But some trees were not so thoughtful, for "the brooms and the chick-
peas rustled and crackled, and the flax bristled up." According to another
old legend we are informed that by the fountain where the Virgin Mary
washed the swaddling-clothes of her sacred infant, beautiful bushes
sprang up in memory of the event. Among the many further legends
connected with the Virgin may be mentioned the following connected
with her death:--The story runs that she was extremely anxious to see her
Son again, and that whilst weeping, an angel appeared, and said, "Hail,
O Mary! I bring thee here a branch of palm, gathered in paradise;
command that it be carried before thy bier in the day of thy death, for in
three days thy soul shall leave thy body, and thou shalt enter into
paradise, where thy Son awaits thy coming." The angel then departed,
but the palm-branch shed a light from every leaf, and the apostles,
although scattered in different parts of the world, were miraculously
caught up and set down at the Virgin's door. The sacred palm-branch
she then assigned to the care of St. John, who carried it before her bier at
the time of her burial. [13]
The trees and flowers associated with the crucifixion are widely
represented, and have given rise to many a pretty legend. Several plants
are said to owe their dark-stained blossoms to the blood-drops which
trickled from the cross; amongst these being the wood-sorrel, the spotted
persicaria, the arum, the purple orchis, which is known in Cheshire as
"Gethsemane," and the red anemone, which has been termed the "blood-
drops of Christ." A Flemish legend, too, accounts in the same way for the
crimson-spotted leaves of the rood-selken. The plant which has gained
the unenviable notoriety of supplying the crown of thorns has been
variously stated as the boxthorn, the bramble, the buckthorns, [14] and
barberry, while Mr. Conway quotes an old tradition, which tells how the
drops of blood that fell from the crown of thorns, composed of the rose-
briar, fell to the ground and blossomed to roses. [15] Some again
maintain that the wild hyssop was employed, and one plant which was
specially signalled out in olden times is the auberpine or white-thorn. In
Germany holly is Christ-thorn, and according to an Eastern tradition it
was the prickly rush, but as Mr. King [16] remarks, "the belief of the East
has been tolerably constant to what was possibly the real plant
employed, the nabk (Zizyphus spina-Christi), a species of buckthorn."
The negroes of the West Indies say that, "a branch of the cashew tree was
used, and that in consequence one of the bright golden petals of the
flower became black and blood-stained."
Then again, according to a Swedish legend, the dwarf birch tree
afforded the rod with which Christ was scourged, which accounts for its
stunted appearance; while another legend tells us it was the willow with
its drooping branches. Rubens, together with the earlier Italian painters,
depict the reed-mace [17] or bulrush (Typha latifolia) as the rod given to
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