The Shoot And The Flower

Virga quoque a radice virginitas est, sic enim scriptum est: Exiet virga a radice Jesse, et flos a radice ejus ascendet. Non cavata est haec virga, sed solida. Nemo ergo adurat virgam tuam, ut florem tuum custodias. Virga es, O virgo, non curveris, non inflectaris in terram, ut in te flos paternae radicis ascendat. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De Institutione Virginis Et Sanctae Mariae Virginitate Perpetua, Cap IX Source: Migne PL 16.321a

Virginity is from the word 'shoot' (virga), so it is written: 'A shoot will come out from the root of Jesse, and from the root a flower will arise.' 1 This shoot is not hollow but firm. Therefore let no one dry up your shoot, that you guard your flower. You are a shoot, O virgin, may you not be bent down, may you not incline to the earth, that the paternal flower rise up in you. Saint Ambrose, on The State of The Virgin And The Perpetual Virgnity of Saint Mary, Chapter 9 1 Isaiah 11.1