The anxiety to secure good crops has led to many superstitious practices. In the pagan days of Germany and likewise in Rome, an image was carried around each field in order to insure its fertility. After the introduction of Christianity, the image of a saint was substituted for the heathen deity, and the practice continued. Again and again, the Onion, whose name today is only mentioned with bated breath, crops up among old plant superstitions. Because of its structure of enveloping sheaths, the Egyptians rightly considered it a splendid symbol of the universe. In Christian days, St. Thomas patronized it. Its cousin, the Leek, bears the blossom which Welshmen still hail as their national flower. It is worn by all loyal patriots on March first, St. David’s Day. The Thistle, Scotland’s national flower, was once sacred to Thor. In those days it was regarded as a safeguard against lightning, from which it got its colour. Ireland’s Shamrock belongs to the Trefoil family, and is sometimes called Dutch Clover, though the Wood-Sorrel is claimed by some to be the true Shamrock. St. Patrick once used it as a natural symbol of the trinity, through which it became nationalized. Superstitions of the four-leafed Clover have lingered in the imaginations of men almost more than those of any other plant. To be efficacious in bringing good luck, the little talisman must be found unawares. If slipped into the shoe of a lover, it will insure his safe return. The finding of a five-leaved Clover brings bad luck. Superstition plays its part in the evolution of knowledge, and speculation is the parent of modern science. Astrologers, reading the fortunes of nations and individuals in the stars, paved the way for the great and exact science of astronomy. Studious alchemists in searching for a cheap way to make gold, laid the foundations of the profound science of chemistry. In a similar way, the old herbalists, with their secret potions and mysterious compounds, were the instigators of the accurate study of medicine, and most important from our standpoint, were instruments which greatly advanced the love and growing appreciation of plants and flowers. CHAPTER XII MYSTICISM IN THE PLANT WORLD “_Who passeth by the Rosemarie And careth not to take the spraye, For woman’s love no care has he, Nor shall he though he live for aye._”