In Ireland the shamrock is worn on St. Patrick’s Day.  Old women, with plenteous supplies of trefoil, may be heard in every direction crying, “Buy my shamrock, green shamrocks,” while little children have “Patrick’s crosses” pinned to their sleeves, a custom which is said to have originated in the circumstance that when St. Patrick was preaching the doctrine of the Trinity he made use of the trefoil as a symbol of the great mystery.  Several plants have been identified as the shamrock; and in “Contributions towards a Cybele Hibernica,” [1] is the following extensive note:—­“Trifolium repens, Dutch clover, shamrock.—­This is the plant still worn as shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day, though Medicago lupulina is also sold in Dublin as the shamrock.  Edward Lhwyd, the celebrated antiquary, writing in 1699 to Tancred Robinson, says, after a recent visit to Ireland:  ‘Their shamrug is our common clover’ (Phil.  Trans., No. 335).  Threkeld, the earliest writer on the wild plants of Ireland, gives Seamar-oge (young trefoil) as the Gaelic name for Trifolium pratense album, and expressly says this is the plant worn by the people in their hats on St. Patrick’s Day.”  Some, again, have advocated the claims of the wood-sorrel, and others those of the speedwell, whereas a correspondent of Notes and Queries (4th Ser. iii. 235) says the Trifolium filiforme is generally worn in Cork, the Trifolium minus also being in demand.  It has been urged that the watercress was the plant gathered by the saint, but this plant has been objected to on the ground that its leaf is not trifoliate, and could not have been used by St. Patrick to illustrate the doctrine of the Trinity.  On the other hand, it has been argued that the story is of modern date, and not to be found in any of the lives of that saint.  St. Patrick’s cabbage also is a name for “London Pride,” from its growing in the West of Ireland, where the Saint lived.

Few flowers have been more popular than the daffodil or lent-lily, or, as it is sometimes called, the lent-rose.  There are various corruptions of this name to be found in the West of England, such as lentils, lent-a-lily, lents, and lent-cocks; the last name doubtless referring to the custom of cock-throwing, which was allowed in Lent, boys, in the absence of live cocks, having thrown sticks at the flower.  According also to the old rhyme:—­

  “Then comes the daffodil beside
  Our Lady’s smock at our Lady’s tide.”

In Catholic countries Lent cakes were flavoured with the herb-tansy, a plant dedicated to St. Athanasius.

In Silesia, on Mid-Lent Sunday, pine boughs, bound with variegated paper and spangles, are carried about by children singing songs, and are hung over the stable doors to keep the animals from evil influences.

Palm Sunday receives its English and the greater part of its foreign names from the old practice of bearing palm-branches, in place of which the early catkins of the willow or yew have been substituted, sprigs of box being used in Brittany.