MYSTIC PLANTS. 433 



(which with them are tolerable, or rather, pious and 

 meretorious) wherewith they used to instruct their 

 people ; but I dare say God never willed his Priests to 

 instruct his people with lyes, for they come from the 



Divell the author of them In regard 



whereof I could not but speake (the occasion being 

 thus offered) against such an erroneous opinion 

 (which even Dr. Aldine, at Rome, disproved and 

 contraried both the said figures, and the name), and 

 seek to disprove it, as doth (I say not almost, but I 

 am afraid altogether) leade many to adore the very 

 picture of such things, as are but the fictions of 

 superstitious brains ; for the flower itself is far differ- 

 ing from their figure, as both Aldine, in the aforesaid 

 booke, and Robinus, at Paris, in his ' Theatrum 

 Florae ' doe set forth ; the flowers and leaves being 

 drawne to the life, and there exhibited, which I hope 

 may satisfie all men that will not be perpetually 

 obstinate and contentious." 



After this quotation Dr. Masters proceeds to 

 criticise the Jesuitic figure, for he says Parkinson 

 gives an excellent figure of Passiflora incarnata, 

 " but he seems to have overlooked the fact that ' the 

 Jesuites' figure of the Maracoc,' as copied by him, 

 does not represent P. incarnata at all, but some other 

 species, more nearly resembling Passiflora glandulosa, 

 of which it has the simple leaves and the glandular 

 footstalks. Certainly the flower in this wonderful 

 2 F 



