EVERLASTING. tit 



GnaphaUum Alpinum, he says, '^ the flower being 

 gathered when it is yong, may be kept in such 

 manner as it was gathered ; I meane in such fresh- 

 nesse and well liking, by the space of a whole 

 yeere ; wherefore our English women haue called 

 it Liue-long, or Liue-for-euer, which name doth 

 aptly answer his effects ;" and from hence the name 

 Everlasting has originated. 



At what exact period the Eastern Everlasting, 

 GnaphaUum Orienfale, was first cultivated in this 

 country cannot be ascertained, but we may fairly 

 conclude that it was soon after the year 1597, as 

 we learn from Gerard's Herbal, which was pub- 

 lished in that year, that the plant in its dried 

 state had then been sent to this country, and from 

 the earnestness shown in that age for the collect- 

 ing of exotic plants, there can be no doubt but 

 that it was soon afterwards obtained for the par- 

 terres of London ; but we have no author who 

 speaks of its cultivation before Parkinson, from 

 whom we learn that it was an inmate of our gar- 

 dens prior to 1628. Gerard speaks of this species 

 under the name of " Golden Mother- woort, or 

 Cud- weed ;"" and he describes the flowers as stand- 

 ing " on the top of the stalkes ioined togither 

 in tuftes of a yellow colour, glittering like golde, 

 in forme resembling the scalie flowers of Tansie, 

 which being gathered before they be ripe or 



