JULY 161 



which had for an alias, once upon a time, the 

 dainty name of liricon fancy ? The Canterbury 

 bells were dear to Thomas a Becket, and in 

 the Sweet Williams, 



" With their homely, cottage smell," 



we see the saintly William of Rochester. 



The birth of Our Lord is commemorated 

 by the Christmas rose and the flowering of 

 that Glastonbury thorn which was said to 

 have been the miraculous springing into life 

 of the pilgrim staff which guided Joseph of 

 Arimathea to England. The Star of Beth- 

 lehem is the flower of the Epiphany season, and 

 Lenten days are daffodils and narcissi, by their 

 old name Laus tibi. A green hellebore, with 

 its German name corrupted into Krichblum, 

 grows in a few out-of-the-world corners, and is 

 called a Lenten flower. For Palm Sunday the 

 young shoots of willow called sallows were 

 formerly much used, together with the wood- 

 sorrel, which Gerarde called Alleluias. At 

 Easter, nowadays, everything that hath breath 

 joins in praise, but formerly the ranunculus or 

 Pasque flower was given and received as a 

 token. Pentecost has the Guelder rose and 

 the azalea ; pinxter flower or pfingsten. At 



