Holly, Yew and Box 



Wordsworth alludes to this custom in the 

 following lines : 



11 The basin of Box-wood, just six months before, 

 Had stood on the table at Timothy's door. 

 A coffin through Timothy's threshold had passed, 

 One child did it bear, and that child was his last." 



In Plant Lore we learn that it is a practice in 

 Turkey with widows, who go weekly to pray at 

 their husbands' graves, to plant a sprig of Box at 

 the head of the grave. Among interesting items 

 in the same work the following occur : " The 

 evergreen Box, Buxus sempervirens, was spec- 

 ially consecrated by the Greeks to Pluto, the 

 protector of all evergreen trees, as being sym- 

 bolic of the life which continues through the 

 winter, in the infernal regions, and in the other 

 world." In connection with honey gathered 

 from the flowers of the Box the following is 

 related : " The ancients believed that the Box 

 produced honey, and that in Trebizonde the 

 honey issuing from this tree was so noxious that 

 it drove men mad. Corsican honey was supposed 

 to owe its ill-repute to the fact that the bees fed 

 upon Box." 



A pretty legend is recorded in relation to the 

 monastery of St Christine in the Pyrenees. 

 The arms of the monastery are those of the 

 Knights of Christine, viz., a white pigeon with a 

 cross in its beak, and the origin of its adoption is 

 as follows : " The workmen who were employed 



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