PERSONALITY OF PLANTS 
and frequent examples are found in tropical 
countries. This is due, no doubt, to the luxur- 
iance of vegetation in the hot countries, and the 
fact that, in most cases, flowers are in bloom 
there all the year around. Even one trained in 
a more rigid faith is tempted to strange rever- 
ence when he suddenly comes upon a great, 
glowing Orchid, squatting like some beautiful 
animal on the shaggy trunk of an aged tree. 
A Hindu is quite excusable when he becomes 
raptly worshipful while paddling through a 
floating sea of Lotus-Flowers. 
In heathen mythology, “every flower was the 
emblem of a god; every tree the abode of a 
nymph.” Paradise, itself, was a kind of “nem- 
orous temple or sacred grove” planted by God 
himself. The patriarchal groves which are 
prominent throughout Biblical history were 
probably planted as living memorials of the 
Garden of Eden, the first grove and man’s first 
abode. 
Sacred flowers were common among the 
Greeks. The Anemone, Poppy and Violet were 
dedicated to Venus. To Diana belonged “all 
flowers growing in untrodden dells and shady 
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