curses, to destroy evil, or to act as love-philtres, we see that sorcery must have played the same part in ancient India that to this day it plays in the Tyrol.

From the superstitious reverence that these magical virtues conferred upon the floral world, it is easy to see how naturally the most famous flowers, useful for so many mysterious purposes in life, would lend themselves to unlock many of the larger mysteries of the world. And thus we find that the sun, moon, and stars, which were often thought of as men, were sometimes thought of as flowers, as in the Indian cosmogonies; and in reversion of the process of thought which led Goethe to call flowers the stars of earth, stars might have been called the flowers of heaven. This conception throws some light on allusions to the gardens of the Sun, and explains how, in German mythology, admission to the skies was also an entrance into a paradise of flowers.

But a commoner though less simple theory traces the uses and legends of plants in mythology, not to the large part they played in sorcery, but to their supposed symbolical application to the phenomena of the solar system. From De Gubernatis' work on La Mythologie des Plantes some illustrations of this other method may be usefully gathered, in order to enable the reader to judge for himself between the merits of the rival theories.

Both in India and Europe a large class of the plants is named after parts of the lion. "The lion,” we are told, “represents the sun; the planets which owe their name to him are essentially solar. Such is visibly the character of Löwenzehn, or Dent de Lion." (Then, how are Indian plants called after the elephant related to the sun, or, if they are not, what is their meaning?) The grass-destroying dæmon of German folk-lore, the grass-wolf, is the dog Sirius, the sun which at the end of July destroys vegetation, for the reason that in Sanskrit the word vrika meant both dog and sun. And the humble stonecrop, or sempervirum (aizoon), called by the Romans occhio di Dio, and still in French called Joubarde, or Jupiter's beard, refers either to the sun or moon, because either may be called the "everlasting" of the heaven.

The moon, as of next importance to the sun, plays a scarcely less conspicuous part in De Gubernatis' theory. The luck-flower, which opens or discloses treasure-stores, is evidently the moon, because the moon may be called the herb par excellence, the queen of herbs, which discovers the hiding-places of robbers. The plant mentioned by Ælian as a cure for the eyes, like our clary (so called because it cleared the eye), is explained mythologically as the moon or dawn,

which chases away the all-blinding darkness. The moly, which frees Ulysses from Circe, is the lunar herb, that is, the moon which enables the sun to continue its course. The aglaophotis, spoken of by Pliny as also called marmoritis from its resemblance to marble, refers to that luminous plant of the East, the dawn or the white. The flower of the fern, by aid of which, in Russian legend, the shepherd discovers his hidden cattle, and is also shown where treasure lies, is either the thunderbolt or the sun itself, which with its light tears open the darkest caverns of the cloud. The selenite (from σɛλýn, the moon), used by shepherds, according to Plutarch, for preserving their feet from snake-bites, alludes to the moon that slays the serpents or monsters of the sky.

Such are ordinary samples of the solar method of interpreting plant legends. Many will think that the explanations are as farfetched as they are monotonous, and that they are only applicable to the facts they profess to meet by a most unnecessary distortion of the plain and simple meaning of the stories themselves. Why, when the simple explanation is at hand that is afforded by the influence and known practices of the magician and the sorcerer, resort for an explanation to a theory of the human mind which has nothing analogous to it in the mental condition of any known existing race of mankind?

J. A. FARRER.

VOL. CCLXI. NO. 1870.

CC

DU

THE IRISH DYNAMITARDS
IN PARIS.

URING a residence in Paris of nearly ten months-from the commencement of May 1884 to the middle of the following March-I saw and mixed with the Irish dynamiters in that city more than, perhaps, any other individual who was not a member of their notorious conspiracy. It is almost needless to say that I have no sympathy with the worse than treasonable views and opinions of those who are working their ends by means which cannot be too severely condemned, and which, if not stamped out, must be the cause of more mischief than almost any body of men banded together for evil has ever effected in the world. But there are so many people in England who have got utterly wrong views both as to the importance of the dynamiter work, and also respecting the absolute necessity of putting an end to the same, that the experience of one who has made the subject a study of considerable time and care may be interesting to those who have the welfare of England as well as of Ireland at heart.

