486 pPant Tsore, Tsege^/, and. "ISLjrlcy, 



suddenly meeting some mules laden with Parsley, which the soldiery 

 looked upon as an ill omen. In our own country, to this day, there 

 is an old saying among the people of Surrey and Middlesex, that 

 " Where Parsley's grown in the garden, there'll be a death before 



the year's out." There are several other English superstitions 



connecfted with Parsley. Children are often told that newly- 

 born infants have been found in a Parsley bed. The seed of this 

 herb is apt to come up only partially, according as the Devil 

 takes his tithe of it. If, after having bruised some sprigs of 

 Parsley in her hands, the housewife should attempt to raise 

 her glasses, they will generally snap, and suddenly break. In 

 some parts of Devonshire, the belief is widely spread that to 

 transplant Parsley is an offence to the spirit who is supposed to 

 preside over Parsley beds, entailing sure punishment either on the 

 offender himself or some members of. his family within a year. 

 The peasants of South Hampshire will on no account give away 

 Parsley, for fear of misfortune befalling them ; and in Suffolk 

 there is an old belief that to ensure the herb coming up " double," 



Parsley-seed must be sown on Good Friday.- In the Southern 



States of America, the negroes consider it unlucky to transplant 



Parsley from an old home to a new one. To dream of cutting 



Parsley is said to indicate a cross in love ; to dream of eating it 

 foretels good news. The herb is held to be under Mercury. 



PASQUE-FLOWER.— The Anemone Pulsatilla is the Pas- 

 chal or Pasque-flower, especially dedicated to the Church's Easter 

 festival. The petals of the flower yield a rich green colour, which 

 in olden times was used for the purpose of staining the eggs to be 

 presented, according to custom, as Easter gifts. (See Anemone.) 



PASSION-FLOWER.— The Passion-flower {Passiflora cce- 

 rulea) is a wild flower of the South American forests, and it is said 

 that the Spaniards, when they first saw the lovely bloom of this 

 plant, as it hung in rich festoons from the branches of the forest 

 trees, regarded the magnificent blossom as a token that the Indians 

 should be converted to Christianity, as they saw in its several 



parts the emblems of the Passion of our Lord. In the year 



16 10, Jacomo Bosio, the author of an exhaustive treatise on the 

 Cross of Calvary, was busily engaged on this work when there 

 arrived in Rome an Augustinian friar, named Emmanuel de Villegas, 

 a Mexican by birth. He brought with him, and showed to Bosio, 

 the drawing of a flower so " stupendously marvellous," that he 

 hesitated making any mention of it in his book. However, some 

 other drawings and descriptions were sent to him by inhabitants of 

 New Spain, and certain Mexican Jesuits, sojourning at Rome, 

 confirmed all the astonishing reports of this floral marvel ; moreover, 

 some Dominicans at Bologna engraved and published a drawing 

 of it, accompanied by poems and descriptive essays. Bosio there^ 

 fore conceived it to be his duty to present the Flos Passionis to the 



