262 FLORAL EMBLEMS. 



RELIGIOUS SUPERSTITION. 



PASSION FLOWER. Pa$siflora. 



" At rosy morn, or evening's silent hour, 



Some fair enthusiast views the sainted flower, 

 When lo ! to wrapt imagination's eye, 

 Springs the sad scene of darken 'd Calvary! 

 The thorny crown the heavenly brows around, 



, The scourging thorns, the galling cords that bound, 

 And nails that pierced with agonizing wound ; 

 Sudden she lifts to heaven her ardent eye 

 In silent gaze and solemn ecstacy : 

 Then, fill'd with timid hope and holy fear, 

 Drops on the flower a consecrated tear." 



Shaw. 



The Murucuia of the western world was 

 no sooner seen in Italy, than superstition or 

 craft, found a mysterious representation of 

 the passion of Christ in this flower, and it 

 received the sanctimonious titles of Flos Pas- 

 sionis and Christi Passionis Imago, from which 

 our name of passion flower is derived, and 

 the emblem formed. 



