Flora's Lexicon/Cross of Jerusalem
ROSS OF JERUSALEM. Lychnis Viscaria. Class 16, Decandria. Order: Pentandria. This flower, has been frequently named Cross of Jerusalem, in most of the European languages, the French calling it
croix de Jérusalem; the Spanish, cruces de Jerusalem; the Italians, croce di Cavaliert; the Germans, Hierosolymorum flos; the Portuguese, cruz de Malta; all tending to dedicate it to religion, and as it appears to have been introduced by the crusaders, we present it as the emblem of religious enthusiasm.
DEVOTION.
The maid who keptIn her young heart the secret of his. love,With all its hoarded store of sympathiesAnd images of hope, think ye she gave,When a few years their fleeting course had run,Her heart again to man?
No! no! She twinedIts riven tendrils round a surer prop,And rear’d its blighted blossoms towards that skyWhich hath no cloud. She sought devotion’s balm,And, with a gentle sadness, turn’d her soulFrom gaiety and song. Pleasure, for her,Had lost its essence, and the viol’s voiceGave but a sorrowing sound. Even her loved plantsBreathed too distinctly of the form that bentWith hers to watch their budding. ’Mid their flowers,And through the twining of their puerile stems,The semblance of a cold, dead hand would rise,Until she bade them droop and pass awayWith him she mourn’d.
Sigourney.