HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE. 45 



mentioned in old books, which include the red, the 

 sweet-musk, double and single, the damask, the vel- 

 vet, the double-double Provence rose, and the double 

 and single white rose. And the demand for roses 

 seems to have been so great in old da)'s that bushels 

 of them frequentl)- served as the payment of vassals 

 to their lords, both in France and England. England 

 has good reason to remember the distinction between 

 the red and the white rose. 



Of all the flowers known to our ancestors, the 

 gilly-flowcr was perhaps the most common. 



" The fairest flowers 0' the season 

 Are our carnations and streak'd gilly flower." 



Winter s Tale. 



" Their use," says a quaint writer, " is much in orna- 

 ment, and comforting the spirites by the sence of 

 smelling." The variety of this flower, that was best 

 known in early times, was the wall gilly-flower, or 

 bee-flower. Another flower of common growth in 

 mediaeval gardens and orchards is the periwinkle. 



" There sprang the violet all newe, 

 And fresh periwinkle, rich of hewe, 

 And flowers yellow, white and rede, 

 Such plenty grew there nor in the mede." 



It is not considered probable that much art was 

 expended in the laying out of gardens before the 

 fifteenth century ; but I give a list of illuminated 

 MSS. in the Library of the British Museum, where 

 may be found illustrations of gardens, and which I 

 take from INIessrs Birch and Jenner's valuable Die- 



