the Myrtle with the Bay, or Beaumont with Fletcher. Shenstone, in describing the delights of a country walk after long confinement in sickness, makes particular mention of this fragrant pair :

"Come, gentle air! and while the thickets bloom,
Convey the jasmine's breath divine;

Convey the woodbine's rich perfume,
Nor spare the sweet-leafed eglantine."
"Yonder is a girl who lingers
Where wild honeysuckle grows,
Mingling with the briar-rose;
And with eager outstretched fingers,
Tip-toe standing, vainly tries

To reach the hedge-enveloped prize."

"Wound in the hedge-row's oaken boughs

The woodbine's tassels float in air,

And, blushing, the uncultured rose

H. SMITH.

Hangs high her beauteous blossoms there."

MRS. C. SMITH.

The two latter passages equally apply to the Common

Wild Rose; which can boast the praise of Chaucer :

"As swete as is the bramble floure

That bereth the red hepe."

Chaucer, in the Flower and the Leaf, describes a pleasant arbour formed by Sycamore and Eglantine:

"And I, that all these plesaunt sightis se,
Thought suddainly I felt so swete an air
Of the eglenterè, that certainly

There is no hert (I deme) in such despair,
Ne yet with thoughtis forward and contraire,
So overlaid, but it should sone have bote
If it had onis felt this savour sote."

Keats alludes more than once to the sweet perfume of the Eglantine, when moist with rain or dew:

"Its sides I'll plant with dew-sweet eglantine

And honeysuckles full of clear bee-wine."

ENDYMION, p. 193.

"Rain-scented eglantine

Gave temperate sweets to that well-wooing sun."

ENDYMION, p. 8.

The Eglantine boasts that even in winter she has beauty :

"Though of both leaf and flower bereft,

Some ornaments to me are left

Rich store of scarlet hips is mine."

WORDSWORTH.

St. Pierre speaks of a sweet-briar in the land of Jesso (mentioned in Thevenot's Collection of Voyages), with fruit so large and nutritive, as to feed the inhabitants great part of the year.

Mr. Tighe, in the notes to his poem entitled The Plants, says that some authors have supposed the common Wild or Dog-rose to be the plant with which Jesus Christ was crowned; and also that it composed the bush in which the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses as a flame*.

The Eglantine has this advantage over Roses of higher rank, that its foliage gives a perfume excelled by few flowers.

Spenser confers a distinction upon the Eglantine, or Sweetbriar, which, in point of birth, would place it upon an equality with the finest rose of Venus: addressing himself to his indulgent father, Apollo, he says, after speaking of his love for Daphne,—

"So lovedst thou the lusty hyacinth,

So lovedst thou the fair Coronis dear;
Yet both are of thy hapless hand extinct;
Yet both in flowers do live, and love thee bear,
The one a paunce, the other a sweet-briar."

Spenser's authority would certainly be sufficient in a question of this kind, but that, with regard to the Pansy, he is evidently mistaken; contradicting authorities immu

* See Tighe's Plants, p. 52.

merable, in favour of the ancient Hyacinth flower, or Martagon Lily. With regard to the love these flowers bear to Apollo, it is certainly true that they have a more lively and joyous aspect when he is present than ever they are seen to exhibit in his absence; but if every flower who takes delight in his beams be supposed to have been his friend or mistress, Apollo's loves must have been even more numerous than they have been thought to be. Spenser at least is mistaken in the name of the favourite who gave birth to the Pansy. Let the reader judge and determine for himself, whether the Sweet-briar was originally the fair Coronis.

ROSEMARY.

ROSMARINUS.

LABIATE.

DIANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

The botanical name of this plant is compounded of two Latin words, signifying Sea-dew; and indeed Rosemary thrives best by the sea.— French, romarin; encensier [incense-wort].—Italian, rosmarino; ramerino; ramarino.

ROSEMARY is common in the South of Europe, Barbary, and the Levant, and in the open ground will bear the winter in this climate; but, when in pots, it is necessary to afford it the protection of a roof during the winter season.

:

It has been held in high esteem as a "comforter of the brain," and a strengthener of the memory; and on the latter account is an emblem of fidelity in lovers. Formerly it was worn at weddings, and at funerals also in some parts of England, Mr. Martyn says, "that in his time it was still customary to distribute it among the company at a funeral, who frequently threw sprigs of it into the grave.” Gay refers to this custom in his Shepherd's Week:

"To show their love, the neighbours far and near
Followed with wistful look the damsel's bier.

Sprigg'd Rosemary the lads and lasses bore,
While dismally the parson walked before.
Upon her grave the Rosemary they threw,
The daisy, butter-flower, and endive blue."

It was also planted near tombs, like Mallow and the Asphodel.

Spirit of wine, distilled from Rosemary, produces the true Hungary-water; but this is more generally made by merely dissolving the oils of rosemary and of lavender in spirit of wine. By many persons Rosemary is used as tea, for headachs and nervous disorders.

Slips or cuttings, taken in the spring just before they shoot, and planted in a pot of light fresh earth, will soon take root. When accidentally rooted in a wall or crevice of a building, it will thrive, and endure the greatest cold of our winters, however exposed to the wind.

Mr. T. Moore alludes to its character as a mourner, the following passage:

"The humble rosemary,

Whose sweets so thanklessly are shed

To scent the desert* and the dead."

in

Shenstone expresses great indignation at the little respect shown to the Rosemary in modern times :

"And here trim rosmarin, that whilom crowned
The daintiest garden of the proudest peer,

Ere driven from its envied site, it found

A sacred shelter for its branches here;

Where edged with gold its glittering skirts appear.
Oh wassel days! Oh customs meet and well!

Ere this was banished from its lofty sphere:
Simplicity then sought this humble cell,

Nor ever would she more with thane and lordling dwell."

SCHOOLMISTRESS.

* In the Great Desert are found many stalks of lavender and rosemary.-Asiat. Res.

CC

Shakspeare and others of our old poets repeatedly speak of Rosemary as an emblem of remembrance; and as being worn at weddings, to signify the fidelity of the lovers. Thus Ophelia says:

"There's rosemary for you, that's for remembrance; pray you, love, remember."

Again, Perdita, in the Winter's Tale:

66 For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep
Seeming and savour all the winter long:

Grace and remembrance be with you both!"

Rue is the herb of grace, commonly so called in the dictionaries of Shakspeare's time.

The following passage occurs in Drayton's Pastorals :

"He from his lass him lavender hath sent,

Showing her love, and doth requital crave ;
Him rosemary his sweetheart, whose intent
Is that he her should in remembrance have.”
"Will I be wed this morning,
Thou shalt not be there, nor once be graced with
A piece of rosemary."

RAM ALLEY, OR MERRY TRICKS.

"I meet few but are stuck with rosemary every one asked me who was to be married."

NOBLE SPANISH SOLDIER.

In the notes to Steevens's edition of Shakspeare, many passages of this kind are quoted.

In the Works of Beaumont and Fletcher are several instances of this use of Rosemary. In the Woman's Prize, or the Tamer Tamed, Moroso is said to enter "with Rosemary, as from a wedding.”

In the Pilgrim are these lines:

"Well, well, since wedding will come after wooing,
Give me some rosemary, and let's be going."

This plant seems to have been a favourite with Spenser, which he generally includes where he mentions a variety of