"For indifference to the things of this world we find the lichen symbolizing solitude; for chastity, the orange-flower and the lily; for charity, the water-lily, the rose, and the saffron flower—so say Raban Maur and the Anonymous monk of Clairvaux; for temperance, the lettuce, which also stands for fasting; for meekness, mignonette; for watchfulness, the
elder, signifying zeal; and thyme, which, with its sharp, pungent aroma, symbolizes activity.
"You may dispense with the sins, which have no place in the precincts of Our Lady, and lay out your plots with the devout flowers."
"How is that to be done?" asked the Abbé Gévresin.
"Why," said Durtal, "there are two plans. One would be to sketch the plan of a real church and supply the place of its statues with plants, which would be the better way from the point of view of art; or else to compose a whole sanctuary with trees and shrubs."
He rose, and went to pick up a stick that was lying in the field.
"There," said he, tracing the cruciform outline of a church on the ground, "there you have the plan of our cathedral. Supposing now we build it, beginning at the end, the apse; there we naturally place the Lady chapel, as we find it in most cathedrals.
"Plants emblematic of Our Lady's attributes are abundant."
"The mystical rose of the Litanies!" exclaimed Madame Bavoil.
"H'm!" said Durtal; "the rose has been much bedraggled. Not only was it the erotic blossom of Paganism, but in the Middle Ages Jews and prostitutes were compelled in many places to wear a rose as a distinctive mark of infamy."