VALENTINE TIDE. 45 



FEB. 14. St.Valentine, priest and mart. a.d. 270, 

 St. Maro, abbot and recluse a.d. 270. 

 St. Abraames, bishop of Carres. 

 St. Auxentius, hermit. 

 St. Couran, bishop of Orkney, confessor. 



Obs.. St. Valentine was a priest of Rome, who assisted the mar- 

 tyrs in the persecution of Claudius II. He was apprehended and 

 suffered martyrdom on the 14th of February, about the year 270. 

 The greatest part of his reliques are preserved in the church of St. 

 Praxedes. 



The vulgar custom of sending Valentines on this day had its 

 origin in an endeavour of several zealous persons of the clerical 

 order to put an end to the superstitious practice of boys drawing by 

 lots the names of girls, in honour of Juno Februata, celebrated on 

 the 15th of February in antient Rome. Instead of this custom they 

 permitted the names of saints to be drawn for as a child's game, 

 which might be made subservient, like many others, to recollec- 

 tions of religious history. These got the name of Valentines, but 

 being afterwards much abused and converted into love letters, the 

 ceremony degenerated again into the pagan and foolish custom 

 which characterised its first introduction ; and on the festival of this 

 saint, now called Valentine's Day, persons very cautiously examine 

 the seals of certain suspected anonymous letters of the above ridi- 

 culous nature, with a view of returning them unopened to the Post 

 Office. The practice of sending Valentines has prevailed much in 

 Europe, and some curious particulars concerning it may be found 

 in Butler's Lives of the Saints, in Brand's Antiquities, and in the 

 Perennial Calendar. 



Yellow Spring Crocus Crocus maesiacus flowers. 



The Yellow Crocus blowing plentifully in our gardens about this 

 time has been called Hymen's Torch and Flower of St. Valentine. 

 This species, together v.'ith the Scotch Crocus and the Cloth of Gold 

 Crocus, are now in full blow in mild years. An old verse recorded 

 in many books says : 



The Crocus blows before the shrine, 

 At vernal dawn, of St. Valentine. 



The French call this plant Saffran printariere. 



We read : — " As Crocuses are often blue, so is our love often con- 

 stant; as they are oftener yellow, so love is more frequently jealous j 

 as the Cloth of Gold is mostly striped with red, so doth an advan- 

 tageous affection which bringeth gold generalle begette the stripes of 

 repentance and the purple dye of remorse." — Florilegium. 



