es the materials at the command
of the mystic gardener?"

"I do not know," said the Abbe Plomb. "At the same time, I should think
it might be possible; only we should have to remember the names of the
plants more or less exactly symbolizing those qualities and defects. In
short, what you need is a sort of language of flowers as applied to the
catechism. Let us try.

"For pride we have the pumpkin, which was worshipped of old as a
divinity in Sicyon. It bears indifferently the character of pride or of
fertility; of fertility by reason of its multitude of seeds and its
rapid growth, of which the monk Walafrid Strabo wrote in noble
hexameters a whole chapter of his poem; and of pride by reason of its
huge hollow head and its bulk; and then we also have the cedar, which
Peter of Capua and Saint Melito agree in accusing of pride.

"Avarice? I confess I know of no plant which represents it; we will come
back to that."

"I beg your pardon," said the Abbe Gevresin; "Saint Eucher and Raban
Maur speak of thorns as emblematical of riches which accumulate to the
detriment of the soul; and Saint Melito says that the sycamore means
greed of money."

"The poor sycamore!" cried the younger priest. "It has been served with
every sauce! Raban Maur and the Anonymous monk of Clairvaux also call it
a misbelieving Jew; Peter of Capua compares it to the Cross; Saint
Eucher calls it wisdom, and there are other meanings. But meanwhile I
forget how far we had gone. Oh! lasciviousness; we here have ample
choice. Besides certain trees there is cyclamen, or sow-bread, which,
according to an ancient dictum of Theophrastus, is symbolical of this
sin because it was used in the preparation of love-philtres; the nettle,
which Peter of Capua says is emblematic of the unruly instincts of the
flesh; and the tuberose, a more modern introduction, but known as far
back as the sixteenth century, when a Minorite Father brought it to
France. Its heady perfume, which disturbs the nerves, also, it is said,
excites the senses.

"For envy there are the bramble and the aconite, which, to be sure, is
more exactly assigned to calumny and scandal; and, again, the nettle,
which, however, is also interpreted by Albertus Magnus as figuring
courage and expelling fear.

"Greediness?" The Abbe paused to think. "Carnivorous plants, perhaps, as
the fly-trap and the bog sundew."

"And why not the humbler _cuscuta_, the dodder, the cuttlefish of the
vegetable kingdom,