It will, of course, be understood that I do not for a moment pretend to have been in the secrets of the Irish dynamiters. In relating what I have learnt during the period I mixed with them I violate no oath, nor do I betray any confidence. What has been said to me may be, and no doubt has also been, said to others who do not belong to the conspiracy. But few, if any, have studied the men who make it their boast that they will "free Ireland" by means of explosions of public buildings with more care than myself, or, as I hope to show, with more impartial or unbiased opinions on the subject in question. And here I may be allowed to explain that my original object in seeking out and mixing with the dynamiters in Paris was with a view to obtaining a true and impartial account of their doings for the paper of which I was the special correspondent. In this I was singularly fortunate: I was introduced to one or two of them, and gradually became acquainted with several others-in fact,

with all the chief men of the party. And it is only fair to say that during all my intercourse with them I experienced nothing but civility. They knew me to be a journalist, and as such gave me all the information they could without violating the oath of secrecy they had taken. Whenever I asked them a question which they could not, consistently with what they considered their duty, answer, they told me as much; but I don't recollect a single instance in which they replied to any query of mine by an untruth. I have very many times argued with them, and endeavoured to show that their action was calculated not to advance, but to throw back, for twenty years or more, what they term "justice to Ireland"; but I am afraid I made no converts amongst them. They listened to what I had to say with courtesy, but always returned to what they regard as their political dogmawhich was that, all other means having been tried, and failed, England must be frightened into doing what is right, and into freeing the sister island altogether from the yoke of the Imperial Government. But I am bound in truth to say that although their anti-English and often loudly treasonable doctrines were not a little startling, they were never personally abusive in the manner they answered the opinions and arguments which I put forward.

Paris is, and has been for nearly three years, the head-quarters of the Irish dynamiters in Europe. Those who belong to the conspiracy and are resident in that city are about twenty or twenty-four in number. In England we have an idea that those who plot and work this secret warfare are mere vulgar loafers, most of whom make a living by their political scheming. Such is not the case. The Irish dynamiters in Paris are, with very few exceptions, men of education, and they are all more or less busy with their respective avocations or callings. Some of them are printers, two or three are journalists who correspond for American papers, others are mechanics or different traders, and a few have independent means of their own. But there is not one of them who receives anything in the shape of salary, or pay of any kind, from the dynamite funds. When any "work," as they call it, has to be done the funds are forthcoming; but only to such an extent as will repay those concerned the expense to which they may be put. I have been credibly informed that on the occasion when the explosion at the Tower and at Westminster took place the outlay did not exceed £100.

One of the most curious of the many extraordinary facts concerning the Irish dynamiters is the manner in which they managed to take explosive material into England. But that they did so in spite of the most rigid rules concerning the examination of baggage is certain.

The dynamite they use comes nearly always from America. It is landed at Havre-a fact which says but little for the friendly vigilance of the French Government towards England. From Havre it is taken to the neighbourhood of Paris, where it is packed in different portable forms which makes its transport to England easy enough. I have been shown a case of silk dresses-a plain large deal box lined with tin. At first sight it would appear to anyone that this packingcase had nothing whatever peculiar about it. But a careful and very minute investigation would show that the lining was double, and that between the two linings a very large amount of explosive matter might with safety be stowed away. Hand-bags, hat-boxes, trunks, portmanteaus, and other travelling-gear, made with false bottoms, have been made and used for the same purpose; and yet there has not been a single instance of dynamite being discovered in the baggage of any passenger from France to England. When the explosive material reaches London it is stowed away until required for use; but where the place or places of stowage may be is one of those secrets which none save the initiated know. I have been told-and I don't think that my informant had any wish to exaggerate matters-that there was in London not long ago enough dynamite to blow up more than half of the public buildings in the City and West End; and yet we never hear of discoveries of the kind being made by the authorities.

There is a very common mistake made by the English public in general, and by nearly all our newspapers in particular, of confounding the Irish Fenian with the dynamite party. In Paris, where all the different political conspirators avow themselves openly, the error is very soon rectified by those who take any interest in the subject. It is true that all the Irish who rebel against the authority of England may be classed as Fenians; but the dynamite party object strongly to be thus designated; and they have no more energetic opponents than, so to speak, the Fenians pure and simple. I never heard the use of explosive material as a political argument more strongly denounced than by James Stephens, the well-known Fenian of former days, who two years ago was residing in Paris; and by another well-known leader of the same party, John O'Leary, who, his term of exile having expired, returned to Ireland in 1884. Nor, from all I have heard, have the dynamiters many followers in Ireland itself. The only country where they exist in anything like numbers is in the United States, whence come the funds by which their work is carried on. Paris, as I have pointed out, is the depôt, or rather the post, of the advanced guard whence the war is carried on against England, the