If there are many plants which man’s adoration has made religious, there are almost an equal number which his suspicion and perversity have branded irreligious. A famous plant of this kind is the Enchanter’s Nightshade which has long been celebrated in the mysteries of witchcraft. Perhaps its usual place of growth in old graveyards among decaying bones and mouldering coffins has much to do with the sinister superstitions and legends connected with it. The Belladonna is another plant whose name is often associated with black magic. To this day many Danes believe that the Elder is eternally cursed. Children who sleep in beds containing Elder wood continually complain of having their feet tickled and their legs pulled. To carry a cane of Elder is to invite attacks of slander. Women who have Elder wood in their houses will never be married. It is the elves who dwell in the Elder who are supposed to work all this mischief. Plants often rise superior to the curse which men place upon them. Probably every well-known plant, sometime in its history, has had attributed to it both good and evil. The deity of one nation may become the demon of another. Plant worship holds a more prominent place in the world today than one would at first thought imagine, and it is not altogether confined to uncultured peoples. Dr. George Birdwood tells of remarkable instances of modern flower worship he saw in Bombay. In describing the Victoria Gardens, he says: “Presently, a true Persian, in flowing robes of blue, and on his head his sheep-skin hat, ‘black, glossy, curl’d, the fleece of Kar-kal’, would saunter in, and stand and meditate over every flower he saw, and always, as if half in vision. And when the vision was fulfilled, and the flower he was seeking found, he would spread his mat and sit before it until the setting of the sun, then fold up his mat again and night after night, until that particular flower faded away, he would return to it, and bring his friends in ever-increasing troupes to it, and sit and play the guitar or lute before it, and they would altogether pray there, and after praying still sit before it, sipping sherbet, and talking the most hilarious and shocking scandal late into the moonlight; and so again and again every evening until the flower died. Sometimes, by way of grand finalé the whole company would suddenly rise before the flower and serenade it together, with an ode from Hafiz, and then depart.” CHAPTER XI PLANT MYTHOLOGY “_I’ll seek a four-leaved clover In all the fairy dells, And if I find the charmed leaf, Oh, how I’ll weave my spells._” Every Plant is surrounded by a halo of human thought. If one is able to discern that halo, he finds a new and fascinating interest attaching itself to each herb and flower. The most humble of them become fortune-tellers, luck-bringers, and talismen against evil, as well as dwelling-places of fairies, elves, imps, and other ethereal mischief-makers.