Plants

"For the Sensitive Plant has no bright flower; Radiance and odour are not its dower; It loves, even like Love, its deep heart is full, It desires what it has not, the beautiful."

"A Sensitive Plant in a garden grew, And the young winds fed it with silver dew, And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light, And clothed them beneath the kisses of night."

"Plants will react quite sharply to an abortion. The fetus, however, will also react to the death of an animal in the family, and will be acquainted with the unconscious psychic relationships within the family long before it reaches the sixth month. The plants in a house are also quite aware of the growing fetus; the plants will also pick up the fact that a member of the family is ill, often in advance of physical symptoms. They are that sensitive to the consciousness within cellular structure. Plants will also know whether a fetus is male or female."

"There is that in the glance of a flower which may at times control the greatest of creation's braggart lords."

"The gadding vine."

"In addition to such wholly separable types of causation, science has still to deal with the interaction of vitalistic and mechanistic causes. It is in the discussion of influences interacting between complex and simple energy units that the greatest confusions and conflicts of scientific analysis arise. For instance, let us suppose that science is called upon to describe the plant growing in a field. It can be shown definitely that the soil is delivering a continuous series of chemical stimuli to the plant. It is equally ascertainable that the plant reacts to these stimuli with a series of reactions peculiar to its own inherent nature. Some of these plant responses will result in the delivery of counter stimuli to the soil and some will not. Those influences which are exercises by the plant over the soil will, for the most part, alter the soil in ways determined by the chemical power of the plant. In so far, therefore, as soil and plant interchange influences, it may fairly be said that the more complex units of energy composing the plant will dominate the interplay of causal forces. But, as we have noted, there will be many changes in the plant, as a result of reactions to soil stimuli, which will not direct any influence back toward the earth. Where these plant changes directed by the soil to its own ultimate benefit, then we might clearly assume that the simpler form of energy was in causal control of the more complex energy unit. That is to say if the soil were able to use the more complex energy of the plant to effect its own enlargement, simply by stimulating the plant to act according to the plant’s own principles of action, we might conclude that, after all, the balance of control lay with the simpler unit of energy. This would amount to the philosophical admission that mechanistic causation holds the balance of power. But such does not appear to be the case. Though stimulated to action by the soil, the plant reacts with its own energy according to its own innate principles of action, and with reaction tendencies designed for its own ultimate benefit. With innate power to develop spontaneously throughout its own life cycle, with a balance of power of interaction capable of changing the soil more radically than the soil can change it, and, finally, with a structure designed in such a way as always to react for its own benefit when stimulated to action by the soil, we are forced to conclude that the plant is a more potent generator of effective causes than the soil."

"it worries me greatly that today’s children can recognize 100 corporate logos and fewer than 10 plants."

"Plants are the first restoration ecologists. They are using their gifts for healing the land, showing us the way."

"Losing a plant can threaten a culture in much the same way as losing a language. [...] The history of the plants is inextricably tied up with the history of the people, with the forces of destruction and creation."

"I think that I shall never see/ A poem lovely as a tree."

"The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life."

"Many wild plants are appropriate in gardens. In fact, a large number of the plants we regard as are actually plants imported from other countries as garden flowers, which have escaped into the wild, liked the environment, and naturalized themselves. And many a garden plant, fine in one spot, can be an unwelcome guest in another. Even the right plant in the right spot can be weedy if there's too much of it; in that case you must weed it out along with the , , and . (Why do weeds always have the best names?)"

"The shad-bush, white with flowers, Brightened the glens; the new leaved butternut And quivering poplar to the roving breeze Gave a balsamic fragrance."

"My club, a beetling olive's stalwart trunk And shapely, still environed in its bark: This hand had torn from holiest The tree entire, with all its fibrous roots."

"1 is every one that feareth the ; that walketh in his ways. 2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. 3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house; thy children like olive plants round thy table. 4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the ."

"And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off; so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth."

"O that I were lying under the olives, Lying alone among the anemones! Shell-colour’d blossoms they bloom there and scarlet, Far under stretches of silver woodland, Flame in the delicate shade of the olives."

"Chemically, table olives are dissimilar to most other fruits consumed as part of the . They have a very low sugar content compared to many other s such as s or . Table olives are a variable food, ranging considerably in colour, flavour, texture, and taste. Outside of the olive-growing areas, the consumption of oil depended upon wealth, personal taste, proximity to military sites, proximity to large urban centres and accessibility to trade routes. Ancient historians and scientists alike are interested in understanding the relationship between volumes of consumption and human health. The modern-day is often lauded for its health benefits. It has been found to generate long life expectancies and people who adhere to the diet have very low incidences of heart disease, cancer and rheumatoid arthritis."

