•^^2 pfant ls)ore, Isegeliti/, anR "bijric/*. 



to blow, and whose ringlets are compared to the twisting Hyacinth 

 buried in an envelope of the purest Musk : — 



" With Hyacinth and Jasmine her perfumed hair was bound, 

 A posy of sweet Violets her clustering ringlets seemed ; 

 Her eyes with love intoxicate, in witching sleep half drowned, 



Her locks, to Indian Spikenard like, with love's enchantments beamed." 



De Tassy, the translator of the allegories of Aziz Eddin, points 

 out that the Arabian word yds-min is composed of the word_y'^-^> 

 despair, and min, an illusion. In the allegories we read : " Then 

 the Jasmine uttered this sentence with the expressive eloquence 

 of its mute language : " Despair is a mistake. My penetrating odour 

 excels the perfume of other flowers ; therefore lovers selecl: me as 

 a suitable offering to their mistresses ; they extracft from me the in- 

 visible treasures of divinity, and I can only rest when enclosed in 



the folds and pleats which form in the body of a robe." An 



allusion to the Jasmine is made in the following poetic description 

 of a young girl drooping from a sudden illness : — " All of a sudden 

 the blighting glance of unpropitious fortune having fallen on that 

 Rose-cheeked Cypress, she laid her head on the pillow of sickness ; 

 and in the flower-garden of her beauty, in place of the Damask- 

 Rose, sprang up the branch of the Saffron. Her fresh Jasmine, 

 from the violence of the burning illness, lost its moisture, and her 

 Hyacinth, full of curls, lost all its endurance from the fever that 



consumed her. -The Indians cultivate specially for their perfume 



two species of Jasmine— viz., the Jasminum grandiflorum, or Tore, 

 and the J. hirsutiim, or Samhac. The Moo-le-hiia, a powerful- 

 smelling Jasmine, is used in China and other parts of the East as 



an adornment for the women's hair. It is believed that the 



Jasmine was first introduced into Europe by some Spaniards, who 



brought it from the East Indies in 1560. Loudon relates that 



a variety of the Jasmine, with large double flowers and exquisite 

 scent, was first procured in 1699 from Goa, by the Grand Duke 

 of Tuscany, and so jealous was he of being the sole possessor of 

 this species, that he stricftly forbade his gardener to part with a 

 single cutting. However the gardener was in love, and so, on the 

 birthday of his betrothed, he presented her with a nosegay, in the 

 midst of which was a sprig of this rare Jasmine. Charmed with its 

 fragrance, the girl planted the sprig in fresh mould, and under her 

 lover's mstru(5tions was soon able to raise cuttings from the plant, 

 and to sell them at a high price : by this means she soon saved 

 enough money to enable her to wed the gardener, who had hitherto 

 been too poor to alter his condition. In memory of this tender 

 episode, the damsels of Tuscany still wear a wreath of Jasmine on 

 their wedding days, and the event has given rise to a saying that 

 a "girl worthy of wearing the Jasmine wreath is rich enough to 



make her husband happy." Yellow Jasmine is the flower of the 



Epiphany. To dream of this beautiful flower foretells good 



luck ; to lovers it is a sure sign they will be speedily married. 



