50 pPant "bore, "begeT^D/, cmsl "biji'ic/'. 



formerly it was a noble tree ; at the time of Judas' suicide it was 

 cursed by God, and thenceforth became a shrub, ill-looking, 

 misshapen, and useless. In England, according to Gerarde, the 

 wild Carob is the Judas-tree [Cercis Siliquastruin) : this Arbor Judce 

 was in olden times known as the wild or foolish Cod. By many, 

 however, the Elder has been supposed to be the fatal tree : thus 

 we read in Piers Plowman's ' Vision ' : — 



" Judas he japed 

 With Jewen silver. 

 And sithen on an Eller 

 Hanged hymselve." 



Sir John Maundevile, from whose work the foregoing illustration 

 has been copied, corroborates this view ; for he tells us that in his 

 day there stood in the vicinity of Mount Sion " the tree of Eldre, 

 that Judas henge him self upon, for despeyr." 



A Russian proverb runs : — " There is an accursed tree which 

 trembles without even a breath of wind," in allusion to the Aspen 

 [Populus tremiila) ; and in the Ukraine they say that the leaves of 

 this tree have quivered and shaken since the day that Judas hung 

 himself on it. 



©Ifte pPaat/ of gf. <JoRr2. 



Popular tradition associates St. John the Baptist with numerous 

 marvels of the plant world. St. John was supposed to have been 

 born at midnight ; and on the eve of his anniversary, precisely at 

 twelve o'clock, the Fern blooms and seeds, and this wondrous seed, 

 gathered at that moment, renders the possessor invisible : thus, in 

 Shakspeare's Henry IV., Gadshill says: " V^e have the receipt of 

 Fern-seed, we walk invisible." 



The Fairies, commanded by their queen, and the demons, 

 commanded by Satan, engage in fierce combats at this mysterious 

 time, for the possession of the invisi'ole seed. 



In Russia, on St. John's Eve, they seek the flower of the Paporot 

 [Aspidmni Filix mas), which flowers only at the precise moment of 

 midnight, and will enable the lucky gatherer, who has watched it 

 flower, to realise all his desires, to discover hidden treasures, and 

 to recover cattle stolen or strayed. In the Ukraine it is thought 

 that the gatherer of the Fern-flower will be endowed with supreme 

 wisdom. 



The Russian peasants also gather, on the night of the Vigil of 

 St. John, the Tirlic, or Geiitiana Amarella, a plant much sought after 

 by witches, and only to be gathered by those who have been 

 fortunate enough first to have found the Plakun [Lythrum Salicaria), 

 which must be gathered on the morning of St. John, without using 

 a knife or other instrument in uprooting it. This herb the Russians 

 hold to be very potent against witches, bad spirits, and the evil 

 eye. A cross cut from the root of the Plakun, and worn on the 



