In the magnificent emblem here illustrated the Pillar of the Universe, "to Whom all thoughts and desires are known, from Whom no secrets are hid," is supporting a great universe zoned round and round by Eyes, Cherubs, or Amoretti, and the earth within is represented by a cone or berg. In Fig. 221 the Creator is depicted as animating nine choirs of Amoretti by means of three rays or _breaths_, and as will be shown subsequently the creation of the world by means of three rays or beams of light from heaven was an elemental feature of British philosophy. The periwinkle, known in some districts as the cockle, may, I think, be regarded as a prehistoric symbol of the world-without-end query:-- Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are. The term cockle was applied not only to the periwinkle and the poppy, but likewise to the burdock, whose prickly _burrs_ are obviously a very perfect emblem of the Central Pyre, Fire, Burn, or Brand. In Italy the barberry, or berberis, is known as the Holy Thorn, as it is supposed that from this bush of _pricks_ and prickles was woven Christ's crown of thorns. As a home of the spooks the _brakes_ or _bracken_ rivalled the hawthorn,[395] and it was generally believed that by eating fern or bracken seed one became invisible. Witches were supposed to detest bracken, because it bears on its root the character C, the initial of the holy name Christ, "which may be plainly seen on cutting the root horizontally". Commenting on this belief the author of _Flowers and Folklore_ remarks: "A friend suggests, however, that the letter intended is not the English C, but the Greek X (Chi), the initial letter of the word _Christos_ which really resembles the marks on the root of the bracken."[396] In Cornish _broch_ denoted the yew tree, the sanctity of which is implied by the frequency with which a brace or pair of yews are found in churchyards. The yew is probably the longest living of all trees, accredited instances occurring of its antiquity to the extent of 1400 years, and at Fortingal in _Perth_shire there is a famous yew tree which has been estimated to be 3000 years of age. This is deemed to be the most venerable specimen of living European vegetation, but at _Bra_bourne, in Kent, used to be a superannuated yew which claimed precedence in point of age even over that of Perthshire. A third claimant (2000 years) is that at Hensor (the _ancient sire_?) in Buckinghamshire, and a fourth exists at Buckland near Dover.[397]