COMMON MYRTLE-TREE. 345 



which saiely implies that it was cultivated in that country before that period. 

 Bradley, who wrote a treatise on British husbandry and gardening, states tiiat 

 myrtles were introduced by Sir Frances Carew and Sir Walter Raleigh, in 15S.5. 

 When they returned to England, after a residence in Spain, just before the inva- 

 sion of the armada, one of these myrtles was planted by Sir Francis at Bedding- 

 ton. In the environs of London, the broad and narrow-leaved myrtles stand out, 

 in dry, warm situations, as bushes, sometimes having the extremities of their 

 shoots killed down by frost, but more frequently by the direct influence of the 

 sun after a frosty night, accompanied with snow and sleet. Both double and 

 single varieties of the common myrtle cover large spaces of a wall in the Horti- 

 cultural Society's garden. 



At Cobhani Hall, in Kent, England, there are several trees against the house, 

 thirty feet high. In the isle of Wight and in Devonshire, the myrtle forms 

 hedges to gardens. 



At the Willows, near Swansea, in Glamorganshire, Wales, there were, in 1828, 

 two myrtles fifteen feet high, grown in the open ground as standards, the branches 

 of the largest of which covered a space of ninety feet in circumference. 



In East Lothian, Scotland, more especially at Biel, the myrtle grows against 

 a wall with very little protection. 



In Ireland, in Trinity College botanic garden, at Dublin, all the varieties, 

 except the orange-leaved, have stood out against a wall with a southern aspect ; 

 and at Youghall, near Cork, there was a plant in the open garden twenty feet 

 high, which, in 1835, never had been protected. 



In the neighbourhood of Paris, in France, the myrtle will not stand out against 

 a wall, without a good deal more protection than it requires at London ; but in 

 the southern states of the American union, it grows in great perfection in the open 

 air, without protection, in the severest winters. 



Poetical^ Mythological and Legendary Allusions. The name " Myrtus," is 

 said to have been taken from that of Myrsine, an Athenian maiden, a favourite 

 of Minerva, who, suffering love to overpower her wisdom, was changed into a 

 myrtle by her ofiiended mistress, and taken pity on by Venus. Others say that 

 Venus, when she first sprang from the bosom of the sea, had a wreath of myrtl--, 

 on her head. The temples of this goddess were always surrounded by groves of 

 myrtle ; and in Greece, she was adored under the name of Myrtilla. According 

 to Pliny, the Romans and Sabines, when they were reconciled, laid down their 

 arms under a myrtle-tree, and purified themselves with its boughs. Wreaths of 

 myrtle were the symbols of authority worn by the Athenian magistrates. The 

 weapons of war of the Greeks were also formed of this tree ; and sprigs of myrtle 

 were entwined with the laurel wreaths worn by those conquerors during their 

 triumphs, Avho had gained a victory without blood-shed. The victors in the 

 Olympic and other games were also adorned with myrtles. In Rome, two myr- 

 tles were placed before the temple of Romulus Quirinus, to represent the plebeian 

 and patrician orders, which were predicted to be in the ascendency according to 

 the state of the trees. The Roman ladies put the leaves of the myrtle into their 

 baths, persuaded that the plant of Venus must be favourable to beauty. The 

 branches and berries were steeped in wine to give it a flavour; and the fruit was 

 used in cookery, as the entire plant was in medicine. The ancient poets made 

 the myrtle their favourite theme; and Virgil represents iEneas discovering it to 

 be the metamorphosed Polydorus. In modern times it has been frequently noticed 

 by British poets. Thus, Spencer says in his " Faerie Q,ueene," 



"Right in llie midilesl of thai Paradise, 



There slnnd a .stately mniinl, on whose round top 

 A iri'x'iiiy (.'rnvo of myrilo trees did ri.se, 



Whose .shady lioiislis sharp sleel did never lop, 

 Nor wiclted beasts ttieir lender boughs did crop ; 



44 



