THE FLOWER SYMBOLISTS 33 



which grew on the Tree of Knowledge of Good 

 and Evil, is an accursed thing. 



There are flowers, too, which are the flowers 

 of evil. The poppy is the emblem of sloth and 

 also dedicated to Venus; the tulip is beloved 

 of necromancers; the black hellebore and the 

 mandrake are used by witches in their spells, 

 though, strangely enough, Conrad von Wiirtzburg 

 compares the Virgin Mary to the ' healing man- 

 drake root.' Also the nettle is the symbol of 

 envy, the hellebore of scandal, and the cycla- 

 men of voluptuousness, for, according to Theo- 

 phrastus, it was used in the composition of love 

 philtres. 



As to thorns and briars. Saint Thomas 

 Aquinas and Saint Anselm are agreed that 

 thorn branches signify the minor sins, and briars 

 (or thistles) those major ones ' quae pungunt 

 conscientiam propriam,' etc. 



Above all the buckthorn is blamed, for of its 

 branches, says Rohault de Fleury, was formed 

 the Crown of Thorns. 



In art, however, the flowers of evil scarcely 

 appear. The rose is still sometimes the flower 

 of Venus and symbohzes the pomps and vanities 



