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highest esteem as a rehgious symbol in the mysterious solemnities 

 and divinations of the Egyptians and Hindus. In the first place, 

 its delicate red veins and fibres rendered it an object of venera- 

 tion, as typifying the blood, at the shedding of which the Hindu 

 shudders. Secondly, it was regarded as an astronomical emblem, 

 for on cutting through it, there appeared beneath the external coat 

 a succession of orbs, one within another, in regular order, after 

 the manner of revolving spheres. The Rose has been made a 

 symbolic flower in every age. In the East, it is the emblem of 

 virtue and loveliness. The Egyptians made it a symbol of silence ; 

 the Romans regarded it as typical of festivity. In modern times 

 it is considered the appropriate symbol of beauty and love, — the 

 half-expanded bud representing the first dawn of the sublime 

 passion, and the full-blown flower the maturity of perfe(5t love. 

 The Asphodel, like the Hyacinth of the ancients, was regarded as 

 an emblem of grief and sorrow. The Myrtle, from its being 

 dedicated to Venus, was sacred as a symbol of love and beauty. 

 White flowers were held to be typical of light and innocence, and 

 were consecrated to virgins. Sombre and dark-foliaged plants 

 were held to be typical of disaster and death. 



The floral symbols of the Scriptures are worthy of notice. 

 From the circumstance of Elijah having been sheltered from the 

 persecutions of King Ahab by the Juniper, that tree has become a 

 symbol of succour or an asylum. The Almond was an emblem of 

 haste and vigilance to the Hebrew writers ; with Eastern poets, 

 however, it was regarded as a symbol of hope. Throughout the 

 East, the Aloe is regarded as a religious symbol, and is greatly 

 venerated. It is expressive of grief and bitterness, and is religiously 

 planted by the Mahommedans at the extremity of every grave. 

 Burckhardt says that they call it by the Arabic name Saber, signi- 

 fying patience — a singularly appropriate name ; for as the plant is 

 evergreen, it whispers to those who mourn for the loved ones 

 they have lost, patience in their affliction. The Clover is another 

 sacred plant symbol. St. Patrick chose it as an emblem of the 

 Trinity when engaged in converting the Irish, who have ever since, 

 in the Shamrock, regarded it as a representative plant. The 

 Druids thought very highly of the Trefoil because its leaf symbo- 

 lised the three departments of nature — the earth, the sea, and the 

 heaven. 



But of all plant symbols, none can equal in beauty or sancftity 

 the Passion Flower, the lovely blossom of which, when first met 

 with by the Spanish conquerors of the New World, suggested to 

 their enthusiastic imagination the story of our Saviour's Passion. 

 The Jesuits professed to find in the several parts of the Maracot 

 the crown of thorns, the scourge, the pillar, the sponge, the nails, 

 and the five wounds, and they issued drawings representing the 

 flower with its inflorescence distorted to suit their statements 

 regarding its almost miraculous characfter. John Parkinson, in 



