It has been remarked that the life of Christ may be said to fling its shadow over the whole vegetable world. [6] “From this time the trees and the flowers which had been associated with heathen rites and deities, began to be connected with holier names, and not unfrequently with the events of the crucifixion itself.”

Thus, upon the Virgin Mary a wealth of flowers was lavished, all white ones, having been “considered typical of her purity and holiness, and consecrated to her festivals.” [7] Indeed, not only, “were the finer flowers wrested from the classic Juno and Diana, and from the Freyja and Bertha of northern lands given to her, but lovely buds of every hue were laid upon her shrines.” [8] One species, for instance, of the maiden-hair fern, known also as “Our Lady’s hair,” is designated in Iceland “Freyja’s hair,” and the rose, often styled “Frau rose,” or “Mother rose,” the favourite flower of Hulda, was transferred to the Virgin.  On the other hand, many plants bearing the name of Our Lady, were, writes Mr. Folkard, in Puritan times, “replaced by the name of Venus, thus recurring to the ancient nomenclature; ‘Our Lady’s comb’ becoming ‘Venus’s comb.’” But the two flowers which were specially connected with the Virgin were the lily and the rose.  Accordingly, in Italian art, a vase of lilies stands by the Virgin’s side, with three flowers crowning three green stems.  The flower is generally the large white lily of our gardens, “the pure white petals signifying her spotless body, and the golden anthers within typifying her soul sparkling with divine light.” [9]

The rose, both red and white, appears at an early period as an emblem of the Virgin, “and was specially so recognised by St. Dominic when he instituted the devotion of the rosary, with direct reference to her.” [10] Among other flowers connected with the Virgin Mary may be mentioned the flowering-rod, according to which Joseph was chosen for her husband, because his rod budded into flower, and a dove settled upon the top of it.  In Tuscany a similar legend is attached to the oleander, and elsewhere the white campanula has been known as the “little staff of St. Joseph,” while a German name for the white double daffodill is “Joseph’s staff.”

Then there is “Our Lady’s bed-straw,” which filled the manger on which the infant Jesus was laid; while of the plant said to have formed the Virgin’s bed may be mentioned the thyme, woodroof, and groundsel.  The white-spotted green leaves of “Our Lady’s thistle” were caused by some drops of her milk falling upon them, and in Cheshire we find the same idea connected with the pulmonaria or “lady’s milk sile,” the word “sile” being a provincialism for “soil,” or “stain.”  A German tradition makes the common fern (Polypodium vulgare) to have sprung from the Virgin’s milk.

Numerous flowers have been identified with her dress, such as the marigold, termed by Shakespeare “Mary-bud,” which she wore in her bosom.  The cuckoo-flower of our meadows is “Our Lady’s smock,” which Shakespeare refers to in those charming lines in “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” where:—­