Beautiful Flowering Shrubs 



and eventually cover the body. There was an old 

 belief, too, that its aroma preserved the dead, hence 

 the idea of immortality was linked up with this shrub. 

 But it was not only at funerals that the Rosemary 

 entered into relation with man's affairs ; at weddings the 

 " herb of remembrance " had a place, too, as Herrick 

 tells us in Queen Elizabeth's days, 



"The Rosemarie trail 

 Grows for two ends, it matters not at all, 

 Be 't for my Bridall or my Buriall." 



And a very old poem addressing a bride tells how, 



"Young men and maids do ready stand 

 With sweet Rosemary irj, their hand 



A perfect token of your virgin life. 

 To wait upon you they intend 

 Unto the church to make an end, 



And God make thee a joyfull wedded wife."* 



It is on record that the wedding coronal of Anne of 

 Cleves had sprigs of Rosemary in it. 



Again, the Rosemary always found a place in 

 Christmas decorations, centuries back, because of the 

 belief that the Virgin Mary placed the Infant Jesus 

 upon branches of the fragrant Rosemary. And so in 

 an Elizabethan Christmas carol we have, 



"The boar's head in hand bring I 

 With garland gay and Rosemary." 



and Herrick recounting the dismantling of Christmas 



* " The Bride's Good Morrow." The Roxburgh Ballads. 



46 



