266 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



The youthful Box which now hath grace 



Your houses to renew, 

 Grown old, surrender must his place 



Unto the crisped Yew. 



When Yew is out, then Birch comes in, 



And many flowers beside, 

 Both of a fresh and fragrant kin 



To honor Whitsuntide. 



Green rushes then and sweetest Bents, 



With cooler oaken boughs 

 Come in for comely ornaments 



To re-adorn the house. 



Thus a constant succession of decorative flowers 

 and evergreens appeared in the houses of Old Eng- 

 land. Every season had its appropriate flowers, each 

 and all emblematical. It was also the same in the 

 Church. An English writer remarks : 



"Mindful of the Festivals which our Church pre- 

 scribes, I have sought to make these objects of floral 

 nature the timepieces of my religious calendar and 

 the mementos of the hastening period of my mor- 

 tality. Thus, I can light my taper to our Virgin 

 Mother in the blossoming of the white Snowdrop, 

 which opens its flower at the time of Candlemas; 

 the Lady's Smock and Daffodil remind me of the 

 Annunciation; the blue Harebell of the Festival of 

 St. George; the Ranunculus of the Invention of the 



