328 FLORA DOMESTICA. 



for thirty years. At the end of that period, as he was 

 walking with a friend, " having then begun," he says, " to 

 herborize a little, in looking among the bushes by the way, 

 I uttered a cry of joy : ' Ah, there is the Perwinkle P and 

 it was so." He gives this as an instance of the vivid recol- 

 lection he had of every incident occurring at a particular 

 period of his life. The incident is so natural, and told with 

 so much simplicity, that, trifling as it is, it cannot fail to 

 interest ; especially as the Perwinkle is in France esteemed 

 as the emblem of sincere friendship, in their mystic language 

 of nosegays, when sent as presents between lovers and 

 friends. The country people in Italy make garlands of it 

 for their dead infants, for which reason they call it jior di 

 morto [death's flower]. 



It has also been used on very different occasions ; for we 

 are told it was named Vinca, because girdles were made of 

 it at weddings. The botanists formerly called it Pervinca : 

 Miller says from the Latin pervincere, to overcome tho- 

 roughly, because it resists the winter's cold : it has also been 

 called Clematis, for the same reason as the Clematis, now so 

 called, bears that name its tendency to climb upon neigh- 

 bouring plants. Some have called it Chamaedaphne, or 

 Little Laurel, from the form of its leaves. 



PHILLYKEA. 



CASSINE CAPENSIS. 



RHAMNE^E. PENTANDRIA TRIGYNIA. 



THIS is a shrub, bearing white blossoms, which blow 



in July or August. It should be housed in September, 



and placed abroad again in May. It must be sparingly 

 watered. 



