names seems to allow us to place them under the h above eading as related to the Circumcision . With regard to the giving of the Holy Name there are several points that need our consideration ; many herbs bear the title of God Almighty, Our Lord, or

Christ, but only a very few carry that of Jesus . It should be recollected that this name which we usually say means Saviour, is of far more mysterious significance than this simple interpretation conveys ; literally, it is said to translate from its Hebrew equivalent ‘JAH is ’ Salvation, and since it was given by the Archangel ’ Gabriel a s God s messenger, it was not a name of ordinary choice . This word JAH was not a name but a th e symbol, and represented incommunicable name of

God portrayed in Hebrew by four letters or signs, called the sacred Tetragrammaton ; out of reverence it was never pronounced by the Jews, and hence its true sound is ' n tir l l quite unknown and h a s been e e y o st. Whenever a reader of the Sacred Scriptures came to this symbol he employed as a substitute the word Adonai, and we have now th e word Jehovah for the ineffable name, which,

‘ although a word unknown to all the ancients, whether ’ Jews or Christians , as the note to the Douai translation 3 (Ex . vi . ) says, was one formed by adding the Hebrew vowel- points of Adonai to this mystic JAH . It would seem that it was of divine authority that our Lord was to bear the shadow of the title of the Blessed Trinity in this very name of Jesus . There is only one kind of plant that we have met with h as bearing the name of Jehova , and this was probably given in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, while its use 170

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

t im Paschal supper, but others think as significant of he mortality and eternal life purchased by Him whose name the ff herb carried . Its fragrant leaf also a orded a Spring tonic and cordial of much esteem when such were sought for in ’ the garden rather than at the druggist s store, and it thus ‘ ’ became known as Herba Sanctae Mariae, being named in honour of her as man’ s most powerful intercessor with the Good Physician Himself.

We have already under our Cradle- grasses made mention of how the Bracken fern (Pteris a guilin a ) was the Jesus

Christwurz of Germany and Switzerland, from its having been in the Bethlehem stable at the Nativity and bearing upon its cut stem the sacrosanct Name or the S ign of the

Son of Man . In Normandy and Brittany the shepherds may be found making their pasture- ground crosses protective to ’ themselves and their flocks, out of this fern s ribs, often threading upon it the purple flowers of the Digitalis, known to them as Les Doigtiers de Notre Dame, to enhance its

- potency . Then there was the all important use of Bracken in olden time as an antidote to those omnipresent witches and other evil spirits who detested the S ight of the waving frond whose heart bore the All- holy Name inscribed upon it, and throughout Europe its presence was needful upon the mysterious Eve of St . John to keep such troublesome persons at bay . Even last year in Provence they covered

’ thi rn th eir Midsummer Eve bonfire with s fe , and before lighting it the priest came with holy water to bless it and

- their merry making . The old masons of our churches in Norman days often carved the unfolding fronds of the Fern of God upon the capitals of their stout pillars, and we may see them employed, for instance, in the crypt of York ’ Minster or in St . Peter s, Northampton, to tell to ages to come the love of the old architects for this Jesus

- Christ wort . CANDLEMAS, PRESENTATION TEMPLE

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

two cities known as the Field of Peas, although nothing but rock is now visible, nor is it ever able to be cultivated . A Somersetshire bucolic proverb says : ‘ At Candlemas ’ - i . e. waddle ( moon waning) sow peas and beans, and it was as the holy wayfarers were passing by th is now barren space, then covered with soil, that in gentle courtesy the

Virgin Mother spake to the husbandman engaged upon it, and in friendly interest asked him what seed it might be that he was so busily scattering . The boorish peasant only repaid her fair gentleness with sullen insult, and rudely ‘ h answered that he was sowing stones . Then you S all ’ reap stones in return, was the quiet reply, and the God of Nature at the Mother’ s breast passed by unrecognised by that gross heart . In time, when th e man came to seek the fruit of the peas that he h a d been really planting, and to gather his reward, he found to his dismay nothing but little stones , and never after has the spot produced anything ff di erent, and hence it is that to this day pilgrims along this ‘ ’ Bethlehem road always stop at the Field of Peas, as it is

- still called, and gather from its surface some of the pea like nodules wh ich the limestone surface renders to recall th e h first Candlemas Day . It is not improbable that t is story originated many a dedication to St . Mary that we find among

- the papilionaceous or pea bearing herbs . On the same road they still point to a spot where once grew a Terebinth or Turpentine - tree beneath which the tradition had been handed on of th e 1646 th e Holy Family having rested, but in owner of the property cut it down because his cr0ps were injured by the passage o f pilgrims to visit it . In Spain they call th e Terebinth Arbol di Nuestra Senhora, in memory of this tree . From Mary at her Purification having borne in her arms ‘ Him o f wh om Simeon spake as Lumen ad R evelation em ’ Gentium, came the custom of women bearing a lighted 176 THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE taper at the pious ceremony of their churching or blessing

- after child birth, and from this prophecy of the patriarch at the first advent to His temple of Him who was the ‘ h ’ True Lig t th at lighteth every man, it is the custom for the faith ful upon Candlemas Day to bear a lighted candle in the hand during the reading of gospels , creed, and h th th canon . C ristianity took e occasion of e processions made in pagan Rome about th is time for the making of the rite redolent of itself ; and thus the procession for the purification or blessing of th e land became a memorial of the journey of the Holy Family to th e temple from th e City th of David , and e tapers in hand recalled both th e Moth er and th e Son . Few sigh ts are more simply beautiful than that witnessed in the sombre light of this early February h h morning in some large c urch at ome or abroad, when in th e th e silence, as mysterious words of sacrifice hurry on, one sees among th e kneeling crowds the soft twinkling of innumerable tapers gradually extend over the whole church, and as th e great bell tolls announcing th at the Lord has

once again come to His temple, taking the mind away to th e th e scene of first Candlemas . Our ancestors , with their h lively fait and rural lives, loved this festival, and carried h h with t em its recollection into t eir fields, and there th ey h found that eart too was keeping it with them, and that in ’ the aisles and naves of Nature s cath edral, in the meadows and woods, she too repeated the pageant they had witnessed r h in thei churches t at morning . A S the pure flower of the Snowdrop (Ga la n tb us n ivf a lis) rose among the thick grass

and dotted their fields over with its white drooping bell, it was a remarkably striking reproduction of the picture they had beheld, and thus it became pre- eminently the flower of

. the feast Although the name of Fair Maids of February, which we see given to these plants, is a modern one, yet n ot February Lily is , and that is to be found existing still ;

but in old England, as yet upon the Cotswold Hills of 177 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

Gloucestershire, it was as Candlemas Bells that they were n K n know , like as in Denmark they are the y d elm isselilie . In France they are called Les Violettes or Les Carillons de Chandeleur, and another pretty title there is La Pucelle .

th e r e n ter r e , ke n t u re ht Mid coa s wi g ass s li poi s of p lig , Y ou rise from th e dark e arth to give m e delight S e to h e rt th n ou t h To p ak my cold a of i gs of sig t .

S eet eet th e n th e th e a n w , sw is visio , Mo r d Child Ou r Lady close claspin g with in h er arms mild Th e r ht th r th B fai Lig of e Wo ld, e ab e un d efiled . th e h te n e I see th e o Wi dov s , lig d ca dl s, m g by, An d bright is th e glo ry th at gleams from on h igh ; Ou r r a n d His ther ! Th e n e r n h Lo d Mo a g ls d aw ig .

