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271
The Folk-lore of Plants
·
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer
216
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."
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