446 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



CHAPTER XX. 



FLOWERS OF HISTORY, 



Some little latitude for gossip may perhaps be ac- 

 corded to us for a final chapter, even if it should not 

 concern itself much with scientific fact. Confessedly, 

 we are proposing to enter the regions of tradition 

 and romance, with no design of illuminating dark 

 pages of history, or giving a new rendering to old 

 myths. Tales of the nursery, and similar juvenile 

 eras, are apt to cling about one, in spite of more 

 serious studies, through many a decade. After a long 

 journey a traveller may be permitted to describe an 

 adventure or two, and narrate some of the legends of 

 the country through which he has passed. It will 

 not be wholly trivial to ascertain, if it can be done, 

 what are the plants which as emblems or myths 

 are associated with old stories. The rose, thistle, and 

 shamrock may be familiar enough in name, but it will 

 be seen that it is not quite so easy to determine which 

 is the thistle and what is the shamrock, as might at 

 first be imagined. Little national predilections are 

 apt to come in the way, so that what reason might 

 be disposed to accept, prejudice is fain to dispute. 



