•^ The Afternoon of the Year {%?> 



cook, in his book, The Queen's Closet Opened, gives recipes 

 for Clove gillyflower syrup and wine, and of gillyflower 

 vinegar John Evelyn, in his Acetaria, says, ' Gillyflowers 

 infused in Vinegar and set in the Sun for certaine dayes, 

 as we do for Rose Vinegar, do make a very pleasant and 

 comfortable vinegar, good to be used in time of con- 

 tagious sickness, and very profitable at all times for such 

 as have feeble spirits.' The use of the flowers in medicine 

 was manifold. William Coles, in Adam in Eden (1657), 

 says, * The conserve made of the flowers and sugar is 

 exceeding cordiali and wonderfully above measure doth 

 comfort the heart, being eaten now and then, which is 

 very good also against the plague or any kind of venome. 

 It is likewise good not only for the falling sicknesse, palsy, 

 giddiness and the cramp, but for the pestilence. . . . The 

 syrup of the said flowers strengthens the heart, refresheth 

 the vital spirits and is a good cordial in feavers, expelling 

 the poyson and fury of the disease, and greatly comforting 

 those that are sick of any other disease, where the heart 

 hath need of relief. Moreover, the leaves of the flowers 

 put into a glasse of vinegar, and set in the sun for certain 

 dayes, do make a pleasant vinegar and very good to revive 

 one of a swoon, the nostrils and temples being washed 

 therewith.' 



Sweet-williams were called Caryopbyllus Carthusian- 

 orum, or Lychnis Monachorum hortensis, in the sixteenth 

 century, and they are supposed to have been introduced 

 into this country by the Carthusian monks in the twelfth 

 century. According to another tradition they took their 

 name from William the Conqueror. The varieties of 

 sweet-williams with narrow leaves were formerly called 

 sweet- Johns j and as such are described in the Paradisus. 



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