502 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 161. 



The legend of the Aspen- tree (PopuJusiremula) 

 is thus beautifully told by Mrs. Hemans : 



" Father. Hast thou heard, my boy, 

 The peasant's legend of that quivering tree? 



Child. No, father : doth he say the fairies dance 

 Amidst the branches? 



Father. Oh ! a cause more deep. 

 More solemn far the rustic doth assign 

 To the strange restlessness of those wan leaves. 

 The Cross, he deems, the blessed Cross, whereon 

 The meek Redeemer bow'd His head to death, 

 Was form'd of aspen wood : and since that hour 

 Through all its race the pale tree hath sent down 

 A thrilling consciousness, a secret awe 

 Making them tremulous, when not a breeze 

 Disturbs the airy thistle-down, or shakes 

 The light lines of the shining gossamer." 



Wood Walk and Hymn. 



Lightfoot ascribes this legend to the Highlanders 

 of Scotland. Another legend runs thus : 



" At that awful hour of the Passion, when the Sa- 

 viour of the world felt deserted in His agony, when — 



' The sympathising sun his light withdrew, 

 And wonder'd how the stars their dying Lord could 

 view * — 



■when earth, shaken with horror, rung the passing bell 

 for Deity, and universal nature groaned ; then from 

 the loftiest tree to the lowliest flower all felt a sudden 

 thrill, and trembling, bowed their heads, all save the 

 proud and obdurate aspen, which said, ' Why should 

 we weep and tremble? we trees, and plants, and flowers 

 are pure and never sinned ! ' Ere it ceased to speak, 

 an involuntary trembling seized its every leaf, and the 

 word went forth that it should never rest, but tremble 

 on until the day of judgment." 



With regard to the Passion Flower, I need but 

 refer to Mrs. Hemans' lines in the poem above 

 quoted. The legend of the Arum maculatum is 

 similar to that of the Robin Redbreast : 



" These deep inwrought marks 

 The villager will tell thee (and with voice 

 Lower'd in his true heart's reverent earnestness) 

 Are the flower's portion from the atoning blood, 

 On Calvary shed. Beneath the Cross it grew, 

 And in the vase-like hollow of the leaf, 

 A few mysterious drops transmitted thus 

 Unto the groves and hills their sealing stains — 

 A heritage for storm or vernal wind 

 Never to waft away." — Wood Walk and Hymn. 



The beautiful shrub, Cereis siligTiastrum, or 

 Arbor Judce, 



" Is thought to be that whereon Judas hanged him- 

 selfe, and not upon the elder-tree as it is vulgarly 

 said." — Gerarde's Herbal (by Johnson) : Lond. 1633, 

 folio. 



Of Adam's Apple-tree, or West Indian plantain 

 (^Miisa serapionis), the same writer says : 



" If it (the fruit) be cut according to the length, 

 oblique, transverse, or any other way whatsoever, may 



be seen the shape and forme of a Crosse, with a man fas- 

 tened thereto. Myselfe have scene the fruit and cut it 

 in pieces, which was brought me from Aleppo in pickle. 

 The Crosse I might perceive as the forme of a Spred Egle 

 in the root of Feme ; but the man I leave to be sought 

 by those who have better eies and judgment than 

 myselfe. . . . The Grecians and Christians \v^ inhabit 

 Syria, and the Jews also, suppose it to be that tree of 

 whose fruit Adam did taste." 



In a work by a bright star of the dreary 

 eighteenth century, Jones of Nayland, entitled 

 Re/lections on the Groioth of Heathenism among 

 modern Christians, the following passage occurs : 



" Botany, which in ancient times was full of the 

 blessed Virgin Mary, and had many religious me- 

 morials aflSxed to it, is now as full of the heathen 

 Venus, the Mary of our modern virtuosi. Amongst 

 the ancient names of plants, we found the Culceohis 

 Maria, Carduus Maria, Carduus benedictus, Our Lady's 

 Thistle, Our Lady's Mantle, the Alchymilla, &c. ; but 

 modern improvements have introduced the Speculum 

 Veneris, Labrum Veneris, Venus's Looking- Glass, 

 Venus's Basin, Venus's Navelwort, Venus's Flytrap, 

 and such like ; and whereas the ancient botanists took 

 a pleasure in honouring the memory of the Christian 

 saints with the St. John's Wort, St. Peter's Wort, Herb 

 Gerard, Herb Christopher, and many others, the 

 modern ones, more affected to their own honour, have 

 dedicated several newly discovered genera of plants to 

 one another, of which the Hottonia, the Sibthorpia, are 

 instances, with others, so numerous and familiar to men 

 of science, that they need not be specified." 



Sir Thos, Browne, in one of his Dialogues, makes 

 the Puritan Prynne say, — 



" In our zeal we visited the gardens and apothecaries' 

 shops. So Vnguentum Apostolicum was commanded to 

 take a new name, and besides, to find security for its 

 good behaviour for the future. Carduus benedictus, 

 Angelica, St. John's Wort, and Our Lady's Thistle, 

 were summoned before a class and forthwith ordered to 

 distinguish themselves by more sanctified appellations." 

 — Quoted in Southey's Colloquies, i. p. 373., and in 

 Teale's Life of William Jones, p. 367. 



" Ah ! what ravages Botany has made in the poetry 

 of flowers ! Truly there was exquisite beauty in many 

 of our old-fashioned country appellations. How many 

 a tale of rustic love yet lives in some of their names ! 

 Who can doubt whence arose such ''' as Sweet William, 

 Mary-gold, Herb Robert, None-so-pretty, Goldilocks, or 

 Timothy -grass 9 And by the very name were village 

 maidens warned against Love-in-idleness and London 

 Pride ; and long delicious walks in the deep summer 



* As I have quoted this pretty passage of Warden 

 Neale's, I must correct a little error he has fallen into. 

 Some of the plants here mentioned are holy or conse- 

 crated : the Dianthus barbatus is sacred to St. William 

 of York, June 8 ; the Geranium, or Cranesbill, to St. 

 Robert the Benedictine ; the Phleum pratense to St. 

 Timothy, January 24 ; and the AnthyUis vulneraria, a 

 May flower, was anciently called " Our Ladle's 

 Fingers." 



