MIRACULOUS PLANTS 



(From "Picciola") 



HE called to mind all the miraculous plants recorded 

 from the earliest times by poet or historian, the 

 holly of Homer, the palm-tree of Latona, the oak 

 of Odin ; nay, even the golden herb which shines 

 before the eyes of the ignorant peasants of Brit- 

 tany, and the Mayflower which preserves from evil 

 thoughts the simple shepherdesses of La Brie. He 

 recollected the sacred fig-tree of the Romans, the 

 olive of the Athenians, the Teutates of the Celts, 

 the vervain of the Gauls, the lotus of the Greeks, 

 the beans of the Pythagoreans, the mandrake of the 

 Hebrews. He remembered the blue campac which 

 blossoms everlastingly in the Persian's Paradise ; the 

 touba-tree which overshadows the celestial throne 

 of Mahomet ; the magic camalata, the sacred amreet 

 on whose branches the Indians behold imaginary 

 fruits of Ambrosia and of voluptuous enjoyment. 

 He recurred with pleasure to the symbolical worship 

 of the Japanese, who elevate the altars of their 

 divinities on pedestals of heliotropes and water- 

 lilies, assigning the throne of Love himself to the 

 corolla of a nenuphar. He admired the religious 



837 



