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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
130
Indeed,
many
of
the
flowers
in
request
nowadays
for
ceremonial
uses
in
our
own
and
other
countries
may
be
traced
back
to
this
period;
the
symbolical
meaning
attached
to
certain
plants
having
survived
after
the
lapse
of
many
centuries.
For
a
careful
description
of
the
flowers
thus
employed,
we
would
refer
the
reader
to
two
interesting
papers
contributed
by
Miss
Lambert
to
the
Nineteenth
Century,[2]
in
which
she
has
collected
together
in
a
concise
form
all
the
principal
items
of
information
on
the
subject
in
past
years.
A
casual
perusal
of
these
papers
will
suffice
to
show
what
a
wonderful
knowledge
of
botany
the
ancients
must
have
possessed;
and
it
may
be
doubted
whether
the
most
costly
array
of
plants
witnessed
at
any
church
festival
supersedes
a
similar
display
witnessed
by
worshippers
in
the
early
heathen
temples.
In
the
same
way,
we
gain
an
insight
into
the
profusion
of
flowers
employed
by
heathen
communities
in
later
centuries,
showing
how
intimately
associated
these
have
been
with
their
various
forms
of
worship.
Thus,
the
Singhalese
seem
to
have
used
flowers
to
an
almost
incredible
extent,
and
one
of
their
old
chronicles
tells
us
how
the
Ruanwellé
dagoba--270
feet
high--was
festooned
with
garlands
from
pedestal
to
pinnacle,
till
it
had
the
appearance
of
one
uniform
bouquet.
We
are
further
told
that
in
the
fifteenth
century
a
certain
king
offered
no
less
than
6,480,320
sweet-smelling
flowers
at
the
shrine
of
the
tooth;
and,
among
the
regulations
of
the
temple
at
Dambedenia
in
the
thirteenth
century,
one
prescribes
that
"every
day
an
offering
of
100,000
blossoms,
and
each
day
a
different
kind
of
flower,"
should
be
presented.
This
is
a
striking
instance,
but
only
one
of
many.
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