962 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



of Minerva, who, suffering love to overpower her wis- 

 dom, was changed into a myrtle by her offended mis- 

 tress, and taken pity on by Venus. Others say that 

 Venus, when she first sjM-ang from the l)osoni of the 

 sea, had a wreath of myrtle on her head. The temples 

 of this goddess were always surrounded by groves of 

 n)yrtle ; and in Greece she was adored under the name 

 of Myrtilla. Pliny says that the Romans and Sabines, 

 when they were reconciled, laid down their ai-ms 

 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 were also formed of this tree ; 

 and sprigs of myrtle were entwined with the laurel wreaths worn by those 

 conquerors, during their triumphs, who had gained a victory without 

 bloodshed. The victors in the Olympic and other games were also 

 adorned with myrtle. In Rome, two myrtles 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 jnit 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 v\ ine to give it a flavour ; and the fruit was used in cookery, 

 as the entire plant was in meilicine. The ancient poets made it their favourite 

 theme ; and Virgil represents ilineas discovering it to be the mctamor|ihosed 

 Polydorus. {/Encid, book iii.) The myrtle has been known in England since 

 1597 ; and has been frequently noticed by British poets. Spencer says, — 



" KiKht in the middest of that Paradise, 



I'hcre stood a stately mount, on whose round lop 

 A Rloomy grove of niyrllc trees did rise. 



Whose shady boughs sharp steel did never lop, 

 Nor wicked beasts their tender boughs did crop ; 



But, like a girland compassed the height,' 

 And from their fruitful sides fresh gum did drop. 



That all the ground with precious dew be<iight. 

 Threw forth most dainty odours, and most sweet delight." Faerie Uuccne. ' 



Milton places the myrtle in the bower of Eve; and Thomson, in those beaii- 

 tifid lines, beginning, " The lovely young Lavinia once had friends," com- 

 pares Lavinia to a myrtle which 



" Rises far from human eye, 



And breathes its balmy fragance o'er the wild." Seasons. Autumn. 



Though the myrtle is now common as underwood in Italy, Pliny tells us 

 that it was not a native of that country ; and that the first myrtle seen in 

 Europe was |)lauted near the tomb of one of the companions of Ulysses at 

 Circeii ; and he ailds that it still retained its (ireek name of murtos. It is 

 remarkable, that this name is still preserved in all the European languages; 

 the myrtle being called myrtus in Latin ; m3rto, in Italian and Spanish ; nuu'te, 

 in German ; myrter, in Danish ; myrten, in Swedish ; mirte, in French ; and 

 myrta, or murta, in Portuguese. Pliny mentions eleven sorts of myrtles, and 

 says that the most odoriferous grew in Egypt. Cato only speaks of three kinds. 



The first cultivation of the myrtle in England is assigned, in the Hortus 

 Kewensis, to the year \G29 ; when Parkinson informs us that he had three 

 sorts in his garden ; viz. the broad-leaved, and two varieties of the box- 

 leaved. Gerard, however, in 1597, says that " myrtles never bear any fruit in 

 England ;" which, surely, implies the cultivation of it in this country before 

 that period. Bradley states that myrtles were introduced by Sir Francis 

 Carew and Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1585. When they returned to England, after 

 a residence in Spain, just before the invasion of the Spanish armada, one 

 of these m)rtles was planted by Sir F. Carew at Bedington. Evelyn, in 

 1678, says, "I know of one (a myrtle) near 80 years old, which has been 

 continually exposed, unless it be that, in some exceeding sharp seasons, a 

 little dry straw has been thrown upon it ;" and it is supposed that he alluded 