"On our way to we saw the olive-gathering just beginning; but alas! it had none of gaiety and bright associations of the vintage. On the contrary, it was as business-like and unexciting as weeding onions, or digging potatoes. A set of ragged peasants—the country people hereabouts are poorly dressed—were clambering barefoot in the trees, each man with a basket tied before him, and lazily plucking the dull oily fruit. Occasionally, the olive-gatherers had spread a white cloth beneath the tree, and were shaking the very ripe fruit down; but there was neither jollity nor romance about the process. The olive is a tree of association, but that is all. Its culture, its manuring, and clipping, and trimming, and the grafting—the gathering of its fruits, and their squeezing in the mill, when the ponderous stone goes round and round in the glutinous trough, crushing the very essence out of the oily pulps—while the fat, oleaginous stream pours lazily into the greasy vessels set to receive it;—all this is as prosaic and uninteresting as if the whole were presiding in spirit over the operations."

"See there the olive grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long."

"... Olives luxuriate in limestone regions; from one to ten s are yielded by each tree in good seasons, while the only mathematics the Spanish seem to know are the straight lines in which they plant them. An of such trees will produce over three hundred s of olive oil, consumed in amounts of nearly five s per head annually."

"A crown of olives on his helm he had, As if in peace and war he were adrad."

"All green was vanished save of pine and yew, That still displayed their melancholy hue; Save the green holly with its berries red, And the green moss that o'er the gravel spread."

"Green, slender, leaf-clad holly-boughs Were twisted gracefu' round her brows, I took her for some Scottish Muse, By that same token, An' come to stop those reckless vows, Would soon be broken."

"O Reader! hast thou ever stood to see The Holly-tree? The eye that contemplates it well perceives Its glossy leaves Ordered by an Intelligence so wise As might confound the Atheist's sophistries."

"And as, when all the summer trees are seen So bright and green, The Holly leaves a sober hue display Less bright than they, But when the bare and wintry woods we see, What then so cheerful as the Holly-tree?"

"Those hollies of themselves a shape As of an arbor took."

"And add to these retired Leisure, That in trim gardens takes his pleasure."

"I walk down the garden paths, And all the daffodils Are blowing, and the bright blue squills. I walk down the patterned garden-paths In my stiff, brocaded gown. With my powdered hair, and jewelled fan, I too am a rare Pattern. As I wander down The garden paths."

"An album is a garden, not for show Planted, but use; where wholesome herbs should grow."

"One is nearer God's heart in a garden Than anywhere else on earth."

"My garden is a forest ledge Which older forests bound; The banks slope down to the blue lake-edge, Then plunge to depths profound!"

"A little garden Little Jowett made, And fenced it with a little palisade; If you would know the mind of little Jowett, This little garden don't a little show it."

"The splash and stir Of fountains spouted up and showering down In meshes of the jasmine and the rose: And all about us peal'd the nightingale, Rapt in her song, and careless of the snare."

"The garden lies, A league of grass, wash'd by a slow broad stream."

"A little garden square and wall'd; And in it throve an ancient evergreen, A yew-tree, and all round it ran a walk Of shingle, and a walk divided it."

"How well the skilful Gardner drew Of flow’rs and herbs this Dial new; Where from above the milder Sun Does through a fragrant Zodiack run; And, as it works, th’ industrious Bee Computes its time as well as we. How could such sweet and wholsome Hours Be reckon’d but with herbs and flow’rs!"

"A garden is a nursery for nurturing connection, the soil for cultivation of practical reverence. And its power goes far beyond the garden gate—once you develop a relationship with a little patch of earth, it becomes a seed itself."

"The biggest challenge, I think, and this is probably true for all s, is insects, bugs. I somehow started off thinking oh, I won’t have to deal with any insects because my garden will be inside. But insects really, you know, don’t care about that. It just takes one to make it inside, and they don’t have any natural predators, and one becomes a million. That was a constant, constant struggle. I ended up getting beneficial bugs to combat the bad bugs but, especially indoors, that’s a lot of bugs."

"Bright, big-blossomed roses delight the eye, herbs provide s for all ailments, berry bushes supply fruit for s, vegetables go into the indispensable evening soup, and many exotic plants, gifts from long ago, revert to their primal condition."

"It is not ponderable things alone that are found in gardens, but the great wonder of life, the peace of nature, the influences of sunsets and seasons and of all the tangible things to which we can give no name, not because they are small, but because they are outside the compass of our speech. In the great legend of the Fall the spiritual disaster of Man is symbolised by his exclusion from a garden, and the moral tragedy of modern industrialism is only the repetition of that ancient fable. Man lost his garden, and with it that tranquillity of soul that is found in gardens."

"We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."

"The is clearly more popular than ever, almost certainly because of its informal approach, the profusion of flowers, and the dreamy ambience. Of particular concern in our modern era, cottage gardens also offer great biodiversity. They are good places for human, animal, and insect life."

"Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too."

"My garden painted o'er With Nature's hand, not Art's."

"God the first garden made, and the first city, Cain."

"Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit."

"Exclusiveness in a garden is a mistake as great as it is in society."

"Show me your garden, provided it be your own, and I will tell you what you are like."

"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"