S eet o er ofOu r a eet C n le w fl w s L dy, sw a d mas Bells ! — I listen a n d listen a mystery dwells ’— I n u r h te r n et C n e B e . C yo w i d oopi g p als , my a dl mas lls . H. There is a pretty legend that connects the Snowdrop with the first Eve, and tells how th at it was winter in the world when our first parents were banished from the summer groves of Eden . Without its gates the biting, h bitter winds were blowing, and ard frost held the earth in its remorseless grasp ; as if marking with the obsequies h of sorrow the advent into the world of death throug S in , all Nature was shrouded in a pall by the thickly falling snow . No flowers were there to tender their consolation ; no green of hope was visible, nor leaf on tree to shelter the guilty pair, and only the spots where their footfalls fell were left uncovered by the wreathing storm, as if their t touch had scorched the very soil and lef it accursed . Terrified at a desolation never before even conceivable to one whose days had been passed in the delectable groves ’ of the garden of delights, Eve s heart was nigh breaking with anguish, and her grief inconsolable . In mercy the God of Justice sent His angel to revive her hope ; he spoke many gracious words of promise, and pointing to where her tears of penitence had fallen, S howed her that from them

- had S prung a little plant bearing a tear drop for its blossom . 178

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

’ Mhuire or Mary s Taper ; in France and Belgium, Le Cierge N6tre de Dame or La Chandelier de la Vierge ; in Spain, L u m in Candelara ; about Rome, a re a D o m in u l ui ; and in Germany as Frauenkerze or M a rien kerz en ; and in Eng

Mr . F lk r - land, o a d alleges that th e name of Candle week

flower is to be found . This is a pretty conclusive list of authorities for th e placing this summer flower among those of the Candlemas week, and we cannot but think that its lofty stem must have been preserved during the winter to be smeared with grease and employed as a torch in the ’ procession at that time, as also, perhaps, for the Mary s

Taper at Christmas . There is still one more memorial from among the

flowers of this first entry of our Lord into His Temple, h and that is in connection wit the aged Simeon, who, h taking the Holy C ild in his arms , sang the first N un c d imittis h S m e n is . In the old erbals, Herba Sti . y o is a M a lva m oscb a ta name given to several of the Mallows ( , an order of plants destitute of all noxious properties and abounding in utility for the pharmacist . The h and

d lca ea rosea some Vervain Mallow ( ), a species of the same family, is known in Spain as Varitas de David or

Rod of David, it is also there the Herba de San Simon, ’ H r as in France it is L e b e de St . Symeon, in Denmark Si n rt St . m o su , and similarly in Sweden ; while in German y n kr n it remains Sim eo s a u t or Sim o sw u rz el . There can be little doubt th at our name for the same of Hollyhock or H l h k ] 1 2 o y o c e (Grete Herbal , 5 6) is not a corruption of

- cauli hock, as has been suggested, but is in reference to the sacred associations connected with this handsome flowering stem ; perhaps in more southern lands it may be seen later in the year, and the feasts of St . Symeon

(Oct . and St . Simon and Jude (Oct . may be marked by these blossoming S hrubs giving the last farewell to ' summer s beauty . 180 ADORATION OF THE KINGS THE BETHLEHEM STAR

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY along the banks of th e Rh ine down wh ich river their , , remains were brought from Milan ; th e great stars in ’ h Orion s belt were christened the T ree Kings, and are still so called in Provencal France, and their names or initials were continually inscribed upon the doorposts of

German houses . England was sca rcely behind other lands h h th e S in t is devotion to t em, and ign or name of the

Three Kings or Crowns is still frequently to be met with, While their heraldic insigni a may be seen repeatedly upon n a cient armorial shields, from those of Oxford University to those of Portsmouth town . In every land the domestic festivities at th eir feast were as great as those upon the

Nativity, and even still continue, so that we cannot but think that th ere must be a flora relating to them that has yet to be gathered, but to which we regret we cannot at present contribute . But if we cannot do much towards placing the Three

Kings in our Bethlehem garden, we can easily establish there the Star that led them thither and stood sentinel ‘ ’ over the place where the young Child lay . Our most popularly known memorial of this is the Ornithogalum Orn itho a lum umbella tum luteum ( g , , which both in

Germany and Engl and is called the Star of Bethlehem, but in France and Italy they have prettily associated it with the Tears of Mary, as if these fair little flowers had sprung up as the Mother wept at the contrast of the poverty of the cattle - shed a n d the infinite majesty of its occupant when s h e held her divine Child to receive the homage of these first apostles of the Gentile world . This flower is the more welcome and delightful to us when a we know that it is abundant upon the Jud ean hills, along whose tracks these Saba an seekers came, and that its corymbs of pure enamelled blossoms grow in thick luxuriance about the Manger City . Indeed, it is most probable that we owe its presence here in England 184 THE ADORATION OF THE KINGS and in Europe to its having been brought by pilgrim and crusader from the Holy Land ; for they would naturally treasure its bulb during the long march across th e Con tin en t in the hope that they might rej oice th eir far western h omes with a flower that seemed to perpetuate on th e S pot C a lc tt th e scene of th e Epiph any . Mrs . o , in her Scripture ’ h Herbal, says that s e never saw so many of these flowers as in the Campo Santo at Pisa, and the cause she assigned, with every probability of correctness, was that when this cemetery was being made, every Pisan Ship returning from the East brought h ome as ballast a tribute of soil from the Holy Land, until there was sufficient to cover the h original surface to a great dept , and that in this way th e bulbs were conveyed . A far more splendid type of th e Bedlam Star than the simple flower we have just spoken of is the Poinsettia, th e th Flower of the Holy Night in Spain, one of e most striking floral emblems of a sacred story . The Flor de

h - Noc e buena, as a plant, is now well known, its crimson star of flaming leaves is frequent as a winter decoration,

although its memory of the Epiphany may be unfamiliar.

It may be seen growing in the open gardens of Cairo, in th e h h the land of Flig t from Bet lehem, as in th ose of southern Europe, bringing a flush of glorious colour to gladden the eye and arrest the thoughts, and take the mind to the Cradle of Bethlehem as did th e heavenly

’ guide sent to the eastern Kings . It is one of Nature s h most beautiful types for the C ristmas time, and like

- Holly, Mistletoe, Rose Mary, Hellebore, and Milk Thistle, would speak to the th oughtful eye and mind with far more lasting pleasure th an do our usual hothouse nurslings which are sought to afford only sensuous satisfactions for the moment . In every land many of those herbs known as Starworts probably had the more precise dedication of Beth lehem 185 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

Star, but the star- form is so continually repeated in the floral world that it may very easily have not been so, still we find many others besides the two more prominent ones we have already recorded . In the West of England they know the Greater Stitchwort or Stellary (Stella ria Holostea ) as the Star of Bethlehem, and all its species might be so named, for it is not unlike the Ornithogalum in flower, although its starry blossoms and gold - dusted stamens it n t do not appear before Wh su yd e ; so, too, the same name is often heard for the species of Cerastium called ‘ Snow

’ in - Summer by gardeners , while the flower of the Salsify Tra o od on orri olius h ( g p p f ), whic Lyte tells us was known n i his day as Star of Jerusalem, and that of the Yellow ’ - T ra ten sis Goat s beard ( . p ), have suggested the same dedication . In th e Madeiras the Star Thistle (Cen ta urea ca lcitrapa ) a rlin a is Cardo de Cristo, and the striking Carline Thistle (C a ca ulis) forms a most lovely design for the embroiderer or painter as a natural emblem of the Epiphany Star . In the British West Indies their Star of Bethlehem th e d ecumb en s flower is Hypoxis ( ), while in North America the handsome purple flower of an Aster (Gra n d iflorus) is welcomed as the Christmas Starwort or Daisy of

