’My mistress sent me unto thine,
   Wi’ three young flowers baith fair and fine:—­
   The pink, the rose, and the gillyflower,
     And as they here do stand,
   Whilk will ye sink, whilk will ye swim,
     And whilk bring hame to land?’

The maiden must choose one of the flowers named, on which she passes some approving epithet, adding, at the same time, a disapproving rejection of the other two, as in the following terms:  ’I will sink the pink, swim the rose, and bring hame the gillyflower to land.’  The young men then disclose the names of the parties upon whom they had fixed those appellations respectively, when it may chance she has slighted the person to whom she is most attached, and contrariwise.”  Games of this kind are very varied, and still afford many an evening’s amusement among the young people of our country villages during the winter evenings.

Footnotes: 

1. Journal of Horticulture, 1876, p. 355.

2.  Johnston’s “Botany of Eastern Borders.”

3.  “Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words.”

4.  Johnston’s “Botany of Eastern Borders,” p. 57.

5.  “Botany of Eastern Borders,” p. 85.

6.  “English Botany,” ed.  I, iii. p. 3.

7.  “Dictionary of Plant Names” (Britten and Holland), p. 145.

CHAPTER XIX.

SACRED PLANTS.

Closely allied with plant-worship is the sacred and superstitious reverence which, from time immemorial, has been paid by various communities to certain trees and plants.

In many cases this sanctity originated in the olden heathen mythology, when “every flower was the emblem of a god; every tree the abode of a nymph.”  From their association, too, with certain events, plants frequently acquired a sacred character, and occasionally their specific virtues enhanced their veneration.  In short, the large number of sacred plants found in different countries must be attributed to a variety of causes, illustrations of which are given in the present chapter.

Thus going back to mythological times, it may be noticed that trees into which persons were metamorphosed became sacred.  The laurel was sacred to Apollo in memory of Daphne, into which tree she was changed when escaping from his advances:—­

        “Because thou canst not be
  My mistress, I espouse thee for my tree;
  Be thou the prize of honour and renown,
  The deathless poet and the poet’s crown;
  Thou shalt the Roman festivals adorn,
  And, after poets, be by victors won.”