140 THE GLORY OF THE GARDEN 



Save Mushrooms, and the Fungus race, 

 That grow til All-Hallovv-tide takes place. 



Soon the Evergreen Laurel alone is greene, 

 When Catherine crowns all learned menne. 



Then Ivie and Holly Berries are seene. 



And Yule Log and Wassaill come round agen." 



In a little book entitled " Flowers and Festivals," 

 the author writes: "In the ancient calendars nearly 

 every day in the year was dedicated to some saint, 

 who had his own legend and emblem. 



'' Flowers have, from the earliest times, been 

 connected with the great festivals of the Church, 

 or with the saints of the calendar. It is worthy 

 of observation that the flowers dedicated to, or 

 connected with the name of certain saints, are 

 generally in blossom at or near the time of their 

 festivals." 



The feeling which inspired this identification of 

 flowers and herbs with the saints and their festivals, 

 is gracefully expressed by a Franciscan in the follow- 

 ing passage: 



" Mindful of the Festivals which our Church 

 prescribes, I have sought to make these objects 

 of floral nature the timepieces of my religious 

 calendar, and the mementoes of the hastening period 

 of my mortality. Thus I can light the taper to 

 our Virgin Mother on the blowing of the white 

 Snowdrop, which opens its flower at the time of 

 Candlemas; the Lady's Smock and the Daffodil 

 remind me of the Annunciation; the blue Harebell, 

 of the Festival of St. George; the Ranunculus, of 

 the Invention of the Cross; the scarlet Lychnis, of 

 St. John the Baptist's Day; the white Lily, of the 

 Visitation of Our Lady; and the Virgin's Bower, 



