THE FLOWERS OF THE DIVINITY 193 



as the attributes of God the Holy Ghost. As 

 His direct emblem the dove only is employed, 

 since Scripture states that He descended in 

 ' the form of a dove.' Sometimes in French 

 manuscripts of the fourteenth century He is 

 represented in human form, but such representa- 

 tions are seldom found elsewhere. 



Poetry and art have enwreathed the entire 

 hfe of Jesus Christ with flowers. 



' The Annunciation was the festival of early 

 spring. Christ, whose birth was foretold by 

 Gabriel, was a flower that blossomed from the 

 stem of Jesse; His Mother, to whom the imagery 

 of the Song of Solomon was applied, was a flower 

 of the fields and a " hly of the valley." And the 

 place where the Annunciation occurred had a 

 name, Nazareth, which in Hebrew, according 

 to an old but incorrect interpretation, means 

 flower. Such a meeting of associations was 

 naturally not left unutilized by the theological 

 authors. It was often set forth in sermons how 

 the promise of the birth of God as man was con- 

 nected with the spring's promise of flowers and 

 fruit. S. Bernard in particular worked out the 

 flower symbohsm of the Annunciation in poetic 



