What does にと do?

Question

I have a sentence that I'm having some trouble with. It's from a game called Tales of Graces -- basically, at one point you go to a garden and grab one of these rare flowers from there. The sentence is the description that is displayed when you view the flower in your inventory.

裏山の花畑へ行った証拠にと、摘んだ花。

Something like "A flower that proves you went to the garden out on the hill", right? I get the gist of the sentence, but I'm not clear on what function にと has after 証拠. Is it a combination of the particles に and と? Does this combination carry any significant nuance?

Answer 1

Answer

It's translated like:

A flower I took to use it as an evidence that I went to the flower garden on the hill (at the back of something like a house).

Reference

If a person uses (One's thinking) と、N, s/he wants to use N along his/her thinking.

Like:

彼へのお[土産]{みやげ}にと、[買]{か}ってきたお[菓子]{かし}。 -> A candy I bought to make it a souvenir for him.
縄跳びで[遊]{あそ}ぼうと、[持]{も}ってきた[縄]{なわ}。 -> A rope I took to play rope-skipping.

Please take a look at に.

The point is that some verbs are hid after に. Let's add しよう, [思]{おも}って, and 「」 to make it easier to understand.

彼へのお[土産]{みやげ}にと、[買]{か}ってきたお[菓子]{かし}。 = 「彼へのお[土産]{みやげ}にしよう」と思って、[買]{か}ってきたお[菓子]{かし}。
縄跳びで[遊]{あそ}ぼうと、[持]{も}ってきた[縄]{なわ}。 = 「縄跳びで[遊]{あそ}ぼう」と思って、[持]{も}ってきた[縄]{なわ}。
[裏山]{うらやま}の[花畑]{はなばたけ}へ[行]{い}った[証拠]{しょうこ}にと、[摘]{つ}んだ[花]{はな}。 = 「[裏山]{うらやま}の[花畑]{はなばたけ}へ[行]{い}った[証拠]{しょうこ}にしよう」と思って、[摘]{つ}んだ[花]{はな}。

You can see that the hero (or else?) thought that he wanted to use 摘んだ花 as 裏山の花畑へ行った証拠.