FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 401 



CHAPTER XIX. 



MYSTIC PLANTS. 



Many plants were in former times, and especially in 

 superstitious eras, and amongst imaginative people, 

 invested with a mystical importance, and often held 

 in veneration as sacred. We have preferred to class 

 them as " mystic," though sometimes they better 

 deserve denomination as "sacred." Some have 

 doubted whether flowers were ever worshipped, 

 although no one has doubted their having been, 

 regarded as symbols, and introduced as such in 

 religious ceremonies. Of our own customs there are 

 some which may be attributed to a similar origin. 

 No one would dispute that the use of evergreens in 

 church decorations were symbolic of everlasting life. 

 That white flowers at weddings were to be held as 

 types of purity. That the planting of the yew in 

 churchyards had a symbolic intent. In fact, that we 

 still have our mystic plants. 



In oriental countries flowers have a deeper mean- 

 ing, and a more emphatic language, than with us. 

 Imagination may run riot in Persia and India, but 

 the love of flowers is beautifully exemplified amongst 

 these people. Sir George Birdwood has given an 

 2 D 