December . In New York and other cities of the United States there may be seen in some of th e palatial residences at Christmas a wreath of Holly hung in the window which when Epiphany comes is replaced by a large star, or else one is inserted with in the Holly circle . It is probably a pretty custom brought from their native land by German or other settlers to their transatlantic homes, and long may it continue . The mystic writers and symbolists had very many theories as to the shape under which the guiding- star appeared to the patriarchal fathers, and the graphic artists 186

CHILDERM AS, OR THE MASSA CRE

OF “THE HOLY INNOCENTS

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

’ of the Saviour from the snare of the hunter . From many a church tower in this land we may still hear the h alf fl muf ed peals of Childermas ; at Churchdown, Woodchester, R isin t n Dursley, Great g o , and Ampney Crucis in Gloucester

- - shire ; Wells Cathedral, Leigh upon Mendip, Luccombe, and h Selworthy in Somersets ire ; Weobley, Dilwyn, and Ross in

h - - - Herefords ire ; Magdalen College, and Burton o n the Water in Oxfordshire, and in doubtless many oth er places they retain the old practice . At Evesham they are wont to follow th e mournful peal with a j oyous one to indicate th e deliverance from Herod of the little Saviour, just as in the Church offices upon the octave day both the Gloria h and Alleluia are again sung . At C ildermas every child was wont to be ritually whipped with sufficient gentleness h ’ to mark in t eir memories the day s events, and many other

S imple domestic customs were observed . We may almost gauge the position any day h eld in the popular regard if we turn to Nature and see there what the men of old h th e time found to remind t em of emotions of their mind . In the Franche Com té the noise heard on dark nights in late autumn like the questing of hounds in the air after th e h their prey, was said to be rut less Herod, who was thought to be condemned to pursue through unending ages a phantom band that ever escaped him . In the north of England the same sound is popularly known as that of the

- - r t h t Gabriel hounds or Gabble e c e , and it is thought to be caused by th e southern migration of the bean- goose ; the peculiar cry th e flock utters is like a pack of beagles hunting, and highly suggestive of ideas of the supernatural . But it is to the herbs that man most turns to express the thoughts of his mind, and it is interesting to note that it is amongst the Christian descendants of the Gauls and

Teutons th at the dedications to the Holy Innocents are found, for it was by his fifteen hundred barbarian mercenaries of these nations, according to tradition, that Herod executed 192 THE MASSACRE OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS

his decree, and we find the herbal associations most pre valent in France and Germany that refer to the cruel slaughter. In the Oriental Knotweeds (Polygon um) we have a rod that might very well remind one of those ritual wh ippings S of which we have poken, and we find the name Discipline or Scourge given to them, besides the distinctive one of ’ a vicula re Holy Innocents Worts for our European species ( , ’ d o i er L H er b e by r p p , des Saints Innocents in France is often in Germany Sanct Innocents Kraut or Sanct Inno cen tijurt in Denmark, and the Herba Sancti I n n o cen t1j of

Stephanus, Bauhin, and early botanists ; but it seems more likely to have originally been in reference to the F es tu m

- I n n o cen tiu m h fifth . SS . t an to the century Pope Innocent Various species of the same plant bear also the name of

Bloodworts, which refer to their power of staying h ae m or

S - rh a ges, while their pike of red or rose tipped flowers and leaves like a lance - head would help to connect them with the martyrdom of the little children . It is recorded by Josephus that Herod was banished to

Lyons and eventually died in Spain, and a very striking memorial of Childermas is found retained in the depart

- ment of Vienne in France, where the Halbert leaved Orache (Atriplex pa tula ) is still known as Hérod e ; its foliage is

- hastate or sword shaped, deeply and irregularly toothed like an eastern weapon may often be seen, and it bears a fitl purple stain upon its surface as of blood, all y reminding ’ the beholder of the tetrarch s pitiless sword, while gathered in clusters amongst the leaves are groups of tender flowerets like ch ildren clustering together and shrinking in fear from ’ a tyrant s blow . As if to enforce this lesson, they have also in the same land drawn a contrast between two species di ita ta of the Clavaria, the coarseness of one ( g ) being to ’ d H r them Les Mains é o d e, while the delicacy of the other (cora lloid es) Les Mains de Jésus or La Main de Gloire T HE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

We have already spoken of how the Fumitory (F uma ria ) is allied to the infancy of the Saviour and seems especially to belong to the memory of His Circumcision, and in Spain, where Herod is said to have died, they also dedicated it to another event of the Holy Childhood which its rose- coloured th flowers and growth might have suggested, and, like e

Knotweeds elsewhere, so the Fumitory in the Peninsula has I ts amongst its titles that of Herba dels n ocen .

T H E F LI G H T INTO E G YP T

AN almost unstudied period in the life of our Blessed Lord, like that also of His visits across the Jordan, is the Flight from Ju d wa and the residence in Egypt ; yet it is one so full of interest when in vestigated upon its scene, and so th abounding with suggestions for e ecclesiastical artist, h t at it would be impossible to exhaust its interest . We can but here record those trees, shrubs, and plants that have a connection therewith in the traditions that have come down to us . The road taken by th e poor fugitives would

h th - be probably t at across e hill country of Judaea to Hebron , h from t ence to the coast, along which they would continue their journey south . It would be at least four hundred miles and take Six or seven weeks . The perils of the way were not only from man and beast, but greater still from lack of water, food and shelter, and those acquainted with desert travelling can most acutely understand why th e commemoration of the Flight was once included among the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary as it is still among the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin . Many are the stories of the dangers experienced on the h h road, some of t em recorded in t ose very early writings known as the Non- canonical Gospels and others handed down by little else than tradition . Most of them have

ff th e - a orded motives of scenes in mystery plays, or been used by the Ch ristian artists of earlier days in painting or sculpture . Such incidents as that of the Holy Family encountering a robber band of nomadic Arabs is an ex p eri 197 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

ence very likely to have occurred, and that one of these eventually became the penitent Desmas upon the cross was a very general belief. That the wild beasts of th e arid wastes, more readily moved by instinct th an man by his t will, should recognise the divinity in h e Holy Child is no marvel to those who have studied in the lives of His saints ff the e ect of sanctity upon the brute creation, a fact em in bodied many a classic legend of earlier days than those .

They, too, who know the unwritten laws of desert life h and what a breac of hospitality there means , and how to simple- minded peoples a solemnly pronounced malediction is felt to bear its penance from generation to generation ; such persons will not be too ready to dismiss the possi b ility that there may be some truth in the tradition that the gypsies were a band of wandering marauders, upon whom a doom was laid for refusing to shelter th e Holy

Family . Amongst th e trees and herbs we find some which were thought to have given their concealment from the pursuing soldiery of Herod or afforded their shadow at the noonday h heat, while others bowed t eir homage or tendered their fruit at the passage of their Maker in His weakness . un i erus Sa bin a comm un is In many lands the Juniper (y p , ,

- etc .) is found at Carol tyde as plentifully employed as the

Holly is with us . In France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, ’ etc . , it is this tree s bough that hangs in every stable and byre, as well as near every crucifix and crib in the house .

With us the common Juniper is only a shrub, yet quite large enough to afford an important and voiceful addition to those we already employ ; but in more genial climes it grows to a tree frequently twenty feet in height . It has won its right to a place of honour at the season of the Holy Infancy from a legend that? t ells of Childermas and the m Flight into Egypt, for at the assacre of the Bethlehem innocents the holy fugitives were hurrying along on their 198

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

‘ ’ this is a pure tree, which leaves no cinders in the fire, nor has it ever rendered its perfume in the service of idols, e d mons , or magic .

