Paracelsus, the most celebrated of the alchemists of the Middle Ages, thus mystically speaks of his art:

"If I have manna in my constitution, I can attract manna from heaven. Melissa is not only in the garden, but also in the air and in heaven. Saturn is not only in the sky, but also deep in the ocean and Earth. What is Venus but the artemisia that grows in your garden, and what is iron but the planet Mars? That is to say, Venus and Artemisia are both products of the same essence, while Mars and iron are manifestations of the same cause. What is the human body but a constellation of the same powers that formed the stars in the sky? He who knows Mars knows the qualities of iron, and he who knows what iron is knows the attributes of Mars. What would become of your heart if there were no Sun in the Universe? What would be the use of your 'Vasa Spermatica'[*] if there were no Venus? To grasp the invisible elements, to attract them by their material correspondences, to control, purify, and transmute, them by the ever-moving powers of the living spirit--this is true Alchemy."

The flower is a medium for the transmission to the human body of those finer essences, and of THEIR SPIRITUAL PORTION TO THE SOUL; for the aroma of the flower is spiritualized to such a degree as to act upon the life currents of the system, imparting to the spiritual body a nutriment of the finest quality."

Thus, here is where the knowledge of the alchemical attributes of plants, as applicable to man, can be most beneficially utilized. Plants and flowers, whose attributes and aromas harmonize with the complex organism of man, should be selected for the house and garden, for, they are mediums to transmit the finer essences and aromas to the spiritual constitution of man; the plant to the physical, and the aromas and essences of the flowers to the soul.

From the foregoing, which a long experience and much critical investigation and research have demonstrated as true, we cannot avoid the conclusion that Alchemy, equally as well as every other science, religion, or system of philosophy formulated by man, resolves itself, ultimately, in all its final conclusions, into the one universal parent of all wisdom.