PERPETUA TIDE. 63 



MilRCH 3. St. CuNEGUNDEs, empress, a.d. 1040. 



SS. Marinus and Asterius, martyrs. 



SS. Emeterius and Chelidonius, martyrs. 



St. Winwalve, abbot, 529. 



St. Lamalitte, confessor. 



Obs. St. Cunegundes was daughter of Siglfride, first Count of 

 Luxemburg, and his pious wife Hadiswege. Being on a time ex- 

 ceedingly ill, she vowed that if she recovered she would found a 

 convent, and in pursuance of this vow she founded the Nunnery of 

 Kaffuno-en of the Order of St. Benedict. 



SS. Emetrius and Chehdonius are said to be invoked by the 

 Spaniards against storms, but we believe this to have very little 

 foundation, not being mentioned in Butler's Lives. 



Golden Fig Marigold Mesembrianthemum Aureuni fl. 



Besides the above plant, many others are recorded as coming on 

 an average of years into flower on this day, as the latest or purple 

 Spring Crocus Crocus vernus. 



This day is called Pruniflora in the Latin Calendar above quoted, 

 because the beautiful white blossoms of the early Plum are already 

 expanded. In early years, too, some other early trees, as the Almond 

 and Apricot, bloom. Bees are abroad on the early blossoms of a 

 southern wall. Crocuses of all sorts. Snowdrops, Hellebores, and 

 Liverworts, are in full blow, and here and there in early years a 

 Daffodil seems to be opening its flower. 



A meditative maiden walking in a garden of early spring flowers, 

 exclaimed. As these blooms brave the winds of March in the cold 

 prime of the year, but fade before the summer sun, so the flowers of 

 virtue, which open in the infancy of our days and can resist the 

 storms of youthful rage, fade nevertheless under the heat of noontide 

 passions and the cupidity of the meridian of life. — Florileguim, 

 Asp. iii. 3. 