There are other trees that have also. been connected with the privilege of giving their S hade to the Holy Family

. z o lus n on this occasion The Ha el (C ry ), which is i digenous to Palestine, is especially so marked, and its catkins, often known as Palm, come very early in the year about the day assigned to commemorate the Fuga or Ded u ctio Ch risti in

Ae tum . gyp Mr . Conway says that in Bavaria the Witch Elm (Ulm us m on la n a ) is also spoken of in reference to this same period, and we think that it has been S omewhere mentioned as a tree frequently to be found upon the s ite of old religious houses in England ; so, too, the drooping branches of the Weeping Willow (Sa lix Ba bylon ica ) have had a similar association allied with them . Along the sea coasts of the Levant the Rose- Mary (R osm a rin us) grows in great luxuriance, and in Andalusia they say it was one of those shrubs that made a covert for the Mother and Child h ow on their way . We have already stated upon its

’ ' branches the Saviour s baby- clothes were said to have been stretched to dry, and that from thence comes its fragrance and name of Arbor Mariae, and how, about Holy week, it puts forth little purple blossoms in sympathy with

Him to whom it had ministered as a little Child . In many old representations of the Flight into the land w h ld of Egypt, a ea tfie is to be seen in the background, or a alluded to by some detail, in refe rence to the very popul r story of a miracle worked through the presence of the Son of God which saved the little company from the cruelty of ‘ Herod . The legend is that When it was discovered that the

Holy Family had fled from Bethlehem, Herod sent his officers in pursuit of them . And it happened that when the Holy Family h a d travelled some distance they came to a field where to a man was sowing wheat, and the Blessed Virgin said 200 THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT

“ h the husbandman, If any shall ask you w ether we have h h passed this way ye s all say, Such persons passed w en ’ ! I was sowing this corn . And behold a miracle For by the power of the Infant Saviour in the S pace of a single night the seed sprang up into stalk, blade, and ear, fit th e for the sickle . And next morning officers of Herod h “ came up and inquired of th e usbandman saying, Have you seen an old man with a woman and Child travelling ! i this way ? And th e man who was reaping h s wheat, in “ great wonder and adoration replied, Yes . And they “ ? h asked him, How long since And he answered, W en

I was sowing this wheat . Then they turned back from ’ the pursuit . ff Lusatian Wends tell it a little di erently, for they say th e ‘ h that the Holy Mother said to peasant, God be wit ! A S thee, my good man soon as thou hast sown take ’ h thy sickle and reap . And no sooner had e finished sc attering th e seed a t one end of th e field th an it was ’ th e h . e ripened at ot er In answer, th refore, to the soldiers h h a d inquiries as to the time w en he seen the wayfarers, ‘ - he replied , Not long ago ; just when I was a sowing th is ’ ‘ ! ’ ‘ wheat . You idiot they exclaimed, why, that must ’ s have been twelve week ago, and they turned away in

disgust, being hopeless of overtaking the fugitives . This is a very frequently depicted subject in scenes ae m referring to the exodus from Jud a, and ay be remem

bered as forming a portion of Die Sieben Freuden Maria, th e h by Hans Memling in Munic Gallery, a picture often ’ n r reproduced, or in the beautiful fresco at St . O o f io s ,

Rome, by Pinturicchio .

The Magyars say that every corn of wheat, if split, will be seen to bear th e impress of the Madonna and c Child, but perhaps this is not an out ome of this legend , since in S cla vo n ic eyes all corn is regarded as a holy ‘ ’ ’ thing, and known familiarly as God s Gift . We have, 201 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY however, names for certain species that seem especially

- fi l allied to this legend of the wheat e d .

- c Triticum tur id u m . The many ared Wheat ( g , etc ) is known ’ t in Italy as Grano d Egi to , in Sicily as Spica di la Madonna l u Si n u ri or Spica di g Deu, and in France as Blé de Miracle, d icoccurn S while the pecies called in France Blé de Jerusalem, ru s l k and in the Bernese Oberland Je a em s o rn , may have the same reference .

Another folk- tale connected with the Flight into Egypt is heard in Italy respecting a field of Vetches, and is told ’ ‘ ’ in Miss R . H . Busk s most interesting Folklore of Rome, as follows : ‘ One day the Madonna was carrying the

h - Bambino throug a lupin field , and th e stalks of the lupins rustled so that she though t it was a robber coming . to kill the Santo Bambino . She turned and sent a male

th e - fi ld diction over lupin e , and immediately the lupins all withered away and fell flat and dry upon the ground, so that she could see there was no o n e hidden there . When she saw there was no one there she sent a bene

- diction over the lupin field , and the lupins all stood up h h straig t again, fair and flourish ing, and wit tenfold greater ’ h produce than they had at fi rst . It may be t at the Sweet leaved Milk Vetch (A straga lus Clusij) may have been in the h h mind of t e reciters of t is story, for in Spain we still

. hear of it as Yerba de Santa Maria 6 In the Wiils ch Tirol they say that the Stone Bramble (R ubus sa xa tilis) now creeps the earth but once was an upright bush, for that shame has dwarfed its race since th e time of the journey into Egypt, when, instead of aiding its Creator, it impeded His way by tearing the eastern veil from the head of the Holy Virgin, and in northern lands this is still recalled by its name in Denmark and ’ r iir . Sweden of Ju n gf u Maria b , or the Virgin Mary s Berry Along this weary journey we might place many a plant ’ which speaks by its ancient dedication of Mary s footprints, 202

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

Viburn um la n ia n a r ( ), anothe charming English designation, that seems to come to the mind as suitable in this place ; Vitex A n us a stus nor the Chaste Tree ( g C ), except from its use in the metaphor by St . Francis, who in his book ‘ ’ 4 ‘ entitled The Love of God (ix . ) says, If travellers “ ! wh o carry a branch of the Agnus Castus are refreshed h and rested, what refreshment t is glorious Mother must have received from carrying the Immaculate Lamb of ’ God . The Chaste Tree, which is known in Egypt and ’ t rn Arabia as Kaf Miriam or Mary s Hand, and by E a s e s ’ and Europeans as Abraham s Tree, is a species of Willow, ’ whose aromatic perfume scents the Jordan s banks, and to wh ose branches was attributed the virtue of combating weariness and assuaging the passions . Eastern monks are wont to make themselves girdles of it, and when going a j ourney to carry a small portion in their hands . One more Plant we can scarcely omit from this enumera ’ - L otus corn icula tus tion, for the beds of Bird s foot Trefoil ( ) once in fancy told to Christian eyes where the great Mother had gone, not alone but hand in hand with her greater

Son ; and so in France, when they saw its beauteous banks of gold, they regarded it as the mark of Le Pied de Bon

S chiih . Dieu, or in Germany of Herr Gotts In every part of Europe it was also known as S pringing forth at the ’ touch of Our Lady s Shoe or Slipper, and in Dorsetshire ’ they S poke of it as (Our) Lady s Cushion . The same union of names is found also in the lovely wild European orchid C ri ed ium ca lceolus yp p , and there are many other plants which the artist would be entirely justified to employ in scenes h of the Flight into Egypt or the Repose there, but whic we need not furth er suggest . REP O SE E G Y P T

