136 LAE 
GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE, 
[AUGUST 1, 1874, 
tinent out of the question at present, we ma 
briefly enter into its history in this country, so 
far as it is known to us, In wor ipen place, dis- 
regarding the circumstance of its not ripening seeds 
in Britain, there is nothing in its wiin ed range of 
distribution in a wild state to be urged against its 
ing indigenous, its extra - European distribution 
or milar climatal aes. i 
the ‘Old World. Chapman ( ote of the Sou 
States) considers it introduced re (the seated 
States), and A. Car Me ce the Botany 
of the Northern States), says, “pro trul 
indigenous hward.” In th herbarium at 
Kew there is a specimen from as far north as Saska- 
chewan, collected by cgeemyeay: who, in a note on 
the accompanying label , says it is com onwards 
to Canada, This seems ipilpatabie evidence of its 
being indigenons. “There are several other specimens 
san No a operan notably = collected by Pursh, 
1808, T is Flora of North 
America ESUP ursh sta oe: the x it is frequent in 
“ overflowed places cher ald. ditches, from Canada to 
Carolina.” 
And now for nea ins side of the question. Turn 
in his Zerba! (the complete work), published in 1 368, 
oes not mention "pont least, if he does we have 
spe article imported from the Levant, 
and of the Tving pra nt as growing it gardens for 
several years without producing flowers—possibly 
account of its hot pus in a sufficiently moist slic 
The lant in flower i e 
in both w was ' i 
orks m ow. Ray, however, in hi 
Historia Plantarum, 1688, treats of it as a native 
his record of habitats may be look 
ive Hesays :—‘** o 
Anglia sponte oritur ; oir circa Helly, 
r. Br inventus uin ad Dr. Need- 
, M.D., in agro Cestriensi eum copiose provenire 
nobis retulit.” far, we have no very conclusive 
evidence, but it appears to preponderate against the 
ii corus is a native wh 
in mind the many uses to which it was 
[an 
we bear 
applied—as a perfume, flavouring condiment 
medicine—and the aapi in pers times to cultivate 
en, we must a mit 
dis- 
~ qualities with the 
be extended. Norfolk and ore 
London m 
are told, formerly supplied ark 
wai it Sri in this part of England where it is T 
in abundance. All the habitats we know for it in the 
ahi ndredweight of 
sale. Int : 
nardus Paludanus, Medicus Enchusanus, on a journey 
which he made from Poland to Italy in 1577, fre- 
observed the plant growing in marshes in the 
y become so | of 
that many apea re 
| says, 
inity of bao na. — the inhabitants called the | now concerned, we need not do mae. thes r 
olai nt Tartarsky, beca Syd n learnt the use and | the use of immortelles for grave decoration—aq 
lero of it from yee Tar which is coi 
After ogres a ne s testimony of the like naturehe | been intr 
alludes to the of confirmatory evidence | general 
ni Te 
from the ninety on 2a ea ‘of Germany, suchas Silesia, |. yellow ‘‘everlastings” which are chiefly em 
which is in the extreme east, which he gives as | for this age i 
follows :— arenarium, the 
“C. Schwenkfeld, to whom we are indebted for the 
first Flora of Silesia (whose Stirpiune et Fossilium 
Silesia ese ie! was published at Leipsig in 
1601), furnishes important evidence on this point. 
He describes the plants of our province in two divi- 
sions ; in the first, those growing wild; and inthe | ("8 vs it on graves is both Aal ancient and a wide- 
second, the cultivated ones. Amongst. t the latter he = ge s ` reon anaa its supposed powe 
iieiädes the Acorus (Acorus verus et legitimus, tated tha ok ' saias is the slat he ian 
Dioscor., ee ee officin. ), and expressly nd Gibson, i his edition Camden, sii i 
remarks that it was originally indigenous on 
the | ibson. 
