412 FLORA DOMESTICA. 



through an evening very well. The introduction of such a 

 fashion might be an important advantage to the fair-sex : 

 should the rooms be very warm, and likely to injure the 

 beauty of their floral ornaments, and cause them to droop 

 prematurely, they would be compelled, like Cinderella in 

 her fairy dress, to retire at a seasonable hour, before such a 

 catastrophe should take place ; which would be of no small 

 benefit to their health and beauty. In the East, ladies 

 commonly wear natural flowers. Thunberg speaks upon 

 the subject with a gallantry quite enthusiastic : 



" The ladies in Batavia," says he, " wear neither caps 

 nor hats ; but tie up their hair (which is only anointed with 

 oil, and has no powder in it) in a large knot on the crown 

 of their heads, and adorn it with jewels, and wreaths of 

 odoriferous flowers. In the evenings, when the ladies pay 

 visits to each other, they are decorated in a particular 

 manner about the head with a wreath of flowers, of the 

 Nyctanthes Sambac*, run upon a thread. These flowers 

 are brought every day fresh to town for sale. The smell of 

 them is inconceivably delightful, like that of orange and 

 lemon flowers : the whole house is filled with the fragrant 

 scent, enhancing, if possible, the charms of the ladies 1 com- 

 pany, and of the society of the fair-sex (/'' 



* This plant is the Arabian jasmine : Nyctanthes signifies night- 

 flower ; it is also called arbor tristis, sorrowful tree, 

 t Thunberg's Travels, Vol. II. p. 223. 



