140 FLORAL EMBLEMS. 



human things." Plato holds this chain to be 

 the power of the divine spirit. (See Homers 

 Iliad, Book VIII.) 



FEAST, OR BANQUET. 



PARSLEY. Apium Petroselinum. 



" Let parsley spread 

 Its living verdure o'er the feast." 



Horace, 36. 



The beautiful curled foliage of this plant 

 having been used to decorate viands, from the 

 time of Virgil's friend to the present day, has 

 caused it to be made emblematical of a feast. 



In the hieroglyphic language of flowers, the 

 gift of parsley implies a wish of the person's 

 death to whom it is presented ; for parsley 

 has ever been the herb with which the Greeks 

 decorate their graves arid tombs ; and hence 

 A e r<70cu veXivov, to want parsley, was an expres- 

 sion applied to a person at the last extremity. 



