Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/158

 36 The Cimaruta

I will now deal separately with the component elements of the cimaruta. And, first as to the sprig of rue.

I. Rue.

No one would connect these charms with the rue, were it not for their name, for they might represent most other branching structures with equal truth. However, on com- paring some cimarute with rue-sprigs, with ripening fruits culled during the later months of the year, a certain analogy can be perceived.^

The stems of the rue bear alternate, petiolate and very much divided leaves (Pis. X. and XL). The yellow flowers are disposed in corymbs at the summit of the branches ; the calyx is persistent, and divided into four or five segments ; the corolla consists of as many oval petals, and is longer than the calyx. The fruit-bearing sprays bear lanceolate bracts near the bases of the fruits. It would appear that the cimaruta was modelled rather from the fruiting spray than from any other part of the rue plant ; for although in some of the type shown in Plate XV., Fig. 19, there are many small processes which presumably represent the lanceolate bracts borne upon the fruiting sprays, the leaves do not ever seem to be represented.

The following features may be recognized as common to both the fruiting spray of the rue and its imitation :

(i) There are three main terminal branches.

(2) The branching is alternate, and not opposite (like a trident).

(3) There are swellings at the ends of all the branches. If we select for comparison the least conventional of the

cimarute, we shall be struck by other points of resemblance to the natural prototype. The knobs at the ends of the

^ The species most frequently grown in our English gardens is Ruta graveolens L., which is common in Greece and Italy, and was probably the irriyavov of Dioscorides. K. ?noniana and R. ckakpensis are species of shrubby habit found in Greece.