IIARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GUSSIP. 



149 



The drainage of the country may also be noted, 

 it, for the most part, being subterranean, wliile in 

 winter turloughs are formed in many of the valleys. 

 It appears remarkable tliat in a country where water 

 is so valuable, these natural reservoirs should not 

 be taken advantage of, and the surplus winter water 

 retained in them during the summer, as this, in 

 some at least, could be done simply and cheaply. 



G. H. KiNAHAN. 



ON THE LEGENDS AND HISTORY OF 

 CERTAIN PLANTS. 



A T a recent meeting of the Eastbourne Natural 

 -^^ History Society, the following interesting 

 paper on the above subject was read by Miss Van 

 Sommer : — In the earlier ages of our earth's recorded 

 liistory, human imagination busied itself in investing 

 with mystical associations all the orders of creationi 

 and especially the vegetable kingdom. Human life 

 has always been closely linked with plant life, on 

 account of our drawing so extensively irom it the 

 great necessities of our animal existence, — food, 

 clothing, and shelter; while the structure, beauty, 

 and growth of plants admirably qualify them for 

 symbolical uses ; as the same terms that actually 

 express their formation, up-springing, and fructifica- 

 tion, are used metaphorically of mankind, as we see 

 in the Holy Scriptures, in the legends of antiquity, 

 and in daily use. 



Some words, which we often employ. Lave an old 

 association with plants of which we seldom think : 

 book comes from " beech," as this tree furnished 

 writing-boards ; paper comes from the reed papyrus, 

 as the Egyptians employed its soft cellular pith to 

 make paper ; the Greek name of this plant is 

 hiblos, hence Bible ; and the word liber, a book, 

 from whence we get library, &c., was called after 

 the white inner bark of a tree used for writing 

 upon ; calamus, the Latin for pen, is derived from the 

 word for reed, once serving as a pen ; and it is worthy 

 of note that the names of the letters of the Irish 

 alphabet are all names of trees, each beginning with 

 the letter for which it stands ; as A, ailtim, the palm : 

 B, helt, the beech, &c. Our word " Lent " is sup- 

 posed to he derived from the lentil {Ervum lens), 

 a small kind of pulse, sometimes eaten in Roman 

 Catholic countries during the season ; and the word 

 lens itself is from this source, as the shape of the 

 pea is that of a double convex lens. 



Many trees and flowers themselves are made types 

 of things they in some way represent. An almond- 

 tree covered with blossoms signifies hoary old age ; 

 an oak, strength; the reed, weakness; the palm, 

 stateliness and victory, because the tree is so elastic 

 that, when pressed down, it will rise and recover its 

 former position ; the amaranth, which does not fadcj 

 signifies immortality ; the ivy, clinging affection ; 



the poppy, sleep, because of its narcotic powers. 

 The holly and other evergreens were long ago adopted 

 by the races of the North, as signs of tb.e life by 

 which nature was preserved all the winter, and they 

 put pieces in their temples to comfort the sylvan 

 spirits during the general death. The concentric 

 layers of the onion made it a sign of the universe 

 among the Egyptians. 



Some plants are emblematical on account of cer- 

 tain events or customs : of these are the national 

 emblems. The rose of England became especially 

 famous during the wars of the Roses, after which the 

 red and white were united ; and the rose of both 

 colours is called the York and Lancaster ; but when 

 these flowers first became badges of the two houses 

 we cannot discover. The thistle is honoured as the 

 emblem of Scotland, from the circumstance that 

 once upon a time a party of Danes having approached 

 the Scottish camp unperceived, by night, were on 

 the point of attacking it, when one of the soldiers 

 trod on a thistle, which caused bim to cry out, and 

 so aroused the enemy. The shamrock of Ireland 

 was held by St. Patrick to teach the doctrine of the 

 Trinity, and chosen in remembrance of him : it is 

 always worn by the Irish on St. Patrick's Day. 

 The leek, in Wales, as a national device, has not 

 been satisfactorily explained, otherwise than as the 

 result of its having the old Cymric colours, green and 

 white. In France, the fleur-de-lis is so called as 

 a corruption of Fleur-de-Louis, and has no con- 

 nection with the lily, but was an iris, chosen as an 

 emblem by Louis VIL when he went to the 

 Crusades, and afterwards named after him. The 

 olive is deemed an emblem of peace : probably be- 

 cause on account of its durability of growth, it was 

 planted both in Greece and Italy to mark tiie 

 limits of landed possessions. 



Very many plants owe their celebrity to the heal- 

 ing properties with which they are probably endowed, 

 as their common names indicate. Of these arc self- 

 heal, woundwort, liverwort, lungwort, eyebright' 

 joose-strife, flea-bane, salvia, from salvo, to heal ; 

 potentilla, from potential, &c. But in many instances 

 these properties used to be exaggerated and distorted 

 in such a manner that the application of certain 

 plants in wounds and illness, merely as a charm, 

 superseded their being used in a way that might be 

 beneficial; and the witches' caldrons (like those 

 mentioned in Macbeth, and the old British caldron 

 of Ceridween), which contained decoctions of ail 

 kinds of plants, mystically prepared, were looked to 

 as all-powerful remedies when applied with strange 

 rites and incantations. 



Some plants have been famous on account of their 

 poisonous qualities, which in various cases have made 

 them historical. The hemlock {Conitim macidatum) 

 was formerly used in Greece as the state poison, for 

 it was the custom to put prisoners to death by its 

 means ; and it is believed that Socrates, Theramenes, 



