346 Transactio7is. — Botany. 



money. They dry it, and sell to travellers and pilgrims as 

 possessing miraculous powors. 



2. Lege7idary and Mythical. — Some superstitious tales are 

 told of it, among which it is said " to have first bloomed on 

 Christmas Eve, to salute the birth of the Eedeemer, and also 

 paid homage to His resurrection by remaining expanded till 

 Easter."" The common people in Palestine believe that if 

 you put this plant in water at the time when a woman first 

 experiences the pains of childbirth it will expand at the 

 precise moment when the infant is brought into the world. 

 The plant is called Kaf Mavyam, or Mary's Floiver, in Pales- 

 tine, because it is supposed that the flower opened at the 

 instant Jesus was born. 



We have in England many plants bearing similar names, 

 connected with ancient legendary lore, or such may have been 

 originally intended as reminiscences or souvenirs of holy 

 things — as, lady's mantle, lady's tresses, lady's slipper, 

 lady's bedstraw, lady's looking-glass, lady's comb, &c. 

 Such colloquial names of plants abound in all European 

 countries ; and here, too, in New Zealand, the ancient Maoris 

 called several plants, their flowers and fruits, after their old 

 mythical personages, by way of commemoration. 



Here, too, in conclusion, a remark by way of explanation 

 may be made respecting the somewhat strange and long 

 scientific name given by Linnaeus to this little plant, which 

 may also be termed a hard one, but yet (like many of the 

 plants of the olden times, named by him and other thoughtful 

 botanists) full of meaning. (1.) Its generic name, Anastatica, 

 is from the Greek drao-racrts = rising again, resurrection, or, 

 rather, revivication, and is highly suitable. (2.) Its specific 

 name, being a compound of two Greek words, is more difficult, 

 yet also proper, meaning (as I take it) audaciously, im- 

 pudently, or shamefully, holy ! carrying with it a kind of 

 double rebuke — [a) at the poor little insignificant desert 

 annual of no floral beauty being called a rose ; and {h) at 

 the further daring assumption of holy to that pleasing name 

 of the queen of flowers. I 



* " Gardeners' Chronicle," 1842, p. 363. 



t In our English botanical \Yorks I find this specific name differently 

 spelled as to its termination : lilerochuntina, Lindley and others ; 

 hierochunta ; and by Mueller, in his recent "Index Perfectus," Linn., 

 hierochuntica. This last I have here adopted. 



