SOME FLOWER LEGENDS 



EDWARD TYRRELL, TOKONO. 



I HAVE intended for some time to send 

 you occasionally some of the pieces of 

 history I have picked up in my wan- 

 derings through books ; but reading a piece 

 in your February number on " The Care of 

 Plants in the Window," in which the writer 

 says " make friends with your plants, be on 

 intimate terms with them," and this so har- 

 monizing with my own ideas, I thought I 

 would second his suggestion by giving some 

 of the history of legends connected with 

 plants which I have found, although to some 

 they may be familiar. 



The love of flowers is one of the universal 

 sentiments. How pleasant it is to have 

 some living object to tend or nurture, and 

 which " though tongueless shall talk with 

 you of days that are passed, of friends and 

 kindred with whom it may be many happy 

 hours were spent or sorrow shared," or his- 

 torical events brought to remembrance. It 

 is pleasant to imagine when looking upon 

 our plants that they are a glad company of 

 friends, each one with something interesting 

 to tell, or have reveal to us, if we will only 

 stop and listen — histories of men and events. 



There is a little shrub, a species of bloom 

 we see in the greenhouses and just now :n 

 bloom, which was one of the popular plants 

 of the middle ages. Its modern Latin name 

 is Cytisus, but its original name was Plama 

 Genista, It has great beauties which can- 

 not be overlooked ; with its graceful habit 

 and yellow flowers it attracts the attention 

 of the most careless observer. The story 

 in connection with this plant is: The Earl 

 of Anjou, having committed a sin in connec- 

 tion with his church, was enjoined to make 

 a pilgrimage to the Holy Land as penance. 

 He went habited in lowly attire with a sprig 



of bloom in his hat to denote his humility. 

 The expiation finished, he adopted the name 

 of Plantagenet from Planta and Genista, 

 hence the name of the Plantagenet family. 



X. R. Santine gives us that beautiful 

 story of " Picciola, or the Prison Flower," 

 a book that has been translated into almost 

 every known language, and which probably 

 most of your contributors have read ; if not, 

 they should do so. It tells how the Count 

 de Charney, a rich and highly accomplished 

 gentleman, maddened by solitude, although 

 his station and fortune afforded him every 

 opportunity of surrounding himself with all 

 that could gratify his desires or tastes, but 

 he denied his Maker, and with the increas- 

 ing anxieties of a troubled mind, and wrap- 

 ped in his own self-sufficiency, esteemed by 

 no one, joined the company of those who 

 wished to subvert the order of government, 



Pig 2584, 



