THE FLOWER SYMBOLISTS 29 



Christian hagiology. Roses decorate some of 

 the most poetical of the histories in the Legenda 

 Aurea, which was compiled by Jacobus de 

 Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, during the last 

 half of the thirteenth century, and there are 

 roses in plenty in the pictures of the fifteenth 

 century. Their meaning, at first sight, is not 

 so clearly defined as is that of some other flowers. 

 Raban Maur and Uanonyme de Clairvaux had 

 used them as the type of charity; Durandus 

 had explained them, red and white, as emblems 

 of martyrs and virgins. Walafrid Strabo also 

 considered them the symbols of martyrdom, 

 but in the Golden Legend and in the pictures 

 of the Renaissance, when plucked and faUing, 

 or when sent from Heaven, they are symbols of 

 divine love ; when they are woven into wreaths 

 they symbolize heavenly joy. 



The symbolism of the lesser flowers is not 

 so clear, but the water lily and the saffron as 

 well as the rose were held by Raban Maur to 

 be symbols of charity; verdure, according to 

 Durandus, was the emblem of beginners in the 

 faith; the heath, hyssop, convolvulus and 

 violet all represent humility; the lettuce tem- 



