known also as "Our Lady's hair," is designated in
Iceland "Freyja's hair," and the rose, often styled "Frau rose," or
"Mother rose," the favourite flower of Hulda, was transferred to the
Virgin. On the other hand, many plants bearing the name of Our Lady,
were, writes Mr. Folkard, in Puritan times, "replaced by the name of
Venus, thus recurring to the ancient nomenclature; 'Our Lady's comb'
becoming 'Venus's comb.'" But the two flowers which were specially
connected with the Virgin were the lily and the rose. Accordingly, in
Italian art, a vase of lilies stands by the Virgin's side, with three
flowers crowning three green stems. The flower is generally the large
white lily of our gardens, "the pure white petals signifying her
spotless body, and the golden anthers within typifying her soul
sparkling with divine light." [9]

The rose, both red and white, appears at an early period as an emblem of
the Virgin, "and was specially so recognised by St. Dominic when he
instituted the devotion of the rosary, with direct reference to
her." [10] Among other flowers connected with the Virgin Mary may be
mentioned the flowering-rod, according to which Joseph was chosen for
her husband, because his rod budded into flower, and a dove settled upon
the top of it. In Tuscany a similar legend is attached to the oleander,
and elsewhere the white campanula has been known as the "little staff of
St. Joseph," while a German name for the white double daffodill is
"Joseph's staff."

Then there is "Our Lady's bed-straw," which filled the manger on which
the infant Jesus was laid; while of the plant said to have formed the
Virgin's bed may be mentioned the thyme, woodroof, and groundsel. The
white-spotted green leaves of "Our Lady's thistle" were caused by some
drops of her milk falling upon them, and in Cheshire we find the same
idea connected with the pulmonaria or "lady's milk sile," the word
"sile" being a provincialism for "soil," or "stain." A German tradition
makes the common fern (_Polypodium vulgare_) to have sprung from the
Virgin's milk.

Numerous flowers have been identified with her dress, such as the
marigold, termed by Shakespeare "Mary-bud," which she wore in her bosom.
The cuckoo-flower of our meadows is "Our Lady's smock," which
Shakespeare refers to in those charming lines in "Love's Labour's
Lost," where:--

"When daisies pied and violets blue,
And lady's smocks all silver white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
D