FLORAL SYMBOLS. 105 



sufferings of Christ. The thread-like stamens which surround the 

 rays of the flower and some other portions, suggested to their enthu- 

 siastic imaginations the story of the Saviour's passion ! and the sight 

 of this wondrous symhol in a wildemess in which they trod for the 

 first time, seemed to them to betoken conquest, riches, and power — to 

 be achieved under the sanction of religion. But they sought rather 

 to insure a temporal dominion, than to act in obedience to that God 

 who had planted flowers in those solitary wilds ; and the very men 

 who beheld in the passion-flower an emblem of mercy and of love, 

 an emblem of faith in God and fellowship to man, carried misery, 

 malevolence, desolation, and death, wherever they trod, and made 

 their standard a signal of blood, tortm-e, and tyranny. Oh ! that 

 iniquity should ride rampant under the sacred banner of a Christian 

 faith, and sow the seeds of ruin and degradation, while wearing an 

 emblem of mercy and gentleness upon its 'savage brow ! Let the 

 passion-flower be still an emblem for us, but let it keep us in the ful- 

 filment of the benign precepts of the great teacher, whose suffering 

 is symbolized in the form of the flower, — that by contemplating it, 

 we may be raised in thankfulness to God, and learn to recognize the 

 great truths taught by Him who 



Trod 



The paths of sorrow, that we might find peace. 



The clover has been revered from the most remote antiquity as a 

 religious symbol. Its triple leaf renders it adaptable to a multiplicity 

 of ideas. The Drxiids held it in high repute, both as a charm against 

 evil spirits, and for its supposed medicinal virtues. They were very 

 confident in its powers, because its leaf represented the three depart- 

 ments of Nature, — the earth, the sea, and the heaven. The legends 

 of Ireland tell how St. Patrick chose it as an emblem of the Trinity, 

 when engaged in converting the native Irish, and hence the esteem 

 in which it is held by the Irish people ; — for the shamrock is only the 

 common white, or Dutch clover {Trifolium repens). The ancients 

 represented Hope by a little child standing on tiptoe, and holding a 

 trefoil in his hand. Scarcely any religious symbol has been so widely 

 and reverently regarded as such, as the aloe. Throughout the East 

 it is held in profound veneration. The Mahometans, especially those 

 who reside in Egypt, regard it as a religious symbol of the most 

 exalted character. The Mussulman who has performed a pilgrimage 

 to the shrine at Mecca, ever after considers himself entitled to the 



