It was this that brought the gentle family of roses into such unnatural broils in the civil wars: and still the united' countries of Great Britain have each a floral emblem: Scotland has its thistle, Ireland its shamrock, and England the rose. France, under the Bourbons, has the golden lily. It was an annual custom with the Popes to send a golden rose perfumed to the prince who happened to be most in their good graces. Our different festivals have each their own peculiar plant, or plants, to be used in their celebration: at Easter the willow as a substitute for the palm; at Christmas, the holly and the mistletoe; on May-day every flower in bloom, but particularly the hawthorn or May-bush. In Persia they have a festival called the Feast of Roses, which lasts the whole time they are in bloom-(See ROSES, page 371). Formerly it was the custom, and still is in some parts of the country, to scatter flowers on the celebration of a wedding, a christening, or even of a funeral (See ROSES, page 364, and ROSEMARY, page 384). It was formerly the custom also to carry garlands before the bier of a maiden, and to hang them, and scatter flowersover her grave: "Her death was doubtful; And, but that great command o'ersways the order, The Queen scattering flowers: I hoped thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid, HAMLET, Act v. Scene 1. * Crants is the German word for garlands. In Tripoli, on the celebration of a wedding, the baskets of sweetmeats, &c. sent as wedding presents, are covered with flowers; and although it is well known that they frequently communicate the plague, the inhabitants will even prefer running the risk, when that dreadful disease is abroad, rather than lose the enjoyment they have in their love of flowers. When a woman in Tripoli dies, a large bouquet of fresh flowers, if they can be procured, if not, of artificial, is fastened at the head of her coffin. Upon the death of a Moorish lady of quality, every place is filled with fresh flowers and burning perfumes: at the head of the body is placed a large bouquet, of part artificial, and part natural, and richly ornamented with silver: and additions are continually made to it. The author who describes these customs also mentions a lady of high rank, who regularly attended the tomb of her daughter, who had been three years dead: she always kept it in repair, and, with the exception of the great mosque, it was one of the grandest in Tripoli. From the time of the young lady's death, the tomb had always been supplied with the most expensive flowers, placed in beautiful vases; and, in addition to these, a great quantity of fresh Arabian Jessamines, threaded on thin slips of the Palm-leaf, were hung in festoons and tassels about this revered sepulchre. The mausoleum of the royal family, which is called the Turbar, is of the purest white marble, and is filled with an immense quantity of fresh flowers; most of the tombs being dressed with festoons of Arabian Jessamine and large bunches of variegated flowers, consisting of Orange, Myrtle, Red and White Roses, &c. They afford a perfume which those who are not habituated to such choice flowers can scarcely conceive. The tombs are mostly of white, a few inlaid with coloured marble. A manuscript Bible, which was presented by a Jew to the Synagogue, was adorned with flowers; and silver vases filled with flowers were placed upon the ark which contained the sacred MS*. The ancients used wreaths of flowers in their entertainments, not only for pleasure, but also from a notion that their odour prevented the wine from intoxicating them: they used other perfumes on the same account. Beds of flowers are not merely fictitious (see ROSES, page 370). The Highlanders of Scotland commonly sleep on heath, which is said to make a delicious bed; and beds are, in Italy, often filled with the leaves of trees, instead of down, or feathers. It is an old joke against the effeminate Sybarites, that one of them complaining he had not slept all night, and being asked the reason why, said that a roseleaf had got folded under him. In Naples, and in the Vale of Cachemere (I have been told also that it sometimes occurs in Chester), gardens are formed on the roofs of houses: "On a standing roof of wood is laid a covering of fine earth, which shelters the building from the great quantity of snow that falls in the winter season. This fence communicates an equal warmth in winter, as a refreshing coolness in summer, when the tops of the houses, which are planted with a variety of flowers, exhibit at a distance the spacious view of a beautifully chequered parterre." (FORSTER.) The famous hanging gardens of Babylon were on the enormous walls of that city. A garden usually makes a part of every Paradise, even of Mahomet's, from which women are excluded,-women, whom gallantry has so associated with flowers, that we are told, in the Malay language, one word serves for both †. In Milton's Paradise, the occupation of Adam and Eve * See Tully's Narrative of a Residence in Tripoli. was to tend the flowers, to prune the luxuriant branches, and support the roses, heavy with beauty (see ROSES, page 374). Poets have taken pleasure in painting gardens in all the brilliancy of imagination. See the garden of Alcinous, in Homer's Odyssey; those of Morgana, Alcina, and Armida, in the Italian poets: the gardens fair "Of Hesperus and his daughters three, Who sing about the golden tree :" and Proserpina's garden, and the Bower of Bliss in Spenser's Fairie Queene. The very mention of their names seems to embower one in leaves and blossoms. It is a matter of some taste to arrange a bouquet of flowers judiciously; even in language, we have a finer idea of colours, when such are placed together as look well together in substance. Do we read of white, purple, red, and yellow flowers, they do not present to us so exquisite a picture, as if we read of yellow and purple, white and red. Their arrangement has been happily touched upon by some of our poets: "Th' Azores send The gay diversities of leaf and flower, Must lend its aid t' illustrate all their charms, Tibi lilia plenis COWPER. Ecce ferunt nymphæ calathis: tibi candida Nais, Pallentes violas et summa papavera carpens, VIRGIL, Eclogue 2. "Behold the nymphs bring thee lilies in full baskets: for thee fair Nais, cropping the pale violets and heads of poppies, joins the narcissus, and flower of sweet-smelling anise: then, interweaving them with cassia and other fragrant herbs, sets off the soft hyacinth with the saffron marygold." DAVIDSON'S TRANSLATION. Drayton runs riot on the subject: a nymph in his Muse's Elysium says, "Here damask-roses, white and red, Out of my lap first take I, Which still shall run along the thread; The pretty pansy then I'll tye And next to them, their near ally, The curious choice clove July-flower, A course of cowslips then I'll stick, |