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Personality of plants

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PERSONALITY OF PLANTS<br />

and frequent examples are found in tropical<br />

countries. This is due, no doubt, to the luxur-<br />

iance <strong>of</strong> vegetation in the hot countries, and the<br />

fact that, in most cases, flowers are in bloom<br />

there all the year around. Even one trained in<br />

a more rigid faith is tempted to strange rever*<br />

ence when he suddenly comes upon a great,<br />

glowing Orchid, squatting like some beautiful<br />

animal on the shaggy trunk <strong>of</strong> an aged tree.<br />

A Hindu is quite excusable when he becomes<br />

raptly worshipful while paddling through a<br />

floating sea <strong>of</strong> Lotus-Flowers.<br />

In heathen mythology, "every flower was the<br />

emblem <strong>of</strong> a god; every tree the abode <strong>of</strong> a<br />

nymph." Paradise, itself, was a kind <strong>of</strong> "nemorous<br />

temple or sacred grove" planted by God<br />

himself. The patriarchal groves which are<br />

prominent throughout Biblical history were<br />

probably planted as living memorials <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Garden <strong>of</strong> Eden, the first grove and man's first<br />

abode.<br />

Sacred flowers were common among the<br />

Greeks. The Anemone, Poppy and Violet were<br />

dedicated to Venus. To Diana belonged "all<br />

flowers growing in untrodden delh and shady<br />

[144]

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