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

M t ri This Garden of a a yeh , which is about six miles north of modern Cairo, and a furlong from th e walls of the Biblical On and Greek Heliopolis, was a spot to which pilgrims from Eastern and Western Christendom were wont to flock in early and mediaeval days, and thith er the children of the venerable Church of St . Mark still resort, as one of th e scenes in a portion of th e early life of Jesus th o o Ch rist . It is the origin of e R ép s s of the mediaeval

h - artists, known to them from t ose early deutero canonical

th e - gospels of Infancy, popular legend, mystery play, or ’ ’ carol song, and confirmed by pilgrims writings or crusader s story . Whether the Sycamore which we now find here known as the Virgin’ s Tree be the identical one that sh aded the Holy Family is a matter of dispute ; but it is not as a relic that we need to regard it, but as a monument marking a sacred

S pot . Still we understand that it is by no means unreason able to suppose that the portion existing is a survival of th e original ; for it is only in name that it is like to what we know in England as a Sycamore . Ours in Europe is

ri cer seud o la ta n us - either a Maple ( p p ), or else a Bead tree M alia Az ed a ra c/z th e ( ), but this is True Sycamore or ’ h Pharaoh s Fig, indigenous to Egypt and Syria, wit grain less, close , and incorruptible wood, of which those sarcophagi of Egypt were made with which our museums th e are now replete . Its leaves are like Alder, and its great rounded h ead of sombre green foliage is a f requent and welcome sight in Lower Egypt . In summer and autumn it bears upon small leafless shoots a quantity of round

- h fle sh coloured fruit, whic the Arab eats while young, hastening its ripening by making a small incision near the eye . In flavour it is sweet, recalling the apple and straw h berry, the skin thin, and the flesh w ite and watery like that of the Japanese Medlar ; it will not keep but becomes sickly and unpleasant after a day or two . This especial 208 THE REPOSE IN EGYPT tree at Ma ta riyeh is situated in an open space with a plantation about it of orange and oth er fruit- trees whose perfume scents the air ; though leaning considerably to one

S ide through the loss of the greater portion of its trunk, what remains is fairly sound, bears a fine crown of foliage, h and the enormous roots, w ich appear to be of extreme antiquity, are protected by a wooden palisade . The Arab guardians permit no one to injure th e bark or boughs, but allow th e pilgrim to kneel beneath the branch es and to h recite his Pater and Ave . T e great Egyptian traveller and ‘ student Burckh ardt says, Since the Egyptian Sycamore, h among various oth er trees, will live many t ousand years, th ere is nothing absurd in the supposition that the Virgin may have sat with the Infant Saviour under the shade of ‘ ’ this noble trunk (Egypt and Nubia, i . In Baedeker s ’ Guide, however, it is stated that this tree we now see was h planted in 1672, but t is must be entirely untrue, for Sandys in his Travels visited it S ixty years before that date, and

- 657 describes it as we see it to day ; so, too , Thevenot in 1 , after telling how a portion of it had previously fallen, adds ‘ ’ that the remainder was standing although fort vieux .

About the year 1750, a naturalist who was a friend and ae pupil of Linn us, examined it and considered it to be several hundred years old, while still earlier the Protestant travel 7 lers Jean Wessling and Dr. Sepp in 1 30 state their con victio n that it was th e same tree as was honoured in the h h second century . T ese aut orities show the impossibility

- of the date given in the popular guide book being correct, and seem to confirm the Coptic tradition as to its identity . The enclosure within wh ich are the Well and Tree o f the Holy Family is known as the Garden of Balsam, a n d herein grew the shrub that yielded the precious balm s o prized for its medicinal virtues and its fragrance . Some attribute its introduction to the time of the notorious

Cleopatra, who is s aid to have sent a commission to obtain 0 209 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

’ a plant from Solomon s Garden of En ga d d i ; but to the early Christians its presence here was linked with Him from whom all virtue flows , and they loved to think that it S prang up on the spots in this garden moistened by His sweat or from the water wherein His blissful Mother laved

His limbs or washed His robes . Even so great a com t r 21 m en ta o as Cornelius a Lapide (Ecclus . xxiv . 20, ) seems to see in its coming here a few years before the Holy Family’ s arrival a striking figure and realisation of the ‘ words, I gave forth My odour like sweet Balsam and ' My fragrance like pure myrrh ; and the ancient traditions of the sh rub we may find conveyed across Europe in connection with the Libanotis, Frankincense, or Rose i a Mary, and also in the Ta n a cetum Ba lsa m t , known as ’ - the Balm of Mary, Cost Mary, Oculus Christi, or Mary s

Myrrh . 5 Since 1 61 , when the last shrub in this garden was de ’ stroyed by a flood of the Nile s waters, not a single plant of

- O oba lsa mum . this historic Balsam (Ba lsa mo d en d ron p , Kunth ) has been known to come to Europe . From the earliest times it had been deemed so precious, that the Pharaohs of Egypt made eXp ed ition s into Central Africa to obtain it ; and upon the walls of the lovely temple enclosure of Deir el Bahari on the plain of Thebes we may see this tree being borne in tubs slung on poles between Nubian slaves on the return from the sacred land of Phut or Phu n t. Josephus tells u S that according to Jewish t radition the first plant of it in Judae a was a regal gift made by the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, and this is exceedingly probable ; for it fi n a n d - i a is still said to be found in the S d a , possibly ’ n s Abyssinia, whose kings claim descent from that Quee the son . It is to be hoped that now that this portion of e world is being opened to travellers, that we shall onc again be able to see this famous shrub which for nearly its three hundred years has been lost to botanists . Once 210

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

Christian folk ; it was with this reverence for it that once its gum was that employed by the Church as a component in the sacred chrism to be the balm upon the brow of anointed priest and king as well as on that of . the little baptized child, and for which the Balsam of Peru is now used as a substitute . The venerable Coptic Church of

Egypt once erected a chapel within this enclosure, and its foundations are still beneath the surface, and every year they gather here and still keep the Feast of Balsam, to revive the memory of the early years of their Saviour ’ s life in this land .

Upon leaving the Garden of Ma ta riyeh and moving on from

- their first resting place, the Holy Family came to the fortified

Roman town of Babylon, now known as Old Cairo ; and beneath one of the many interesting churches that have clustered about it is shown the grotto wherein the exiles dwelt . An old crusading bishop of Acre in 1244 says that ‘ - at Cairo is a very ancient Date tree, which spontaneously bent itself to th e Blessed Virgin when she wish ed to eat of its fruit ; ’ and it is told in the early writing called ‘The History of the Nativity and Infancy how the Holy Family ‘ sat beneath a Palm which bent its branches to give them its fruit, whereupon Our Lord bless ed it and said it should be one of the trees of Paradise, and called it the Palm of

’ Victory Every date- stone bears upon it a small circle as a Sigil of this gracious ministry of its fruit, which some say was the first word of exclamation in sur prise uttered by the Virgin Mother . In very early art this

- legend of the Palm tree is of frequent occurrence, as is also

- the similar story of the Cherry tree, but this latter is usually connected with the Visitation or some other period .

As far as we are aware, there has been no collection made of the traditions recorded at various places up the Nile ’ s flood ’ of the Holy Family s wanderings, but they are heard at such 212 THE REPOSE IN EGYPT

- a. spots as the monastery of Deir B aisous or Bai Jesus, i. the Home or House of Jesus, situated to the east of us r Behnesa, the ancien t Oxryn ch , near which the discove y ‘ S. of MS was recently made, and of which The Words of

’ Jesus have been published . At this place they tell how three trees were once growing there which had S prung from twigs put in the ground by Our Lord when a little boy, and to . this an ancient Bishop Cyria cu s refers in one of his sermon s that has been preserved relating to the Flight (Bibl . Patr.

Cod . Arab . 143) and of wh ich Silvestre de Sacy in his

Letters to Birch gives a description . So also at Birket or n f l t Birk, a village near Ma a fi , the Copts keep a festival on our 20th of May in honour of Our Lord having come to them upon that day ; and they say that an old Olive- tree in their vi llage S prang from a staff of that wood used by St.

