s in the following, known as "the three
flowers," played in Scotland, and thus described in Chambers's "Popular
Rhymes," p. 127:--"A group of lads and lasses being assembled round the
fire, two leave the party and consult together as to the names of three
others, young men or girls, whom they designate as the red rose, the
pink, and the gillyflower. The two young men then return, and having
selected a member of the fairer group, they say to her:--

'My mistress sent me unto thine,
Wi' three young flowers baith fair and fine:--
The pink, the rose, and the gillyflower,
And as they here do stand,
Whilk will ye sink, whilk will ye swim,
And whilk bring hame to land?'

The maiden must choose one of the flowers named, on which she passes
some approving epithet, adding, at the same time, a disapproving
rejection of the other two, as in the following terms: 'I will sink the
pink, swim the rose, and bring hame the gillyflower to land.' The young
men then disclose the names of the parties upon whom they had fixed
those appellations respectively, when it may chance she has slighted the
person to whom she is most attached, and contrariwise." Games of this
kind are very varied, and still afford many an evening's amusement among
the young people of our country villages during the winter evenings.

Footnotes:

1. _Journal of Horticulture_, 1876, p. 355.

2. Johnston's "Botany of Eastern Borders."

3. "Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words."

4. Johnston's "Botany of Eastern Borders," p. 57.

5. "Botany of Eastern Borders," p. 85.

6. "English Botany," ed. I, iii. p. 3.

7. "Dictionary of Plant Names" (Britten and Holland), p. 145.

CHAPTER XIX.

SACRED PLANTS.

Closely allied with plant-worship is the sacred and superstitious
reverence which, from time immemorial, has been paid by various
communities to certain trees and plants.

In many cases this sanctity originated in the olden heathen mythology,
when "every flower was the emblem of a god; every tree the abode of a
nymph." From their association, too, with certain events, plants
frequently acquired a sacred character, and occasionally their specific
virtues enhanced their veneration. In short, the large number of sacred
plants found in different countries must be attributed to a variety of
causes, illustrations of which are given in the present chapter.

Thus going back to mythological times, it may be noticed that trees