The Folk-lore of Plants 241 



discourse did time and your patience permit; the white 

 thorn with its dream of death, and the cypress with its 

 melancholy shadows; old, both of them, as the trans- 

 mitted speech of men; and to-day white are the lilies 

 above the coffined dead, and dark the shadows of the 

 cypress-trees, so that Whittier could say: 



"Oh well for him whose faith yet sees 

 The stars shine through the cypress trees. " 



Christianity, of course, as already intimated, touches 

 lore of every sort, plant-lore more surprisingly because 

 it was so much more extensive. The sunlight of the life 

 of Christ is on all the fields. The lilies are more wonder- 

 ful since he taught us how to esteem them, although we 

 have waited till this good hour to obey his injunction 

 when he bids us consider how they grow. His lilies may 

 not have been lilies; but the Greek the Persian 

 knew lilies, if the Hebrew did not, and the Greek 's artis- 

 tic touch lingers when we say that ' ' In the beauty of the 

 lilies Christ was born ." I believe, however, that 

 Buddha's lotus, the water lily, figures here. 



As a further index of the spread of Christianity, we 

 may note that crucifixion-thorns are in all lands. Away 

 down on the Mexican desert I found an outcast plant, 

 the thorn of the passion, as the natives think. It 

 grows there leafless during the greater part of the year, 

 and comes into service, strangely enough, when fanatic 

 devotees lash themselves as penitent es. All over Cali- 

 fornia, men cultivate the passion-flower, with the very 

 nails present, as it would appear, surmounting the crown 

 of spines ! Not far are we yet from the mental attitude 



