124 THE BOOK OF HERBS 



The giUy-flower shall deck thy head 



Thy way with herbs, I'll strew, 

 Thy stockings shall be marigold 



Thy gloves the vi'let blue. 



Dead Maiis Land. 



Gillyflowers are, of course, now excluded from the 

 herb-border, but once housewives infused them in vinegar 

 to make it aromatic, and candied them for conserves, and 

 numbered them among their herbs, though that is not 

 the reason that they mentioned here. They have their 

 place, because the general ideas about them are too 

 pretty to leave out. First, they were the token of 

 gentleness, as Robinson's lover asserts most touchingly, 

 and Drayton confirms in his line. 



The July-flower declares his gentleness. 



Then Gillyflowers (says Folkard) were represented in 

 some old songs to be one of the flowers that grow in 

 Paradise. He quotes from a ballad called " Dead Men's 

 Songs." This verse : 



The fields about the city faire 



Were all with Roses set, 

 Gillyflowers and Carnations faire 



Which canker could not fret. 



Ancient Songs. — RlTSON. 



There have been great discussions as to what flower 

 was the original " Gillyflower " spoken of by early 

 writers. Folkard says it was " apparently a kind of pet- 

 name to all manner of plants." Parkinson seems to have 

 called Carnations, Clove- Gillyflowers, and Stocks, the 

 Stock-Gillyflowers, and ■Wall-flowers,Wall-Gillyflowers. 

 It is generally thought that the earlier writers called the 

 D'lanthus by this name, and later ones, the Cheiranthus 

 cheiri, or Matthiola. Some of the names for them show 

 how sadly imagination has waned since the seventeenth 

 century. Think of a new flower being called " Ruffling 

 Robin" or "The lustie Gallant," or "Master Tuggie's 



