endure the open air all the year round; and there are Myrtle hedges which have grown to a considerable height, and are very strong and healthy. Mr. Keppel Craven describes the hedges in Naples to be as commonly composed of Myrtles and orange trees, as ours are of thorn and privet. Their fragrance, when in blossom, must surpass even our own hawthorn.

The Myrtle was formerly used in medicine: it was a great favourite with the ancients; and either on account of its beauty, or because it thrives best in the neighbourhood of the sea, it was held sacred to Venus- as the olive to Minerva, the poplar to Hercules, the ivy and the vine to Bacchus, the hyacinth and the bay to Apollo, &c.

Myrtle-berries were used in cookery; and both those and the branches put into wine. Evelyn speaks of a decoction of Myrtle-berries for dying the hair black.

Myrtle was the symbol of authority for magistrates at Athens; bloodless victors were crowned with Myrtle; and hence the swords of Harmodius and Aristogiton were wreathed with Myrtle, when they set forth to free their country from hereditary monarchy. Thus when the young hero is contemning the indolent and effeminate luxury around him, he breaks out in enthusiastic admiration of the Greeks:

"It was not so, land of the generous thought,
And daring deed! thy godlike sages taught;

It was not thus, in bowers of wanton ease,

Thy Freedom nursed her sacred energies;

Oh! not beneath the enfeebling, withering glow

Of such dull luxury did those myrtles grow

With which she wreathed her sword when she would dare

Immortal deeds; but in the bracing air

Of toil, of temperance, of that high, rare,
Etherial virtue, which alone can breathe
Life, health, and lustre into Freedom's wreath."

MOORE'S LALLA ROOKH.

The Myrtle's fondness for the sea-shore is noticed by Virgil in his Georgics:

nec sera comantem

Narcissum, aut flexi tacuissem vimen acanthi,
Pallentesque hederas, et amantes litora myrtos."

GEORGIC 4.

"Nor had I passed in silence the late-flowering daffodil, the stalks of the flexile acanthus, the pale ivy, or the myrtle that loves the shore."- -DAVIDSON'S TRANSLATION.

And again:

"Litora myrtetis lætissima."

The same poet, in his Pastorals, alludes to the fragrance of the Myrtle-blossom:

"Et vos, ô lauri, carpam, et te, proxima myrte;

Sic positæ quoniam suaves miscetis odores."

"And you, ye laurels, I will crop; and thee, O myrtle, next in dignity to the laurel; for thus arranged, you mingle sweet perfumes."

So Davidson translates this passage: the words in Italics marking an interpolation, or rather a necessary explanation of the preceding adjective.

It was impossible that Spenser should omit the Myrtle in the garden of Adonis :

66 Right in the middest of that paradise

There stood a stately mount, on whose round top

A gloomy grove of myrtle-trees did rise,
Whose shady boughs sharp steel did never lop,
Nor wicked beasts their tender buds did crop;

But like a garland compassed the height.

And from their fruitful sides sweet gum did drop,

That all the ground with precious dew bedight,

Threw forth most dainty odours and most sweet delight.

And in the thickest covert of that shade
There was a pleasant arbour, not by art,
But by the trees' own inclination made;

Which knitting their rank branches part to part,
With wanton ivy-twine entrail'd athwart ;
And eglantine and caprifole among,

Fashion'd above within their inmost part,

That neither Phoebus' beams could through them throng,
Nor Eolus' sharp blast could work them any wrong."

FAIRY QUEEN, b. iii. c. 6.

The Myrtle and the bay are continually coupled together by the poets, like the lily and the rose. And not even the bay itself has been more sweetly sung than this beautiful shrub:

"And in the midst of all, cluster'd about

With bay and myrtle, and just gleaming out,
Lurk'd a pavilion,-a delicious sight,
Small, marble, well-proportion'd, mellowy white,
With yellow vine-leaves sprinkled, but no more,
And a young orange either side the door."

"Never look'd the bay so fit

To surmount two eyes of wit,

Nor the myrtle to be seen

STORY OF RIMINI.

Two white kerchief'd breasts between,

Nor the oak to crown a sword

For a nation's rights restored."

DESCENT OF LIBERTY.

"A sacred hedge runs round it; and a brook,
Flowing from out a little gravelly nook,
Keeps green the laurel and the myrtle trees,
And odorous cypresses."

HUNT'S FOLIAGE: from Theocritus.

There is another most exquisite passage about this shrub in Keats's Sleep and Poetry:

r a myrtle, fairer than

E'er grew in Paphos, from the bitter weeds
Lifts its sweet head into the air, and feeds
A silent space with ever-sprouting green.
All tenderest birds there find a pleasant screen,

Creep through the shade with noisy fluttering,
Nibble the little cupped flowers, and sing.
Then let us clear away the choaking thorns

From round its gentle stem; let the young fawns,
Yeaned in after-times, when we are flown,
Find a fresh sward beneath it, overgrown
With simple flowers."

"Like a myrtle tree in flower

Taken from an Asian bower,

Where with many a dewy cup

Nymphs in play had nursed it up."

HUNT: from Catullus.

It has been observed, that the Myrtle is consecrated to Venus. Drayton, in his Muses' Elysium, has assembled a number of emblematical wreaths:

"The garland long ago was worn,

As Time pleased to bestow it:

The laurel only to adorn

The conqueror and the poet.

The palm his due, who, uncontroll❜d,

On danger looking gravely,

When fate had done the worst it could,

Who bore his fortunes bravely.

Most worthy of the oaken wreath
The ancients him esteem'd,
Who in a battle had from death
Some man of worth redeem'd.
About his temples grace they tie,
Himself that so behaved,
In some strong siege by th'enemy
A city that hath saved.

A wreath of vervain heralds wear,
Amongst our garlands named,

Being sent that dreadful news to bear,

Offensive war proclaim'd.

The sign of peace who first displays

The olive wreath possesses;

The lover with the myrtle sprays

Adorns his crisped tresses.

In love the sad forsaken wight
The willow garland weareth,
The funeral man, befitting night
The baleful cypress beareth.
To Pan we dedicate the pine,
Whose slips the shepherd graceth;
Again the ivy, and the vine,

On his swoln Bacchus placeth."

NARCISSEE.

NARCISSUS.

HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

Named from the youth Narcissus, who, as the poets tell us, was changed into this flower. Also named Daffodil. Some of the species are called Jonquils.

THE TWO-flowered Narcissus, Pale Daffodil, or Primrose-peerless, is of a pale cream-colour, with a yellow cup in the centre. It grows wild in England and many other parts of Europe, and flowers in April.

Of the Common Daffodil there are many varieties: with a white flower, and yellow cup; a yellow flower, and deep golden cup; a double flower, with several cups, one within the other; Tradescant's Daffodil, "which," says Mr. Martyn, "may well be entitled the Prince or Glory of Daffodils;" the Great Nonsuch; the Great Yellow Incomparable Daffodil, which, when double, is called by gardeners, Butter-and-egg Narcissus. It is called in the Dutch catalogues, the Orange Phoenix, and is considered the handsomest of all the varieties. There are many others, which it is not necessary to specify. They mostly flower in April. This in France has many names: as, le narcisse sauvage; le faux narcisse; campane jaune [yellow