As already mentioned, the lily of purity and the olive branch of peace are occasionally used as the attributes of God the Holy Ghost. As His direct emblem the dove only is employed, since Scripture states that He descended in ‘the form of a dove.’ Sometimes in French manuscripts of the fourteenth century He is represented in human form, but such representations are seldom found elsewhere. Poetry and art have enwreathed the entire life of Jesus Christ with flowers. ‘The Annunciation was the festival of early spring. Christ, whose birth was foretold by Gabriel, was a flower that blossomed from the stem of Jesse; His Mother, to whom the imagery of the Song of Solomon was applied, was a flower of the fields and a “lily of the valley.” And the place where the Annunciation occurred had a name, Nazareth, which in Hebrew, according to an old but incorrect interpretation, means flower. Such a meeting of associations was naturally not left unutilized by the theological authors. It was often set forth in sermons how the promise of the birth of God as man was connected with the spring’s promise of flowers and fruit. S. Bernard in particular worked out the flower symbolism of the Annunciation in poetic and ingenious conceits. The flower, he said, had been willing, at the time of flowering, to be born of a flower in a flower--_i.e._, Jesus permitted Himself to be announced to Mary at Nazareth in the spring: “Flos nasci voluit de flore, in flore, et floris tempore.”’[243] So we find a stem of lilies or a vase of flowers as the symbol of His miraculous birth, and on the morning of His nativity rejoicing angels carried olive branches as they sang of peace on earth and goodwill towards men. A helpless Infant, He lay upon the ground to receive the Adoration of His Mother and of angels, among roses of love and lilies of purity, or in grass thick with the daisies, violets and strawberries which told of His innocence, humility and righteousness. As a boy, growing perhaps to a consciousness of His mission, in Spain He is found with thorny roses, wounding Himself sometimes with the thorns of grief and suffering springing from His divine love itself. Early devotional art left Christ’s life with its miracles and parables and passed to His Passion. For the entry into Jerusalem there is the palm of victory and the olive branch of peace. In the Ecce Homo He wears the Crown of Thorns, and the reed as a sceptre is placed in His hand. For the Crucifixion Signorelli painted below the Cross many pleasant flowers, among which are noticeable the violet and daisy. But the Northern schools reserved for this scene the bitter herbs and flowers, the willow, dandelion and thistle. These weeds, carefully chosen and painted with marvellous minuteness, fill the foreground in the Crucifixion by an unnamed German master in the National Gallery.