" [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
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then on every tree
Mocks married men, for thus sings he,
Cuckoo.
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