The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1884-10-25
THE MYSTERY OF FLOWERS.
Curious Studies in the World of Vegetable
Beauty.


Beauty.
From the Chicago Inter- Ocean.
The name of the peony is derived from
Peon, celebrated Greek physician, who
taught the Greeks that this pretty flow
er was of divine origin, emanating from
the light of the moon, and valuable
cure, therefore, for epilepsy, which was
supposed to be moonstruck malady.
The peony was thought to have power
over the winds to protect the harvest
from storms, and to avert tempests.
The floral kingdom furnishes plants
which flower unfailingly on certain days,
and superstition has seized on this fact
and associated some with the qualities of
great persons who happened to be born
on the day they plant flowers. The cy-
clamon opens in Southern Europe on st.
Romoald's Day, and is dedicated to this
romantic recluse, who abandoned noble
career for monastery, because he wit
messed his father kill kinsman in
duel. The rose bay willow herb, the
French called St. Anthony's Fire, be-
cause of its brilliant red hue, and its
having appeared first in the eleventh
century, when the plague of erysipelas
was raging, and accord it to the powers
of intercession with disease which its
patron, St. Anthony, was believed to
possess.
The early Christians, attracted to some
flowers by their peculiar beauty, gath
cred number of these into a herbar-
ium, and dedicated them to the Virgin
Mary. Among these are the snowdrop,
the lily of the valley, white daffodil,
white rose, white hyacinth, and white
clematis, lady's finger, lady's slipper,
lady's glove, marigold, lady's mantle, to
all of which superstition attached quail
ties of purity and goodness, and confer
red these upon the wearer of any of
these symbolic flowers. The common
hollyhock is corruption of holy oak,
and is reverenced in parts of rural Eng
land, where traditions percolate through
centuries, because Crusaders brought it
from the Holy Land. The modest,
shrinking blue bell is, despite these most
| opposite qualities, plant of war in the
superstitious belief of the same people.
1t is dedicated to St. George, their pat
ron saint. By the French the white va
riety of this plant is, in curious contrast,
associated with the peaceful character of
nun, and is called la religisuse des
champs.
The familiar line, "balm of Gilead,"
is the name of plant whose nearest re-
lation is our accia. In the earliest ages
it was celebrated by Pliny, Strabo, Tao
titus and Justin, not alone for it's medic
inal qualities, but the lofty spirit and
dignity its meaning was supposed to il
crease. The Queen of Sheba brought it
to King Solomon, and Cleopatra planted
one species of it near Matrara, which
ripened into a shrub celebrated by trav-
elers for ages afterwards. The Eastern
Christians believed the plant would grow
| only uuutE UuC care VI d SuTlStidu gar.
dener, and that were the bark incised by
any instrument of metal, the flow of
balsam would be corrupt. Under their
fostering care, the plant grew as large as
Fl tree, and such was the respect that
it exerted that when Christianity spread
into European courts, the balm of Gilead
came to be mingled in the oil used at the
coronation of monarchs. The Coptic
Christians had tradition that when the
Holy Family were leaving Egypt to re-.
turn to Judea, they stopped to rest at
Matrara and went from house to house
begging cup of water, and were every
where refused. Faint with thirst and
sorrow the Virgin Mary sat down under
balm of Gilead tree, and Immediately a
fountain sprang up beside her, and the
tree rustled its leaves and famed gen.
tie breeze as the Mother and Child drank
of the water and rested.