MYSTIC PLANTS. 435 



I saw him as he mused one day 



Beneath a forest bower, 

 With clasp'd hands stand, and upturn'd eyes, 



Before a Passionflowers 

 Exclaiming with a fervent joy, 



" I have found the Passion flower ! " 



The passion of our blessed Lord, 



With all his pangs and pain, 

 Set forth within a beauteous flower, 



In shape and colours plain. 



Up, I will forth into the world 



And take this flower with me, 

 To preach the death of Christ to all 



As it was preached to me. 



The gathering of willow catkins on Palm Sunday- 

 is the remains of a custom of the early Church in 

 remembrance of the palm branches strewed in the 

 way of Christ as he went up to Jerusalem. Sprigs of 

 boxwood are still used in Catholic countries, and the 

 willow collected on Palm Sunday is called palm by 

 many who gather it. Why the willow should have 

 come into use for such a purpose, has been explained 

 in various ways. Thus, " because willow was in an- 

 cient days a badge of mourning, as may be collected 

 from the several expressions of Virgil, where the 

 nymphs and herdsmen are introduced sitting under 

 a willow mourning their loves." This is hardly satis- 

 factory, because the original palm branches were not 

 emblems of mourning, but of triumph. A less elabo- 

 rate reasoning is that " these seem to have been 

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