Brewer's: Flowers and Trees with Christian Traditions

The Aspen leaf is said to tremble because the cross was made of Aspenwood.

Ah! tremble, tremble, Aspen-tree,

We need not ask thee why thou shakest,

For if, as holy legend saith,

On thee the Saviour bled to death,

No wonder, Aspen, that thou quakest;

And, till in judgment all assemble,

Thy leaves accursed shall wail and tremble.

E. C. B.

The dwarf elder is called in Wales “the plant of the Blood of Man.” The wallflower is known in Palestine as the “Blood-drops of Christ.” The following are also said to owe their stained blossoms to the blood which trickled from the cross:—The red anemone; the arum; the purple orchis; the crimson-spotted leaves of the roodselken (a French tradition); the spotted persicaria, snake-weed. (See Christian Traditions.)

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