Joseph, which was driven into the earth by the Divine

Child . Many other instances , no doubt, exist of this folk ’ lore relating to their stay on the Nile s banks ; and rem ains of it are to be found treasured in the changeless life of its people, ready to be garnered whenever we will take as great an interest in the Christian antiquities of the Holy Lan d

E - of gypt as we at present do in those of pre Christian time. It is grateful to be able to leave our Blessed Lo rd and

His Mother in the Land of the Repose, and to reflect that the early boyhood of the Ch ild of Bethlehem was spent under the enchantin g sunlight and in the exhilarating air of Egypt. It is the tradition that the Blessed Virgin earned her living by weaving linen, and St. Joseph by his trade as carpenter and builder, and no doubt they would have to move on from place to place in order to secure fresh work . I t was thus early that the Holy Child had, as it were, to ’ begin His apostolic wanderings, and to be about His Father s business . And just as the Copts love to think that wherever

He went Nature recognised His presence, the trees bowing 213 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

their heads, and the herbs giving forth their incense, so in truth did these deserts of yellow sand along th is rich Nile valley up which He passed become mystical paradises, blossoming in luxuriant abundance with lives of sanctity

- and self denial . It has been said that the religion He came to found, like Himself, though born in Judaea, was nurtured in Egypt, and it is pleasant to reflect that this interesting land was the first to rapturously enrol itself under the banner of His Cross . Few now ever think of this among the many hundreds who yearly visit Egypt, and the modern ease and comfort of access and existence there have banished from our memories the lessons it once recalled of God

- Incarnate and His saints . To day we can drive to the very gate of the Garden of Balsam and Mount of Myrrh from our it ‘ luxurious hotel, with nought to disturb our ease save b e the dust of our carriage wheels, and stand upon spots that

saints and kings once ardently desired . to see, and yet

could not see them, and which were denied to the earnest

h earts of thousands of crusading knights and nobles .

Think of this, however, you who drive along that road,

that Christendom in the purest days of its chivalry, in the

most earnest of its faith , and the most refined in its art, in

days whose thoughts have become the wisdom, as a great

author has said, of succeeding generations, that here it

gathered the noblest of its sons in intellect, sanctity,

position, and wealth, ready and happy to die for the Child ’ who played beneath the Sycamore s S hade of Ma ta riyeh .

C O N C L U S I O N E E H R , then, we conclude our Flora of the Nativity and

Infancy of our Lord ; but it is not only as curious old- world lore that we gather this store, suggestive to artist and poet, but with the h ope that it may be helpful in renewing and promulgating that intelligent interest in Nature wh ich is h the parent of so muc that is good . To transport oneself ’ away from to - day s lack of higher ideals and artistic imagin ings into those of the moyen age is like passing from the noisy, hot, and bustling street, with its fevered rush, into the peace and pleasant sh ade of some cloistered garth ; the mental contrast is that between the vulgar, animal life of h the moiling crowd and t e cultured, refined life of some h collegiate ome . It all seems so far away from us now th at a return of its peace of mind and healthy country life th appears impossible, while e telling of its pious thought reads like a poetic dream . The old habits of life and the customs they originated were first weakened by being changed or being branded as superstitious, and as their significance faded out of prominence th ey became lifeless ’ ‘ and unreal . Previously everything had its ra ison d etre ; for each observance there was an explanation, for each flower and herb employed at their festivities there was an interpretation, but, deprived of this, customs became empty pomanders . Their fragrance is still to be revived if we would make life as sincere and as mirthful as our fore

fathers did, and learn the S pirit of their j oy and the fou n d a tion of their faith . To many persons a sensibility for Nature is most keen and penetrating ; and even with those

to whom art and literature do not appeal, a lesson from the 217 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY flowers may often be found to arouse constant delight and appreciation . For such here is a book open to all, and here is the first writing to be read therein consecrated en turi s by the use of the g e past . A flower is often of h ‘ deeper significance t an mere words, speaks where words ’ become silent, and gains when words lose in meaning . Just as the Church fills all her windows and vacant spaces u with pict red glass, statuary, and paintin g, so that the eyes of priest and people may dwell on no profane object within ff her walls, a ording a lesson to the ignorant and an exhorta tion to all, so we may see in the Christian Flora h o w S h e S made all Nature peak to the listening heart, and how her faithful children have loved to wed the trees and shrubs with sacred and wholesome lore, so that the mind was distracted from vanity and weariness, and familiar things were interwoven with associations to interest them mentally and assist them spi ritually . As year by year we allow our m national life to become more hurried and harried, and our a h bitions to be more sordid and ungainly, we s all get driven away further and further from all possibilities of a reposeful temperature of mind and appreciation of the j oy of living, while the recalling to memory of the quiet th ought and happy meth od of life of olden days will become more visionary ‘ h and impossible . Truly the world hath lost its yout , and ’ the days begin to ware old, and we seem to be resolutely casting from us the habits and beliefs that made child hood happy and youth and manhood noble . Yet many among us must crave for something of the poetry of the old thought and the piety of its ways . Shall we not make

- s ome effort, at least at the Nativity tyde, to become once again as little children in their simplicity, and enter into the joy of that Kingdom of Heaven which pious hearts have ’ opened to us as they contemplated earth s meadow- sweet fields in their pilgrimage from things temporal to those eternal ? 218

I N D E X

ABR H T R e hur h 1 2 . NC 8 . A AM A SA A CLA A, 5 B lls, C c , 9 ’ A r h re 2 0 eth ehe urn e to . e . b a am s T , 4 B l m, Jo y , 59

A 1 . 1 . cacia, 33 Cowslip , 59

A n te n r S e 1 1 60. te 1 1 . co i , Wi , 4 ag of, 45,

A en t . St r 1 88. dv , 54 a of,

A r n e 1 02 M l r tt 1 . g imo i s, . i k G o o, 55

A u n St. 2 2 . r 6 . lb i , 3, 9 Bi ds, 9

A s r e . r et 2 0 2 e 1 2 0 1 80 1 . lca os a, , Bi k , 7, 3

A n r ur 2 . th rn e n L e 1 1 . l xa d ia a l, 3 Black o , 9

A r n thu u t 2 8. r en 1 1 u 2 . ma a s ca da s, B ack , 47, 7

A r n 1 6. r e t n e 2 02 . mb osi i, B ambl , S o ,

An t t 1 0 2 02 . r e ter 0. as a ica, 7, B idg wa , 9 A e A h n 1 01 r th n r e . er rt 1 6 . g lica c a g lica, 33, B o wo , 4

A 68 1 8. r u h 1 2 n 6. imals, , 9 B o g ,

An th n t. 2 u rn S 8 . th 6 . o y, , B ck o , 7 ’ A t h n r t 1 u n e O 1 1 1 8 1 2 . ip o s, G a , 59 , 7, , B gloss, 5

A e 2 1 00 1 01 1 0 . u tr e 2 . ppl , 9 , , , 4 B ls od , 9

A n I . u r 8 r e O . ica, 5 B l y aks, 99

Art t an d N ture 6. urn n u h 1 2 . is s a , 3 B i g B s , 9 ’ Ash ut her r 1 2 . 74, 77 B c s B oom , 3 .

A en 1 6 . sp , 9

A h e 1 2 0. N OA K sp od l, CAD AM , 9 7.

A 68 I 0. r 2 0 2 1 2 . ss, , 5 Cai o, 7,

A ter ra n d iflorus 1 86. r er 2 1 s g , Calva y Clov , 5, 49 .

