312 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[October, 



course huge lots of our old friends, Madame 

 Plantier, Begonias, Pomegranites, Oleanders, Cox- 

 combs, Lilies of many kinds, Friesia, Veronicas 

 from New Zealand, Cannas, and a Dwarf 

 White Dahlia, which in a six-inch pot will 

 have half a dozen flowers and the whole 

 plant not much higher than the pot itself. Then 

 there were Perennial Phloxes, Arundo Donax, 

 Hydrangeas, Coleus, Ericas from the Cape of 

 Good Hope, Gardenias, Aucubas, Campanulas 

 tortured and twisted around stakes to all sorts of 

 fantastic forms; these will give some sort of an 

 idea of the kind of things that go to make up the 

 grand flower market in Madeline Square ; or, if 

 we must we must. Place de la Madeleine. The 

 cut flowers, of course, furnish an ample contribu- 

 tion to this beautiful scene. Huge buTiches of 

 Roses, fresh as if covered with morning dew, of 

 La France, Paul Neron, Eugene Appert, can be 

 had for a song, or a few sous, which is much the 

 same thing ; and, after having feasted the mind 

 to its heart's content, we can go into a restaurant 

 along "La Place" and get a feast for the bodily 

 man that would be good enough for Napoleon 

 were he here and living yet, for about 5 francs. 

 Having seen how the people get their flowers, 1 

 will try next and see how the wealthier grow 

 specimen plants. Paris, August loth, /SSj. 



OUR LADY'S GARDEN. 



BY R. A. OAKES. 

 III. 



But, above all other flowers, the Virgin claims 

 the incense of the lily and the rose, types of purity 

 and love. It is said that, when the unmarried 

 men of the lineage of David assembled to woo the 

 Virgin, their rods were placed in the temple, with 

 the understanding that the owner of the rod found 

 budded should be her husband ; and that of 

 Joseph alone was found covered with lilies. After 

 her death, the doubting apostle Thomas refused to 

 believe in her ascension; but on the opening of 

 the tomb it was found full of lilies and roses, and, 

 on looking up, Thomas beheld her in her flight to 

 the heavenly hosts, and she threw to him her 

 girdle, to insure his faith. 



In the Golden Legend, a lily is said to have 

 grown out of the grave of an ignorant knight, who 

 could only be taught to say Ave Maria. On 

 every leaf was the invocation in letters of gold, 

 and, on opening the grave, the root was found to 

 have grown from the faithful knight's mouth. A 

 similar story is told of an idiot boy of Brittany, 



who lived under a tree in Auray, and who could 

 never be taught more than the repetition of the 

 words "Ave Maria" and " Salaun is hungry." 

 When he died, the neighbors, thinking him soul- 

 less, buried him beneath the tree where he had 

 lived. But the Virgin in rebuke, caused a lily to 

 grow out of the poor boy's grave, every leaf of 

 which was stamped with Ave Maria in letters of 

 gold. A chapel now adorns the place, in which 

 is the shrine of Salaun the Simple, and the idiot 

 boy, as a popular saint, insures tender reverence 

 for those who possess a soul, if not a mind. 



From their association with the Virgin, lilies 

 were thought to confer maternity on women, with- 

 out other aid than the mere eating of them, and a 

 vase of these flowers became the symbol of mother- 

 hood. Bede uses them as an emblem of the 

 Virgin's resurrection, the pure white petals sweet 

 as her own spotless body, the golden anthers 

 within typifying her soul, sparkling with divine 

 light. The fourth King ot Navarre, in memory of 

 an image of the Virgin found in the heart of a 

 lily, and which cured him of a dangerous disorder, 

 instituted the Order of the Blessed Lady of the 

 Lily. In 1403, Ferdinand of Aragon, in honor of 

 the Virgin, instituted an order of knighthood, 

 called the Order of the Lily, whose badge was a 

 collar composed of these flowers. 



Most frequently is the Virgin designated as 

 Santa Maria della Rosa. Dante says: 



"—Here is tlie Rose 

 Wherein tlie Word Divine was made inearnate.'* 



She is the Rosa mystica. Old Sir John Mande- 

 ville tells the legend of one who had "gathered 

 much goods of his lord's," approaching a wood 

 where thieves were gathered, and as he knelt to 

 say "Our Lady's Saulter," the Virgin came and 

 placed a garland on his head, and "at each Ave 

 she set a rose in the garland that was so bryghte 

 that all the wood shone thereof," and the thieves 

 turned back, leaving him unharmed. In the sixth 

 century, St. Medard, bishop of Noyon, in honor of 

 the Virgin, established the J^i'fe de la Rosiere, at 

 which the maiden who was irreproachable was 

 crowned with a chaplet of roses and given a purse 

 of three hundred francs. Interrupted at the Revo- 

 lution, this beautiful /tVf day was reinstated in 

 1812, and is still yearly observed. The rosary 

 was instituted with direct reference to the Virgin, 

 St. Dominic having been shown a chaplet of 

 these flowers by the Holy Mother, and in com- 

 memoration, real roses were used as correspond- 

 ing to the joyful, sorrowful, glorious mysteries. In 

 the twelfth century, Isobart, a pious monk, while 



