Trifoliated Plants Considered Sacred
Many trifoliated plants have been held sacred from a remote antiquity. The trefoil was eaten by the horses of Jupiter, and a golden, three-leaved, immortal plant, affording riches and protection, is noticed in Homer’s Hymn in Mercurium. In the palaces of Nineveh, and on the medals of Rome, representations of triple branches, triple leaves and triple fruit are to be found. On the temples and pyramids of Gibel-el-Birkel, considered to be much older than those of Egypt, there are representations of a tri-leaved plant, which, in the illustrations of Hoskin’s “Travels in Ethiopia,” seem to be nothing else than the shamrock. The triad is still a favorite figure in national and heraldic emblems.