pPant kore, l^cge'qt)/, onR Taqriq/"* 487 



world as the most wondrous example of the Croce trionfante dis- 

 covered in forest or field. The flower represents, he tells us, not 

 so directly the Cross of our Lord, as the past mysteries of the 

 Passion. It is a native of the Indies, of Peru, and of New Spain, 

 where the Spaniards call it " the Flower of the Five Wounds," and 

 it had clearly been designed by the great Creator that it might, in 

 due time, assist in the conversion of the heathen among whom it 

 grows. Alluding to the bell-like shape assumed by the flower 

 during the greater part of its existence [i.e., whilst it is expanding 

 and fading), Bosio remarks : "And it may well be that, in His infinite 

 wisdom, it pleased him to create it thus shut up and protected, as 

 though to indicate that the wonderful mysteries of the Cross and of 

 his Passion were to remain hidden from the heathen people of those 



countries until the time preordained by His Highest Majesty." 



The figure given of the Passion-flower in Bosio's work shows the 

 crown of thorns twisted and plaited, the three nails, and the 

 column of the flagellation just as they appear on ecclesiastical 

 banners, &c. " The upper petals," writes Bosio in his description, 

 " are tawny in Peru, but in New Spain they are white, tinged with 

 rose. The filaments above resemble a blood-coloured fringe, as 

 though suggesting the scourge with which our blessed Lord was 

 tormented. The column rises in the middle. The nails are above 

 it ; the crown of thorns encircles the column ; and close in the 

 centre of the flower from which the column rises is a portion of a 

 yellow colour, about the size of a reale, in which are five spots or 

 stains of the hue of blood, evidently setting forth the five wounds 

 received by our Lord on the Cross. The colour of the column, 

 the crown, and the nails is a clear green. The crown itself is sur- 

 rounded by a kind of veil, or very fine hair, of a violet colour, the 

 filaments of which number seventy-two, answering to the number 

 of thorns with which, according to tradition, our Lord's crown was 

 set ; and the leaves of the plant, abundant and beautiful, are shaped 

 like the head of a lance or pike, referring, no doubt, to that which 

 pierced the side of our Saviour, whilst they are marked beneath 

 with round spots, signifying the thirty pieces of silver." Such is 

 Bosio's description of what he designates the "stupendous flower," 

 and the stir which his writings caused among the botanists and theo- 

 logians of Italy soon brought about the introduction of the plant 

 itself, which, before the year 1625, had established itself and 

 blossomed in the garden of Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, at Rome. 

 Aldinus, who was both the Cardinal's physician and the controller 

 of his garden, has left his description of the Passion-flower, and 

 says of it : — " This is the famous plant sung by poets and celebrated 

 by orators, the plant reasoned about by philosophers with the 

 utmost subtlety, praised by physicians for its marvellous virtues, 

 sought for eagerly by the sick, wondered at by theologians, and 

 venerated by all pious Christians." In his description of the flower 

 Aldinus sets forth "what theologians may really find in it." He. 



