"And here is a posy of meanings culled from Saint Eucher, who compares the whiteness of the lily to the purity of the angels; from Saint Gregory the Great, who says its fragrance is like the works of the saints; and again from Raban Maur, who speaks of the lily as emblematic of celestial beatitude, of the beauty of holiness, of the Church, of perfection, of chastity in the flesh." "Not to forget that, according to the translation of Origen, the Lily among Thorns is the Church in the midst of its enemies," the Abbe Plomb put in. "Then it is Jesus, His Mother, the Angels, the Church, the Virgins, everything at once!" exclaimed Durtal. "We cannot but wonder how these mystic gardeners could discern so many meanings in one and the same plant!" "Why, you can see: the symbolists not only considered the analogies and resemblances they discovered between the form, scent, and colour of a flower and the being with whom they compared it; they also studied the Bible, especially the passages wherein a tree or flower was named, and they then ascribed to it such qualities as were mentioned or could be inferred from the text. They did the same with regard to animals, colours, gems, everything to which they could attribute a meaning. It is simple enough." "It is complicated enough!" said Durtal. "And now where was I?" "In the Lady chapel, planting roses and anemones. Now add to these a shrub which is the emblem of Mary according to the Anonymous monk of Clairvaux, or of the Incarnation according to the Anonymous writer of Troyes, the walnut, of which the fruit is interpreted in the same sense by the Bishop of Sardis." "And also mignonette," cried Durtal, "for Sister Emmerich speaks of it frequently and with much mystery. She says that this flower is very dear to Mary, who planted it and made much use of it. "Then there is another plant which seems to me no less appropriate: the bracken--not by reason of the qualities ascribed to it by Saint Hildegarde, but because it symbolizes the most secret and retiring humility. Take one of the stoutest stems and cut it aslant, like the mouthpiece of a whistle, and you will find very distinctly imprinted in black the form of a heraldic _fleur de lys_, as if stamped with a hot iron. The scent being absent, we may here accept it as the symbol of humility--a humility so perfect that it is undiscoverable but in death." "Aha! our friend is not so ignorant of country lore as I had fancied," exclaimed Madame Bavoil. "Oh, I wandered in the woods a little, as a child." "For the choir no discussion is possible, I believe," said the Abbe Gevresin. "The eucharistic plants, the vine and corn are self-evidently appropriate. "The vine, of which the Lord said '_Ego vitis sum_,' is also the emblem of communion and the image of the eighth beatitude; corn, which, as the Sacramental element, was the object of peculiar care and respect in the Middle Ages.