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with it which shows how botanical knowledge, like all other 

 knowledge, may be of great service even where least expected. 

 Many years ago a ship was wrecked on the Sussex coast, and a 

 small party were left on a rock not far from the land. To their 

 horror they found the sea rising higher and higher, and threatening 

 before long to cover their place of refuge. They proposed to try 

 and swim for land, and would have done so, but just as they were 

 preparing for it, an officer saw a plant of samphire, and told them 

 they might stay, and trust to that little plant, that the sea would 

 rise no farther, for the samphire, though always growing within the 

 spray of the sea, never grows where the sea could actually touch it. 

 They believed him, and were saved. 



We cannot dismiss plants with religious associations without 

 mentioning two, the Shamrock and the Passion Flower, for there is 

 no reason to doubt the legends that they both have borne a useful 

 part in missionary labours. The shamrock is so called from a time 

 Irish word signifying " holy trefoil." It is not, however, quite so 

 certain to what plant the name rightly belongs. The only two 

 plants, however, that now dispute the claim are the white clover, 

 and the wood sorrel, and the balance is in favour of the white 

 clover. The passion flower is so called fi-om its being supposed to 

 bear all the emblems of our Lord's passion. It is a Brazilian plant 

 fii-st found by the Jesuit missionaries, and we can well understand 

 their joy on finding a flower which, besides its real beauty, bore (to 

 them at least) a visible pictiu'e of what was most dear to them ; 

 and we can pardon them if they let their fancy see many wonders 

 in it, which to us sitting comfortably at home, are not visible. 

 The whole plant was emblematical to them, and was thus explained. 

 " The leaves represented the spear which pierced our Saviour's 

 side ; the tendrils, the cords which bound His hands, or the stripes 

 with which He was scourged ; the ten petals, the ten apostles who 

 deserted him ; the pillar in the centre of the flower, the cross or 

 the pillar to which He was bound ; the stamina, the hammers ; the 

 styles, the nails ; the inner circle around the central pillar, the 

 crown of thorns ; the radius round it, the nimbus of glory ; the 

 white in the flower is an emblem of purity, the blue, a type of 

 Heaven (Oakley)." The picture of it sent home fully bore out the 