appears from an old (1722) inscription = 
borders of Podolia , Lithuania, and Wallachia, but nai another at Milan, that the Greeks 
that at that time it had already m a so plentiful in 
the ens of Silesia as to have become an article o : 
ex ort, welve years s later, Henelius miae bai in his 5 ee be strewn and planted on their graves, 
ran n p. 29, that the Acorus had been dili- at this custom obtained among ourselves in com: 
gently vated for Eaha years, and that its sale in paratively recent times is shown by Gibson’s = 
Wg An senarios brought great gains to the growers, that at bs van in Surrey, there is “a 
In the second edition of this work, a gy oo Nine a Sery -= oom out of mind, of planting M Rose 
oo years later, the Editor, M ebi i © young men 
nearly 185 
ee repeats that it t was grown, ‘pecially at the 
village of Mahlen, erig 10. miles eastward from | Yard is orap full o e are also told 
— ig that it was an ipeta aničle of com- i ge citiz =: of London, ” named Edwayd Rose, 
Later Silesian writers, equally with other cit the p £ h fas get in the pet 
Gert horticulturists, have not troubled themselves will aere PR for Hey t of the the 
to investigate the introduction of this valuable eon h fa k tone in the same County, h ong as they 
boki it, indeed, as indigenous, waty | è mgd keep ose tre owing upon his grave. It 
and observant Schkuhr mentions, without further | < aL © par to know bet ether the custom is 
remark, however, that he had never been able to pro- | piir ianed jna oT eT} Land 
cure ripe fruit, , so far as I am aware, ot ines on “‘ Th of the Roses” are 
seen heré by anybody else. Bia ein, Lede: said to have been suggested by the latter beq 
bour, and Besser, quote it as a native plant without and Mr. Ingram, in his Zor age tells us that 
further ré Endlicher speaks decidedly of it as an fie bs i how ee hehe arg p from 
Indian plant. Neilreich (Aufzählung der in Ungarn | Ue Danks o the a to this unfortunat d 
und Slavonien bisher beobachteten ige ; | poetess, with a 
Wica 1866) endinerattr serei localities, mit ae | EE oF Mra. 
mparatively recent in England, h 
a ; 
vated in the South of nets especially in Lower 
Proven ce; and an extensive trade in t ee is carried 
ew 
wing flowers the Rose is that which his 
been Jant faronis with the dead, and the mig 
graves, especially by the i 
maids who have list thee lovers ; so that the - a 
. wh uy 
clares it to be of foreign origin, shionigh “Tong since mde A ee “was planted at the grave ofa 
ised.” ë 
Aatata maiden. ose is one of the favourite flowers 
for planting in churchyards in Saleh where, as we 
The opinion of gations’ eA the East, and many | shall see practice of gra very 
other circumstances, seem t engthen the view first prevalent ; and it is also R rEg sem yi graves. ` 
put forward ierbach, pee „supported by Goep- It is curious, in connection with this part of the 
pert; but further investigation is necessary to as rst subject, to find that i i itzer- 
tain how far westward it is truly ey or | land both old and new ¢ 
whether it came originally from India. W. B. H. “ Rose gardens,” and the same name is 
e also 
CHURCHYARD FLOWERS. Tia cea E Ca 
ts; 
IN the present day, when ecclesiastical æstheticism 
is reviving to an extent which delights some, amuses steers been feat agana < ei m 
i in Yorkshi e ol 
others, and shocks many, there taken ae i “gan tO} in Towton Field, 
planting graves with flowers. There i of ‘the v ery | that thes weet 
the custom, that he must indeed be a Puritan of the 
m who would object to its adoption, The “ There still wild Roses frie 
American poet of modern times does but echo the rail tokens of the 
words of = TO when he sees in meets t Áis And the hedgero v greont bears, witness 
blems of ou eat resurrection ing Of Towton Field that day :’ 
wn gre 
all syinboltein aside, the tidily kept ani neatly planted i it is Saali 
graves which a rly becoming 
re: folie: tata objetts bord Age) rank growth ‘of None bean e ia from rs i : Bloo dy Meadow,” as it 
hich bourh: 
was formerly their only | is called in the 
— 
Whe tombe were ; b decked with flowers, cortical 
za Roses and Lities. "The Greeks used the Amaranth and ments of the garden, are chosen for this 
coves, Roses are also among the flowers planted on graves 
The custom of OTR corpses and graves with | by the Chinese, among larani the practice — 
flowers was one of the many a est which the early | be very general. Mr. Fortune says :— 
ot ne in me ia pei 8", ‘The flowers which the Chinese plant on 
poh ea ote the tombs are oe een in their 
believed k% tbs neS people that it 
o kee IR se tree alive which has — 
as, Moutans, thë P che finer Orta 
or other o! fiant 
ractices ; but in rudentius’ time 
mournful friends 1 indy | e 
Al exander the Great did to the grave of the famous | s 
Pay and Myrtle. The Romans added fill fillets or | this kind—is crowned 
of wool. The primitive Christians reprobated | waving grass, At Nin 
> of 
November, whee. other flowers have 
ornament to. the last restin 
Achilles, so they strewed his with an abundance of | i ‘very 
As it is rather with growing flowers that we are 
