HERBS USED IN DECORATIONS, ETC. 125 



Princess," or "Mister Bradshaw, his dainty Lady." 

 Even "the Sad Pageant" has romance about it, but 

 we can match that by a name for Hesperides which, I 

 believe, still survives, "The Melancholy Gentleman." 

 Culpepper calls Gillyflowers, "gallant, fine and tem- 

 perate," but says, "It is vain to describe a herb so well 

 known." So there we will leave them. 



Lavender {Lavandula vera). 



Here's flowers for you, 

 Hat lavender, mints, savory, marjoram, 

 The marigold that goes to bed wi' the sun, 

 And with him rises weeping. 



Winter^ TaUy iv. 3. 

 The wholesome saulge and lavender still gray, 

 Ranke smelling Rue, and cummin good for eyes. 



]\dmopotmos. 

 Opening upon level plots 

 Of crowned lilies standing near 

 Purple spiked lavender. 



Ode to ternary. — Tennyson. 

 Lavender is for lovers true, 

 Which evermore be faine, 

 Desiring always for to have 

 Some pleasure for their paine. 



C. Robinson. 

 Piscaior. " I'll now lead you to an honest ale-house ; where we shall 

 find a cleanly room, lavender in the windows and twenty ballads stuck 

 about the wall." The Complete Angler. 



Lavender is one of the few herbs that has always been 

 in great repute and allusions to it are legion. From the 

 custom of laying it among linen, or other carefully stored 

 goods, a proverb has arisen — Timbs quotes from Earle's 

 Microcosm : " He takes on against the Pope without 

 mercy and has a jest still in Lavender for Bellarmine." 

 Walton's Coridon mentions that "the sheets" smell of 

 lavender in a literal sense, and Parkinson says that it is 

 much put among "apparell." Oil of Lavender is still to 

 be found in the British Pharmacopoeia, and some of the 



