be added, whereas some of the many plants named after well-known
birds are noticed elsewhere.
An old Alsatian belief tells us that bats possessed the power of
rendering the eggs of storks unfruitful. Accordingly, when once a stork's
egg was touched by a bat it became sterile; and in order to preserve it
from the injurious influence, the stork placed in its nest some branches of
the maple, which frightened away every intruding bat. [2] There is an
amusing legend of the origin of the bramble:--The cormorant was once a
wool merchant. He entered into partnership with the bramble and the
bat, and they freighted a large ship with wool. She was wrecked, and the
firm became bankrupt. Since that disaster the bat skulks about till
midnight to avoid his creditors, the cormorant is for ever diving into the
deep to discover its foundered vessel, while the bramble seizes hold of
every passing sheep to make up his loss by stealing the wool.
Returning to the rose, we may quote one or two legendary stories
relating to its origin. Thus Sir John Mandeville tells us how when a holy
maiden of Bethlehem, "blamed with wrong and slandered," was doomed
to death by fire, "she made her prayers to our Lord that He would help
her, as she was not guilty of that sin;" whereupon the fire was suddenly
quenched, and the burning brands became red "roseres," and the brands
that were not kindled became white "roseres" full of roses. "And these
were the first roseres and roses, both white and red, that ever any man
soughte." Henceforth, says Mr. King,[3] the rose became the flower of
martyrs. "It was a basket full of roses that the martyr Saint Dorothea sent
to the notary of Theophilus from the garden of Paradise; and roses, says
the romance, sprang up all over the field of Ronce-vaux, where Roland
and the douze pairs had stained the soil with their blood."
The colour of the rose has been explained by various legends, the
Turks attributing its red colour to the blood of Mohammed. Herrick,
referring to one of the old classic stories of its divine origin, writes:--
"Tis said, as Cupid danced among the gods, he down the nectar flung,
Which, on the white rose being shed, made it for ever after red."
A pretty origin has been assigned to the moss-rose (Rosa muscosa):--
"The angel who takes care of flowers, and sprinkles upon them the dew
in the still night, slumbered on a spring day in the shade of a rosebush,
and when she awoke she said, 'Most beautiful of my children, I thank
thee for thy refreshing odour and cooling shade; could you now ask any
favour, how willingly would I grant it!' 'Adorn me then with a new
charm,' said the spirit of the rose-bush; and the angel adorned the
loveliest of flowers with the simple moss."
A further Roumanian legend gives another poetic account of the
rose's origin. "It is early morning, and a young princess comes down into