2 28 pPaat Tsore, "begcT^t)/, cm si Tsijncy, 



ARKA. — This is the Indian name of the Calotvopis gigantea, also 

 called Arkapatra and Arkaparna (the lightning-leaved), the leaves of 

 which present the cuneiform symbols of lightning. Arka, says De 

 Gubernatis, is also the name of the Sun, and this explams why the 

 Brahmins employed the leaf of the Calotvopis on the occasion of 

 sacrificing to the Sun. In each part of the Arka it is stated that a 

 portion of the human body can be distinguished. Notwith- 

 standing its grand name, and its beautiful appearance, people have 

 a dread of approaching it, lest it should strike them blind. The 

 origin of this superstition is to be found in the word Arka, which 

 means both the sun and the lightning. 



ARTEMISIA. — The genus of plants known as Artemisia 

 was so called after the goddess Artemis (who was regarded by the 

 Romans as identical with Diana, or the Moon), by reason of some 

 of its species being used in bringing on precocious puberty. On 

 this account, also, it is one of the plants specially under the 

 influence of the Moon. — (See Southernwood and Wormwood). 



ARUNDHATI. — This is the Brahminical name of a climbing 

 plant of good omen, and to which, according to De Gubernatis, 

 the Atharvaveda attributes magical properties against diseases of 

 the skin. It gives milk to sterile cows, it heals wounds, it delivers 

 men from sickness, it protecfts those who drink its juices. It is the 

 sister of the water and of the gods ; the night is its mother ; the 

 mist, the horse of Yama, its father ; Aryaman its grandfather. It 

 descends from the mouth of the horse of Yama. 



ARUM. — The Germans call the Arum Avonswtirzel, and 

 entertain the notion that where this flourishes, the spirits of the 

 wood rejoice. The majestic Ethiopian species of the Arum [Calla 

 ^thiopica) is commonly called the Horn-flower, from the shape of 

 its large white calyx. In tropical climates, the plant is a deadly 

 poison. The Arum of English hedgerows, a flower of a very much 

 humbler character, is known by a variety of quaint names, 

 viz., Aaron, Cuckoo-pint, Cuckoo-pintle, Wake Robin, Friar's 

 Cowl, Pnest's-pintle, Lords-and-Ladies, Cows-and-Calves, Ramp, 

 Starchwort, and, in Worcestershire, Bloody Men's Fingers (from 

 the red berries that surround the spadix). These blood-red spots 

 have caused the plant to received in Cheshire the name of Geth- 

 semane, because it is said to have been growing at the foot of the 

 Cross, and to have received some drops of our Saviour's blood. 



"Those deep inwrought marks, 

 The villagers will tell thee. 



Are the flower's portion from the atoning blood 

 On Calvary shed. Beneath the Cross it grew." 



This flower, the Arum mactilatum, is the English Passion-flower: its 

 berries are highly poisonous, and every part of the plant is acrid ; 

 yet the root contains a farinaceous substance, which, when properly 

 prepared, and its acrid juice expressed, is good for food, and is 