A r u 1 1 0. te n u 1 2 0. s isc s, Campa la, A r u 2 t 2 0 . n L hn 1 s agal s, Campio ( yc is), 74, 79 .

Atr e tu 1 . n e 1 61 1 . ipl x pa la, 93 Ca dl mas, , 75

Au u t n e t. 6 . L e S etc . 1 g s i , , ily, B lls, , 35, 77. ’ n e r 1 Ca dl , V. Ma y s, 73, 79 .

LS 2 2 1 2 . 0 rd n e 1 6. BA AM , 9 , Ca ami , 5

en r n 2 1 0. r uu r n u 1 1 Balsamod d o , Ca d s Ma ia s, 47, 57.

6. uh n I r n u 2 8 1 86. Ba i , Ca li a aca lis, ,

e tr 1 6 1 . r e M r. . B ds aw, 4 , 47 Ca lyl , , 4, 5

ee 6 . r a n d r er 6 B s, 9 Ca ols Ca oll s, 3, 95,

ehn e 20 2 1 . 1 1 2 . B sa, 7, 3 44, 5 THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

’ l th r t 2 1 r e n te t n . Ca olic Flo is , . C ad Co s lla io , 73 ’ t e e n te 2 1 . e re en ta t n 2 Ca alogo d ll pla , R p s io s, 5, e an in e re ter 1 2 . r u 2 x 1 01 1 . C l d , G a , 9 C oc s, , , 37 en t ure 1 86 r n h 1 2 1 . C a a, . C ow of T orn s, 3 , 49 er t u 1 86. Cruxton 1 . C as i m , , 9 er u herr 1 01 1 . u wee 1 . C as s (C y), , 34 C d d, 37 h r e n e 2 8. u ture . C a l mag , C l , 5 h e - tree 2 0 u n u n u 1 6 . C ast , 4. C mi (C mi m), 9 un il o 1 1 Chid eocke, 9 1 . C ag , 1 0 , 46. h er 1 1 . r e iu e 20 . C ild mas, 9 Cyp ip d m calc olus, 4 hi h 1 8 6. C ld ood, 4 , 4 , 53, 5

l n t n 0. Chi li g o , 9 OR DAGNY TH N, 96. t te a n d N en . Chris mas , Da , ov a of, 55 he 1 6 1 . Das l, Milky, 4 , 57 or er . Bran d Tap , 73 te - tree 2 1 2 Da , . e 1 01 1 0 2 0 . Ros , , 7, 7 v 1 8 Da id, 7. L og, 73, 77 e D em er, the H ly n th, t c b o Mo Fago . 74 e h Or e a t . D lp i, acl , 3 re e etc . . B ad, Cak s, , 77, 99 e h n u 1 2 . D lp i i m, 9 Tree u h 1 2 1 0 1 3. , B s , 5, 3 , 3 t Deme er, 3. r e e- heer 1 02 . Gambol , P id , Gobbl g , er h re 1 . D bys i , 44 in 1 00. Christl g plum, e 1 8. D smas, 9 r t hur h n t 1 1 . Ch is c c , Ha s, 9 D ew e en 1 . of H av , 35 u In u 1 01 1 02 . Chrysan them m dic m, , Di t n u , 1 . ’ c am s 33 ’ n r 2 1 . Church s Floral Cale da , it 1 2 . Dig alis, 7 r e utet an 1 8 . Ci ca a l i a, 3 i 1 D ttan y, 33. ’ the e n s 1 8. Circle of S aso , n r e a t . Dodo a, O acl , 3 n e t the 1 6 . Circumcisio , F as of , 9 r he ter O n 1 1 . Do c s , xo , 9 r 1 . Clava ia, 93 r th St. 2 . Do o y, , 7 n 1 . Cla y , 9 u h or D ocs Yu e 8. Do g s , l , 7 h n er 1 . Cle o g , 9 r en 1 2 0. D aca a, t t . Clema is vi alba, 33 r t h 1 D oi wic , 9 . - r n 6 8 . Cock c owi g, 9, 5 r r 1 6 D ose a, 3 . e h 2 . Cogg s all, 9 D u 1 . Val, 7 t f t 2 2 1 . Col s oo , , 37

lu St. 2 6. Co mba, ,

E crm m 1 2 . re 1 . Comf y, 59 , 5

E 1 2 0 . t n e t I u te 6 6 . t Con cep io , F as of mmac la , 5 , 9 gyp . 97. 7

E eu e e a t . 2 . T r 1 0 l i , m l , 3 Con co dia, s s p

E eth t. 2 . n . za S Con stellatio s, 73 li b , 7

E t h 2 00. t 2 2 00 2 08 2 1 2 2 1 . lm, i , , , W c Cop s, 7 , , 3

E n a d d i n e . 2 1 1 . , i , 99 rn , g V s of Co wall, 9 3 E h n x8 r u 2 00. i y. 55. 3 Co yl s, 75, p p a

Er n th h em a lis 1 1 . 1 8 . i , 4 Cowslip, 74, 3 a s y

- E n A n u 1 2 0. rts 1 1 . r er Cradle or Crib wo , 4 ig o lpi s,

E t 1 02 . e . u r u Cak s, 77 pa o i m, 222

THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

’ hn the t t St. 2 6 1 6 1 8 . rt n L en t t Jo Bap is , , , 4 , 7 Ma i s , S ., 54.

e h St. 1 1 60 2 1 . r Jos p , , 37, , 3 Ma ygold, 34. Ar th e St. . r er 1 1 6 2 2 1 of ima a a, , 93, 95 Ma y, Flow s of, 5, , 3, 4, 3 ,

un er 1 8 1 8 etc. J ip , 3 , 9 . t r n t 2 02 Foo p i s of, .

OC T . 2 e r 1 6 S . 1 1 8 . KAD , 3 T a s of, 3 , 59 , 4 r t B 1 0 2 0 . e . V . 1 0 1 2 1 2 8 1 . Kaf Mi iam , 9, 4 Ti l s of , 7, 7, , 35

en r 86 1 1 . Kal da , . Vigil of, 7

K n fi her 6 . a n 6 i g s , 9 W ssail so g of, 7 . ’ n the hree 1 8 . r e tr 1 Ki gs, T , 73, 3 Ma y s B ds aw, 46, 1 47.

- n u n h 1 . err 2 02 Kissi g b c , 44 B y, .

u S n t 8. er . Kla s, a a, 5 Bow , 33

n t ee 1 . rt 1 6. K o w ds, 93 Milkwo s, 5 er or n Tap Ca dle, 73, 1 79 .

L IS S T 2 8. AD A , S . h t e 1 6 1 . L , T is l , 4 , 57 ’ ’ La H en Our 0. y ree 1 0 1 1 1 6 2 00. d s , , 7 T , , 3 3 , 7 , ’ L et re Sun . r fl 1 en er . a a day, 54 Ma y Magdal s ow , 3

L u 1 01 1 . e hree 1 . ami ms, , 59 Mass s, T , 7 L n u e r a n d A n 6 . n ht 2 . a g ag of Bi ds imals, 9 Mass, Mid ig , 7 M a ta er 1 2 1 6. ri eh 2 0 2 1 1 . of Flow s, , y , 7,

L r ur 1 2 . e 2 1 a ksp , 9 M dicago, 5, 48.

L un e t n 2 . e 1 1 a c s o , 9 M lampo , 75, 4 .

