228 FLORA DOMESTICA. 



John the Baptist, every man's door being shadowed with 

 green birch, long fennel, St. John's Wort, orpine, white 

 lilies, and such like, garnished upon with garlands of beau- 

 tiful flowers, had also lamps of glass with oil burning in 

 them all the night*."" 



. In Lower Saxony, the peasant girls, on the eve of St. 

 John, hang sprigs of this plant against their bed's head, or 

 the walls of their chamber : if it remains fresh on the fol- 

 lowing morning, they are persuaded they will be married 

 within a year ; but if, on the contrary, it droops and fades, 

 they have no hope of marriage within that time. Mr. 

 Drummond, in his First Steps to Botany, quotes some in- 

 teresting lines on this subject, translated from the German : 



" The young raaid stole through the cottage-door, 

 And blush'd as she sought the plant of power ; 

 . ' Thou silver glow-worm, O lend me thy light ! 

 I must gather the mystic St. John's-wort to-night, 

 The wonderful herb whose leaf will decide 

 If the coming year will make me a bride.' 



And the glow-worm came 



With its silvery flame, 



And sparkled and shone 



Through the night of St. John, 

 And soon has the young maid her love-knot tied. 



With noiseless tread 



To her chamber she sped, 



Where the spectral moon her white beams shed : 

 ' Bloom here, bloom here, thou plant of power !' 

 But it drooped its head, that plant of power, 

 And died the mute death of the voiceless flower, 

 And a withered wreath on the ground it lay, 

 More fit for a burial than bridal day. 



* *'.* * * 



And when a year was passed away, 



All pale on the bier the young maid lay ! 



* See Brand's Antiquities, Vol. I. p. 246. 



