^^^^•] The Resurrection Flower. 



319 



how quickly everything was seized upon and deified which could be 

 made symbolical of their tenets, and were thus transmitted to posterity 

 figured as hieroglyphics; and it is but natural to presume that this 

 simple flower, with its brilliant halo, so typical of glory and resurrec 

 tion, would have ranked high in their mythology. 



" On examining the flower in its expanded state, it resembles, both in 

 shape and color, a dried poppyhead with the stem attached. Upon being 

 immersed a moment or two in a glass of water, and set uprio-ht in the 

 neck of a small vial, in a few moments the upper petals beein to burst 

 open gradually, yet visibly to the eye; they continued to expand until 

 throwing themselves back in equidistant order, there was presented a 

 beautifully radiated starry flower, somewhat resembling both the passion 

 flower and the sun-flower, and yet more splendid than either. The un- 

 folding still continued until the petals hent hackivard over what mioht 

 be termed the base of the flower, presenting, in bold relief in its center 

 Its rosette of the most exquisite form and ornamentation, and assuming a 

 new charm, entirely eclipsing what a moment before seemed its absolute 

 perfection. The drawings were made at the moment when the flower 

 presented the phases illustrated ; but language and artistic skill can 

 but feebly portray this extraordinary specimen of the floral kinc^dom 

 After remaining open for an hour or more, the moisture irradually dis- 

 sipates itself, the fibers of the flower contract as gradiially as they 

 expanded, and it reassumes its original appearance, ready to be unfolded 

 again by the same simple process, the number of times seemin- to be 

 limited by the will of the possessor. 



_ " Dr. Deck suggests that the flower is a native of tbe Holv Land and 

 IS a type or variety of the long-lost rose of Jericho, called also the 

 Rose of Sharon," and the - Star of Bethlehem," and highlv venerated 

 for Its rarity and peculiar properties by the pilgrims and Crusaders, and 

 eagerly sought after by them as a priceless emblem of their zeal and pil- 

 grimage, and worn on their escutcheons in a similar manner as the scol- 

 lop-she 1 and palm branch. This idea is strengthened by the fact, that 

 resemblances of the flower, both open and closed, are sculptured upon the 

 tombs of two of the Crusaders buried in the Temple Church of London 

 and also m the Cathedrals of Bayeux and Rouen, in Xormandy, where 

 some of the most illustrious Crusaders are interred. 



- Its botanical position is difiicult to assign, as it presents some pecu- 

 liarities of the highest and lowest classes. The opinion most sanctioned 

 IS, that the flower is the pericarp or seed-vessel of the plant that grows 

 in desert or sandy places, and falls in due course of existence from the 



