178 pfant Isore, Tsege^/, anil btji-ic/. 



divisions. These are, firstly, plants which are symbols, pure and 

 simple, of the Great Unknown God, or Heaven Father; and em- 

 brace those, the form, colour, or other peculiarities of which led the 

 priests, the early thinkers to the community, the medicine-men, 

 magicians, and others, to associate them with ideas of the far- 

 distant, unknown, incomprehensible, and overwhelming — the de- 

 stru(ftive forces of Nature. Such plants were used as hieroglyphics 

 for these ideas, and became symbols of the Deity or Supreme 

 Power. To these visible symbols belong plants such as the Lily, 

 Onion, flowers of heavenly blue colour (symbolising the blue sky), 

 and leaves threefold or triangular, symbolising God the Creator, 

 Preserver, and Destroyer. 



Secondly, the plants symbolising or suggesting portions or 

 organs of the human body, internal and external, which to the 

 earliest of mankind, and certainly to the Egyptian embalmers, 

 were organs of mystery and importance; such is the heart, the 

 first to beat in the foetal, and the last to cease pulsating in the 

 adult organism, &c. To this sedlion belong heart-shaped leaves 

 and petals ; and where, as in the Shamrock, there is united the 

 threefold emblem and the heart-shaped leaf, there is a doubly 

 sacred idea united with the form. To this secftion belong also 

 plants and fruits such as the P'ig, Pomegranate, &c. 



The third sedlion comprises plants that were consecrated 

 or set apart as secret and sacred, because those who pos- 

 sessed the knowledge of their powers made use of them to awe 

 the ignorant people of their race. These plants were supposed to 

 be under the control of the good or evil powers. They were the 

 narcotics, the stupefying or the exciting vegetable drugs. The 

 sacred incense in all temples was compounded of these, and 

 their use has been, and still is, common to all countries; and as 

 some of these compounds produced extraordinary or deadly 

 effects, as the very dust of the burnt incense, when mixed with 

 water, and drunk, brought on a violent and agonising death, while 

 the fumes might merely produce delightful and enticing ecstacy, 

 making men and women eloquent and seemingly inspired, the 

 knowledge was wisely kept secret from the people, and severe 

 penalties— sometimes even death — awaited those who illegally 

 imitated, compounded, or used these drugs. To this sedliion 

 belong the plants used to make the Chinese and Japanese joss, 

 as well as Opium, Tobacco, Stramonium, and various opiates now 

 well known. 



The fourth secflion comprises those plants which in all countries 

 have been observed to bear some resemblance to parts of the 

 human body. Such plants were valued and utilised as heaven- 

 sent guides in the treatment of the ills flesh is heir to ; and they 

 are the herbs whose popular names among the inhabitants of 

 every land have become " familiar in their mouths as household 

 words." To such belong the Birth-wort, Kidney-wort, Lung- 



