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gives full credit, as is due, to the monks, and says : ' To 

 the Benedictines and Cistercians the first great agricul- 

 turists of Europe and the first great gardeners, the true 

 predecessors of the Hendersons and Veitches of our own 

 day we are indebted for many of the well -loved flowers 

 that will always keep their places, in spite of their gayer, 

 but less permanent, modern rivals. The Wallflower, that 

 " scents the dewy air " about the ruined arches of its con- 

 vent ; the scarlet Anemone, that flowers about Easter-tide, 

 and is called in Palestine the blood-drops of Christ ; the 

 blossoming Almond-tree, one of the symbols of the Virgin, 

 and the Marigold that received her name, are but a few 

 of the old friends, brought long ago from Syria by some 

 pilgrim monk, and spread from his garden over the whole 

 of Europe. ... In the cloistered garden, too, the monk 

 was wont to meditate on the marvels of the plants that 

 surrounded him, and to find all manner of mysterious 

 emblems in their marks and tracings. Many displayed 

 the true figure of the Cross. It might be seen in the 

 centre of the red poppy ; and there was a " Zucca " (fig) at 

 Borne, in the garden of the Cistercian Convent of Santa 

 Potentiana, the fruit of which, when cut through, showed 

 a green cross inlaid on the white pulp, and having at its 

 angles five seeds, representing the five wounds. . . . The 

 Banana, in the Canaries, is never cut with a knife because 

 it also exhibits a representation of the Crucifixion, just as the 

 Fern-root shows an Oak-tree.' But the fame of the greatest 

 of all such marvels arrived at Borne in the year 1609, when 

 Bosio describes as maraviglioso fiore the Passion Flower of 

 the New World. The first to describe the Passion Flower in 

 England was our own Master Parkinson, who said that it 

 should be assigned to that ' bright Occidental star, Queen 

 Elizabeth, and be named in memory of her the Virgin 

 Climber.' The Passion Flower, however, has retained 

 its original name and significance. It is the one great 



