e wood for the cross.

But some trees were not so thoughtful, for "the brooms and the
chick-peas rustled and crackled, and the flax bristled up." According to
another old legend we are informed that by the fountain where the Virgin
Mary washed the swaddling-clothes of her sacred infant, beautiful bushes
sprang up in memory of the event. Among the many further legends
connected with the Virgin may be mentioned the following connected with
her death:--The story runs that she was extremely anxious to see her Son
again, and that whilst weeping, an angel appeared, and said, "Hail, O
Mary! I bring thee here a branch of palm, gathered in paradise; command
that it be carried before thy bier in the day of thy death, for in three
days thy soul shall leave thy body, and thou shalt enter into paradise,
where thy Son awaits thy coming." The angel then departed, but the
palm-branch shed a light from every leaf, and the apostles, although
scattered in different parts of the world, were miraculously caught up
and set down at the Virgin's door. The sacred palm-branch she then
assigned to the care of St. John, who carried it before her bier at the
time of her burial. [13]

The trees and flowers associated with the crucifixion are widely
represented, and have given rise to many a pretty legend. Several plants
are said to owe their dark-stained blossoms to the blood-drops which
trickled from the cross; amongst these being the wood-sorrel, the
spotted persicaria, the arum, the purple orchis, which is known in
Cheshire as "Gethsemane," and the red anemone, which has been termed the
"blood-drops of Christ." A Flemish legend, too, accounts in the same way
for the crimson-spotted leaves of the rood-selken. The plant which has
gained the unenviable notoriety of supplying the crown of thorns has
been variously stated as the boxthorn, the bramble, the buckthorns, [14]
and barberry, while Mr. Conway quotes an old tradition, which tells how
the drops of blood that fell from the crown of thorns, composed of the
rose-briar, fell to the ground and blossomed to roses. [15] Some again
maintain that the wild hyssop was employed, and one plant which was
specially signalled out in olden times is the auberpine or white-thorn.
In Germany holly is Christ-thorn, and according to an Eastern tradition
it was the prickly rush, but as Mr. King [16] remarks, "the belief of the
East has been tolerably constant to what was possibly the real plant
employed, the nabk (