ondemned to be
burned alive. At the stake the flames passed over her and shrivelled up
her accuser, while, on the spot where she stood, sprang up a garden of
roses--red where the fire had touched, and white where it had passed.
'And theise werein the first roseres that ever ony man saughe.'

Reference has been made to the lily as the emblem of purity, but,
curiously enough, this innocent-looking flower has its baleful
superstitions as well.

In Devonshire it is accounted unlucky to plant a bed of
lilies-of-the-valley, and to do so is to ensure misfortune, if not
death, within a year. Yet this flower has always been closely associated
with the Virgin Mary, and according to one legend, it sprang from some
of the milk which fell to the ground as she was nourishing the infant
Jesus. The Greeks, however, had a similar legend, ascribing the origin
of the flower to a drop of Juno's milk. The Greeks have always made a
favourite of the lily, and even to this day use it largely in making up
bridal wreaths, while the sacred significance which Christians have
found in the flower may be traceable to our Lord's use of it in imagery.

In this connection the legend of the budding lily of St. Joseph may be
recalled, and also the fact that the mediaeval painters generally
depicted the Madonna with a lily in her hand. There is a tradition that
the lily was the principal ornament in the crown of Solomon, and that it
typified love, charity, purity, and innocence--a combination of virtues
hardly to be found in the character of the wise King himself.

Nor must we forget that the sacred flower of the East--the lotus--is a
lily, and that even to name it seems to carry ineffable consolation to
the Buddhist. Thus, the universal prayer of the Buddhists--that prayer
which is printed on slips and fastened on cylinders which are
incessantly revolving in Thibet--'Om mani padme hum!' means simply, 'Oh,
the jewel in (or of) the lotus! Amen!' So Sir Edwin Arnold, in The
Light of Asia:

'Ah, Lover! Brother! Guide! Lamp of the Law!
I take my refuge in Thy name and Thee!
I take my refuge in Thy Law of Good!
I take my refuge in Thy Order! Om!
The dew is on the lotus. Rise, Great Sun,
And lift my leaf, and mix me with the wave.
"Om mani padme hum," the sunrise comes.
The dewdrop slips into the shining sea!'

The lily, or lotus, was held sacred also in ancient Egypt, and the
capitals of many of the buildings bear the form of an open