L e ur 0. e Or h e e 1 2 db y, 9 M xico, c idac a of, . 1 rt 1 6 L ee 1 2 6 . . ds, , 43 Milkwo s, 5 ’ L e en ure . r tt 1 6 g da a a , 7 Milk G o o, 5 . ’ L e n uru r . or 1 o s ca diaca, 79 Milly Miladi s box, 43.

L n t 1 0 . n t en th 1 . iba o is, 3 Mi s (M a), 45

ht a n d r n e 1 . t et e 1 2 1 . Lig Da k ss, 7 Mis l o ,

L N z reth L u r n 1 . n uth h re 2 1 2 6. ily of a a ( ili m Ma tago ), 44 Mo mo s i , 9 ,

L n n h re 1 . e ree 1 . i col s i , 43 Mos s, T of, 33

L n tt 2 . M othersw rt la ga ock, 9 o , 79 .

Llw n m a en 1 . u e n 1 2 0 1 . y y , 44 M ll i s, 74, , 79

L o Y u e t 1 1 . g , l , 731 77 Myoso is, 5

Lo n er 1 1 1 2 0 . rt e 1 2 . ic a, , 3 My l , Wild, 3

Lo tu rn u tu 2 0 . s co ic la s, 4

- L e e a ee n 2 8. N O 1 0. ov li s bl di g, AME , H LY, 7

L un rt 1 60. N z reth urn e r . gwo , a a , Jo y f om, 59

L u n 2 02 . L 1 pi s, ily of, 44.

L hn 2 8 1 . Ne et e h 2 0 . yc is, , 74, 79 p a gl c oma, 3

L u tu 1 01 . t r 1 . ycopodi m clava m, ca a ia, 59

N h St. 6. ic olas, , 5

ON 1 2 1 1 . 1 N ht 6 1 0 1 1 2 . MADEL , , 4 ig , Holy, 7, 9, ’ ’ n n the 6 . N ht h e 1 8 . Mado a s Fowl , , 9 ig s ad , 3

1 1 2 1 2 0 1 80. N rth t n 1 2 . Mallows, , , o amp o , 7

M ia stern 1 1 . N n hr t 1 . a r , 4 ove a of C is mas, 5 224 INDEX

r e e e n te t n . OA K , 77, 97, 99 . P a s p Co s lla io , 73 ’ O An t h n re t re en t t n in e e 1 . ip o s, G a , 59 , P s a io T mpl , 75

r u er 1 1 . Olive, 77, 2 1 3. P im la v is, 9 , 74, 79

6 8 . n 2 1 1 . ru en t u O (Heliopolis), P d i s, 9, 5

run u un 1 . On obrychis, 1 49 . P s comm is, 9

r e n n t 1 02 . Or he 1 . l i , ac , 93 Pso a a p a a

1 2 . r h 1 2 1 8. ter u n 1 O c is, 48, 5 , 5 P is aq ili a, 47, 7 ’ l n r 1 . r n e t . u O io s B l , 73 P mo a ia, 59 1 6 1 8 . ur fi t n . Orn ithogalum, 1 5 , 4 P i ca io of 75

ru un i 1 00 1 8 . O er 1 . y , , 3 si , 75 P s comm s

Ox, 68.

U INTON 8 . Oxlip, 1 83. Q A , 9

N 1 1 1 . V N 6 . PA SY, 5 , 73 RA E , 9 fl e 6. en n e In uen e 1 1 . Para dise or Parvis , 4 R aissa c , c of, 3, 3

rh 2 . ha n u 6. Pa am, 9 R m s, 7

r n n 8 1 . n 1 0 . Pa ki so , 7, 44 Ripo , 73, 4 '

- n flower 2 2 8 . or Dista fi St. . Passio , 5, Rock, Day, , 55

- tr t 2 6 . n e r h 2 . Pa ick, S , 95 Rom y ma s , 9

F a x v n the 1 2 1 . 6 . , gi i g , 4, 44 Rook, 9

- e r tree 1 00 1 8 . e r r n u 6 1 02 2 00. P a s, , 3 Ros ma y (Rosma i s), 7 , ,

e fie 1 6 . e N ht hr t et 1 0 . P as , ld of, 7 Ros , Holy ig , C is mas, c. , 7 ’ r a en r 1 8. e 1 1 2 . Pe en n ial C l da , Ros Mallow,

er r 1 2 . e M a ria stern 1 1 . P sica ia, 9 Ros of , 4

eter St. 1 . u u t 2 02 . P , , 3 R b s saxa ilis,

eter M rt r St. 2 . ue n u ta 1 02 . P a y , , 9 R llia pa ic la , ’ h r h F i 2 08. u u u e tu a n d r e u 1 2 . P a ao s g, R sc s ac l a s ac mos s, 3 ' i 6 Pifiera r , 53, 3.

- r 1 2 . CR N T OW F n e t ee S R O SS 2 8. Pi , 77, 7 A AME , FL E BLE ED,

1 8 . S n n 1 8. Pisa, 5 ai foi , 4

Pista chia ere n thu 1 6. S n 1 . T bi s, 7 alix vimi alis, 75

- n t l re 2 1 . n 200. Pla o , Babylo ica,

u h n . S 1 86. Plo g Mo day, 55 alsify, ’ et En e 1 8. S fr e 1 1 20 . Pock cyclopa dia, axi ag , 7 , 3

n ett 1 1 1 8 . S e 1 2 8. Poi s ia, 3, 5 cala Co li,

e n u 1 2 8. S u h n u 1 . Pol mo i m, colym s ispa ic s, 57

n the tu r a 1 2 0. S ur e O . . L r 2 8. Polia s be os , co g of B o d,

m ltiflorum 1 2 1 8 . Se u 1 8. Polygon atum u , 9 , 7 d m, 5

n u 1 2 1 . Seli in ella 1 1 1 . Polygo m, 9 , 93 g ,

- u 1 6 . Se en e r e . Polypodi m , 5 v y a s lov , 45

P011 5 S n 2 . Sha e e re 8 . , a s, 9 k sp a , 5

r e n 2 1 0 . Shee 68 6 . Posada P oc ssio s, 5 , 59 , 4 p, , 9

h 1 0 . Shen e 2 . Posc iavo, 9 l y, 9 t n 2 0 he her th e t . S e eth ehe 22 1 1 1 6 . Po illa, 3 p ds, B l m, , 4 , 5

u n N h 1 8. S e 2 . Po ssi , ic olas, 4 impl s, 7 P THE FLORA OF THE SACRED NATIVITY

Sn r 1 . r n t e e 1 1 1 1 . owd op, 35, 77 T i i y, Bl ss d, 5 , 7

- - Sn in Su er 1 86. r t u 2 02 . ow mm , T i ic m,

S rt en t n S n r 1 . u er e 1 2 0. oapwo g ia ( apo a ia), 79 T b os , ’ S n Se 1 2 u 2 2 1 . olomo s al, 9 , T ssilago, , 37

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6 ' Symbolism , 3 t s 2 0 . Vitex Agn us ca s u , 4 e n St 1 80 Sym o , . ue d e . Voragin e, Jacq s , 7

T 1 0. TANSY, TANACE U M, 1 71 , 2 ITS H R IST S 6 . WA , C MA , 53, 3 er h er s u . Tap , Hig (V ba c m), 74 a 2 . l log , S , 9 - Wa s ere n th or u n t n e tree 1 6. T bi T rpe i , 7 6 1 2 6. Wassail , 7 , h t e 2 8 1 6 1 1 1 86 . T is l s, , 4 , 47, 57, Le en the . Wayfarin g M a n , g ds of , 79 h u h e 1 01 1 6 . T ym s, T ym , , 4 ’ ree 2 0 . Man s T , 3 h rn . See u th rn th rn T o s B ck o , Black o

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