Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-01-19
Jericho Roses.

AT the Centennial Exposition, not lar
from the Turkish cafe. where Oriental
walters served customers with very tolera-
bic coffee and very long pipes, there was a
stand owned and kept by Turk from Con
stsntinople, whose stock-in-trade consisted
principally of rosaries cut in olive wood,
and little heaps OF what looked ike dried
herbs. These latter were object CT much
speculation to American visitors; but |
recognized them at once. having often seen
them before not in the Holy Land, whence
thev come, but in the streets and squares
OF Munich and other German cities, where
they are always to be bought at the kir-
messe, OF fair, which is held a short time
before Christmas. As in Philadelphia, the
merchant who had them for sale was
always an Oriental. In Munich, he was
Jew from Smyrna, with a venerable white
beard, and | well remember his piping cry,
" Jericho Ro5eu.' and the curiosity with
which | first looked upon tine seemingly
withered and worthless twigs he called by
that name and which had not the slightest
resemblance TO roses or, IN fact, to any
flower whatever.
Nevertheless, the Jew used to find many
customers, of whom l was one but it was
not until 4 German friend had explained
what the queer thing was that l knew
what to do with 1t, or whether 1t was not,
perhaps, intended ID be eaten. The gray,
shriveled, apparently dead plant, the size
of ohild's hand, possesses a singular and
interesting characteristic, which has given
rise to the belief (some would call it super
stition), very general among the people OF
Southern Europe, that, when placed in q
vessel of water on the night before Easter
or on the holy eve OF Christmas, the with
cred stems viii, if good fortune awaits the
household during the year, revive, expand
their tendrils, and change TO trssher hue
before morning.
After hearing this account of the plant,
I carried one home ON certain evening,
when on my table little Chrstnas-tree
stood, winkipg It's waxeu tapers through
network of silver tissue, its green bougns
weighed down with incongruous fruit
rosy-cheeked apples, oranges, gilded wal
nuts and glass balls. Underneath IT, In a
glass of water, put the 3" rose, and went
to bed
NV first thought the next morning was
to see what had happened. The story told
of it was substantia5ed, and the rose had
really bloomed, if by blooming one
understands only an entire change OF form
and increase of size. The same thing
happened again at Easter; but l am bound
to state also, that II has happened
frequently on other evenings as well,
which takes away little Of the poetry OF
the story, and has made me doubt whether,
after all, it's blooming is a sign of any
especial good fortune. Yet hope it may
be for when | brought it home, the speci'
men l still possess looked like a compact
and tangled knot OF twigs, while, placed il
glass of water, it spread, within twenty.
four hours into branching and not IN.
graceful plant several times its original
size.
Naturalists call the plant by very hard
name Anastatica hierochuntine, The
leaves fall off from the plant after the
Towering, and the branches and brsnchlets
become dry, hard, and woody, rising up
ward and bending inward at their points
hence, they become contracted into glOb-
ular form, in which state the plant is car
ried off the sand by the wind, and blown
from the desert places where 1t had its
birth into the sea. Here, floating on the
water, the branches gradually expand and
the pods open and let out the seeds, which
are in turn thrown back again upon the
shore by the tides, to terminate and grow
The home Of the queer rose is amid
the arid wastes OF Egypt, near Cairo, and
those of Palestine and Blrbary. 1t flour.
ishes on the roots of houses and on rubbish
in Syria, and on the sandy coasts Of the
Red Sea-
The plant long retains the power of ex-
pansion when immersed in water-:he cir
cumstance in which originated the many
wonderful stories II of its miraculous In
huenoe. Il is called KAT .UGTyGm, or
e." Mary's flower, in Palestine, where it is
believed that it bloomed at the time the
Savior was born. According to another
legend, it sprung up in the Places where
the Virgin Mary rested on her fight into
Egypt. 1t was probably fret brought by
the crusaders to Europe, where it Is still
named the Holy Rose }" by those who be-
heve the fable Of Its blJssOming only on
the great festivals.
Whether one believes the fable or not,
the plant is of itself wonderful one, and
all of its names are pretty. When it can
be procured, it makes fitting accessory to
a Chrie.mas-tree, for the reason that it
grew in the far country where our Lord
was born, and its strange reviying is
type OF his immortality and resurrection,
from which, indeed, it derives the generic
name-'Anasf1sis being the Greek word for
- John K. TAFT, in st. Mich
olas.