198 pFanC "bore, IsegeT^/, anel Isqric/, 



In South Wales, the custom of planting and ornamenting 

 graves is noticed by Brand in his ' Popular Antiquities,' as being 

 very common. He tells us that, in Glamorgan, many churchyards 

 have something like the splendour of a rich and various parterre. 

 Besides this, it is usual to strew the graves with flowers and 

 evergreens (within the church as well as out of it) at least thrice a 

 year, on the same principle of delicate respect as the stones are 

 whitened. No flowers or evergreens are permitted to be planted on 

 graves but such as are sweet-scented: the Pink and Polyanthus, 

 Sweet Williams, Gilliflowers and Carnations, Mignonette, Thyme, 

 Hyssop, Camomile, and Rosemary make up the pious decoration 

 of this consecrated garden. Turnesoles, Peonies, the African 

 Marigold, the Anemone, and some other flowers, though beautiful, 

 should never be planted on graves, because they are not sweet- 

 scented. 



The prejudice against old maids and old bachelors subsists 

 among the Welsh in a very marked degree, so that their graves 

 have not unfrequently been planted, by some satirical neighbours, 

 not only with Rue, but with Thistles, Nettles, Henbane, and other 

 noxious weeds. 



In Glamorganshire, the old custom is still retained of strewing 

 the bed whereon a corpse rests with fragrant flowers. In the 

 South of England a chaplet of white Roses is borne before the 

 corpse of a maiden by a young girl nearest in age and resemblance 

 to the deceased, and afterwards hung up over her accustomed seat 

 at church. 



S)farif(i) a/^ ie)eatft porfentji). 



Though scarcely to be characfterised as " funereal," there are 

 some plants which have obtained a sinister reputation as either 

 predidling death themselves, or being associated in some manner 

 with fatal portents. Mannhardt tells us of a gloomy Swiss tradi- 

 tion, dating from the fifteenth century, which relates that the three 

 children of a bootmaker of Basle having each in their garden a 

 favourite tree, carefully studied the inflorescence during Lent. As 

 the result of their close observation, the two sisters, Adelaide and 

 Catherine, saw from the characfteristics of the blossoms that they 

 were predestined to enter a convent ; whilst the boy Jean atten- 

 tively watched the development of a red Rose, which predicSted 

 his entry into the Church and his subsequent martyrdom : as a 

 matter of fact, it is said he was martyred at Prague by the 

 Hussites. 



The Greeks regarded Parsley as a funereal herb, and were fond 

 of strewing the tombs of their dead with it : hence it came in time 

 to be thought a plant of evil augury, and those who were on the 

 point of death were commonly spoken of as being in need of 

 Parsley. Something of this association of Parsley with death is 



