Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1903 — The White Lily a Symbol. [ARTICLE]

The White Lily a Symbol.

Of the many species of lilies grown throughout the world the white lily of the Orient has the oldest history as a cultivated flower. Its origin is supposed to be in China, but long before the day# when annalists took cognizance of th# cultivation of flowers it was commoq throughout western Asia and Greece. It is the lily generally referred to in th# Hebrew Scriptures, although commentators say that “the lilies of the field" spoken of by Jesus in tbe cermon oa the mount were tho red anemones, with which all the hills of Galilee are dotted In the spring. In heathen Asia the whit# lily was the emblem of purity. Th# Greeks had a myth that it sprang froni the milk of Hera, queen of the gods, with whom the Roman Juno was afterward identified. The Greeks also held the lily to be tho highest type of purity. In th# enrly centuries of the Christian era th# new religion mado this idea a little mor# sublime, and the lily became the symbol of heavenly purity. Thus the lily is fittingly associated with the Easter ccr# monies.—Pittsburg Dispatch.