138 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



Sweet flower! that requiem wild is mine; 

 It warns me to the lonely shrine, 

 The cold turf altar of the dead : 

 My grave shall be in yon lone spot, 

 Where as I lie by all forgot 

 A dying fragrance thou wilt o'er my ashes shed." 



It is still the custom in some parts of this 

 country, as well as in France, to put a branch 

 of rosemary in the hands of the dead when 

 in the coffin ; and we are told by Valmont Bo- 

 mare, in his Histoire Naturelle, " that when 

 the coffins have been opened after several 

 years, the plant has been found to have ve- 

 getated so much that the leaves have co- 

 vered the whole corpse. This account sa- 

 vours more of superstition than of the nature 

 of the plant. 



It is still the custom at the hospitals in 

 France to burn rosemary with juniper berries, 

 to correct impure air, and to prevent infec- 

 tion. The custom of using it at funerals 

 may have had reference to this virtue in the 

 plant. 



Without entering into the extravagant opi- 

 nions of the ancients respecting odours, we 

 cannot avoid thinking that the effect which 

 different smells and perfumes have on the 

 mind as well as the health, is not at present 

 sufficiently attended to. 



