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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
131
"With
regard
to
Greece,
there
are
few
of
our
trees
and
flowers,"
writes
Mr.
Moncure
Conway,[3]
"which
were
not
cultivated
in
the
gorgeous
gardens
of
Epicurus,
Pericles,
and
Pisistratus."
Among
the
flowers
chiefly
used
for
garlands
and
chaplets
in
ceremonial
rites
we
find
the
rose,
violet,
anemone,
thyme,
melilot,
hyacinth,
crocus,
yellow
lily,
and
yellow
flowers
generally.
Thucydides
relates
how,
in
the
ninth
year
of
the
Peloponnesian
War,
the
temple
of
Juno
at
Argos
was
burnt
down
owing
to
the
priestess
Chrysis
having
set
a
lighted
torch
too
near
the
garlands
and
then
fallen
asleep.
The
garlands
caught
fire,
and
the
damage
was
irremediable
before
she
was
conscious
of
the
mischief.
The
gigantic
scale
on
which
these
floral
ceremonies
were
conducted
may
be
gathered
from
the
fact
that
in
the
procession
of
Europa
at
Corinth
a
huge
crown
of
myrtle,
thirty
feet
in
circumference,
was
borne.
At
Athens
the
myrtle
was
regarded
as
the
symbol
of
authority,
a
wreath
of
its
leaves
having
been
worn
by
magistrates.
On
certain
occasions
the
mitre
of
the
Jewish
high
priest
was
adorned
with
a
chaplet
of
the
blossoms
of
the
henbane.
Of
the
further
use
of
garlands,
we
are
told
that
the
Japanese
employ
them
very
freely;[4]
both
men
and
women
wearing
chaplets
of
fragrant
blossoms.
A
wreath
of
a
fragrant
kind
of
olive
is
the
reward
of
literary
merit
in
China.
In
Northern
India
the
African
marigold
is
held
as
a
sacred
flower;
they
adorn
the
trident
emblem
of
Mahádivá
with
garlands
of
it,
and
both
men
and
women
wear
chaplets
made
of
its
flowers
on
his
festivals.
Throughout
Polynesia
garlands
have
been
habitually
worn
on
seasons
of
"religious
solemnity
or
social
rejoicing,"
and
in
Tonga
they
were
employed
as
a
token
of
respect.
In
short,
wreaths
seem
to
have
been
from
a
primitive
period
adopted
almost
universally
in
ceremonial
rites,
having
found
equal
favour
both
with
civilised
as
well
as
uncivilised
communities.
It
will
probably,
too,
always
be
so.
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