252 Dfant "bore, TsegeTl^/, cmel "bLjric/, 



pation, and the whole territory was thus searched through. Of the 

 Ginseng thus coUecfled the root is the only part preserved. 



GLADIOLUS.— The Corn-flag, or Sword-flag [Gladiolus), 

 has been thought by some to be the flower alluded to by Ovid as 

 the blossom which sprang from the blood of Hyacinthus when he 

 was accidentally slain by Apollo with a quoit — the flower which 

 bears displayed upon its petals the sad impression of the Sun-god's 

 sighs — Ai, At! (See Hyacinth). The upper root of the Sword- 

 flag was supposed by the old herbalists to provoke amatory 

 passions, whilst the lower root was thought to cause barrenness. 

 The Gladiolus is a plant of the Moon. 



GLASTONBURY THORN.— In Loudon's ^y^or^^ww Bri- 

 tannicum, the Glastonbury Thorn is mentioned as the Cratcegiis 

 Oxyacantha pracox. This variety of the Hawthorn blossoms during 

 the Winter, and was for many years believed religiously to blow 

 on Christmas-day. The Abbey of Glastonbury, in Somersetshire, 

 which is now a ruin, and of whose origin only vague memorials exist, 

 was said by the monks to have been the residence of Joseph of 

 Arimathea. The high ground on which the old abbey was erecfted 

 used in early days to be called the Isle of Avalon. The Thorn- 

 tree stood on an eminence to the south-west of the town of Glas- 

 tonbury, where a nunnery, dedicated to St. Peter, was in after 

 times erecfled. The eminence is called Weary-all Hill ; and the 

 same monkish legend which accounts for the name of the hill, 

 states also the origin of the Thorn, It seems that when Joseph of 

 Arimathea, to whom the original conversion of this country is 

 attributed, arrived at this spot with his companions, they were 

 weary with their journey, and sat down. St, Joseph then stuck 

 his stick in the ground, when, although it was a dry Hawthorn 

 staff, it took root and grew, and thenceforth commemorated the 

 birth of Christ in the manner above mentioned. This rendered 

 its blossoms of so much value in all Christian nations, that the 

 Bristol merchants exported them as things of price to foreign 

 lands. It had two trunks or bodies until the time of Queen 

 Elizabeth, when a Puritan cut down one of them, but left the 

 other, which was about the size of an ordinary man. This dese- 

 cration of the tree brought condign punishment upon the over- 

 zealous Puritan, for, according to James Howell, a writer of the 

 period, " some of the prickles flew into his eye, and made him 

 monocular," The reputation which the Glastonbury Thorn still re- 

 tained, notwithstanding the change of religion, may be estimated 

 by the facft that King James and his Queen, and other persons of 

 distin(5lion, gave large sums for small cuttings from the original 

 tree. Until the time of Charles I., it was customary to carry a 

 branch of the Thorn in procession at Christmas time ; but during 

 the civil war, in that reign, what remained of the tree was cut 

 down ; plants from its branches are, however, still in existence, 



