FLOWER AND PLANT LORE. 



479 



thought your readers would appreciate some 

 extracts. They are rather longer than 

 usual, but will repay for reading if you can 

 spare the time. Dr. MacMillan says: 

 " The cyclamen is the earliest of the flowers 

 of Palestine. It is in the Sacred Land what 

 the snowdrop is in our own country. Its 

 pale petals, tinged with a hectic red, which 

 are turned back in a way different from 

 other flowers, remind one of an eager run- 

 ner with his hair streaming behind in the 

 wind, arid his face flushed with the exertion 

 he has been making, who has just reached 

 the goal and won the prize. First in the 

 floral race of the year, the cyclamen is 

 crowned with a special beauty. It does not 

 seem at all a wild flower akin to those weeds 

 that are trodden hopelessly under foot, or 

 cast out of field or vineyard. It is carefully 

 nurtured by nature under the blue sky of 

 God's own land as in a conservatory." 



"The cyclamen brings back in imagination 

 the days when heaven came down to earth 

 and breathed its fragrance over these holy 

 fields. It looks like a prophet flower with 

 its ears bent back to hear the mystic voices 

 of the past, and ^especially the voice of Him 

 who spake as never man spake, and said, 

 " Consider the lilies how they grow." Year 

 after year the cyclamen grows in the clefts 

 of the rocks and on the slopes of the hills. 

 Its cluster of round leaves, with mysterious 

 markings upon them like some unknown 

 cypher writing, cling to the barest spots, 

 clothing their nakedness, and making the 

 wilderness and the solitary places to be glad. 



" Shall I ever forget the mystic afternoon 

 when I first gathered the cyclamen in Pales- 

 tine ? It was in a field beside the road that 

 winds round the base of the hill on top of 

 which is built the village of Latrun, the tra- 

 ditional birthplace of the Penitent Thief. 

 We encamped on this spot all night as our 

 first resting place between Jaffa and Jerusa- 

 lem. The green field on which our tents 

 were pitched was well watered by a 'little 



brook whose musical murmur was distinctly 

 heard in the universal stillness. It was cov- 

 ered with myriads of scarlet anemones and 

 w4iite cyclamens which almost hid the bush 

 grass and made most gorgeous patterns like 

 those of an Indian robe. And when the 

 moon stood still over the wonderful scene, 

 as it did in the days of Joshua over the val- 

 ley of Ajalon, near at hand the anemones 

 lost their scarlet hue, and darkened down 

 with the grass among which they grew into 

 a m.ass of shadows, while the blossoms of 

 the cyclamen gleamed with a ghostly white 

 radiance in the sympathetic light. The din- 

 ner table that night was resplendent with a 

 bouquet such as never again adorned it in our 

 camping experience, and a link of associa- 

 tion with this lovely flower was formed m 

 my mind which always vividly recalls the 

 haunted scene and makes it "a joy forever." 



" After this I frequently saw the cyclamen 

 in the Holy Land, but the place where it 

 struck me most was on that " green hill far 

 away without a city wall," the mound out- 

 side the Damascus gate of Jerusalem, 

 which is supposed to be the true site of Cal- 

 vary, 'and as I gazed on the vivid red circle 

 that stained its snowy petals I thought not 

 of the Virgin Mary to whom the flower usid 

 to be dedicated, nor of the " Bleeding Nun " 

 which the flower used to be called, but solely 

 of the sacred blood of the crucified Redeem- 

 er shed on that spot. I saw it flourishing 

 in great abundance in different spots along 

 the saddest path ever trodden by man, by 

 which Jesus ascended from Galilee to Jeru- 

 salem, and I felt sure in my own mind that 

 he greeted none with a more tender smile 

 than this delicately formed blossom. 



" The cross and the sepulchre have van- 

 ished, but the garden remains ; the shadow 

 of the cross rests upon these cyclamens, and 

 the hope of the resurrection rises up anew 

 with them out of their winter grave, conse- 

 crating them as God's heralds, that speaks 

 to us of a world won by the great victory of 



