The following passage is extracted from that charming work, the Flora Domestica: — 
In Tripoli, on the celebration of a wedding, the baskets of sweetmeats, &c. sent as wedding presents, 
are covered with flowers; and although it is well known that they frequently communicate the plague, the 
inhabitants will even prefer running the risk, when that dreadful disease is abroad, rather than lose the 
enjoyment they have in their love of flowers. When a woman in Tripoli dies, a large bouquet of fresh 
flowers, if they can be procured, if not, of artificial, is fastened at the head of her coffin. Upon the death 
of a Moorish lady of quality, every place is filled with fresh flowers and burning perfumes ; at the head of 
the body is placed a large bouquet, of part artificial, and part natural, and richly ornamented with silver ; 
and additions are continually made to it. The author who describes these customs also mentions a lady of 
high rank, who regularly attended the tomb of her daughter, who had been three years dead: she always 
kept it in repair, and, with the exception of the great mosque, it was one of the grandest in Tripoli. From 
the time of the young lady’s death, the tomb had always been supplied with the most expensive flowers, 
placed in beautiful vases ; and, in addition to these, a great quantity of fresh Arabian Jessamines, threaded 
on thin slips of the Palm-leaf, were hung in festoons and tassels about this revered sepulchre. The mauso- 
leum of the royal family, which is called the Turbar, is of the purest white marble, and is filled with an 
immense quantity of fresh flowers; most ©f the tombs being dressed with festoons of Arabian Jessamine 
and large bunches of variegated flowers, consisting of Orange, Myrtle, Red and White Roses, &c. They 
afford a perfume which those who are not habituated to such choice flowers can scarcely conceive. The 
tombs are mostly of white, a few inlaid with coloured marble. A manuscript Bible, which was presented 
by a Jew to the Synagogue, was adorned with flowers ; and silver vases filled with flowers were placed upon 
the ark which contained the sacred MS. a 
The ancients used wreaths of flowers in their entertainments, not only for pleasure, but also from a 
notion that their odour prevented the wine from intoxicating them: they used other perfumes on the same 
account. Beds of flowers are not merely fictitious . 15 The Highlanders of Scotland commonly sleep on 
heath, which is said to make a delicious bed; and beds are, in Italy, often filled with the leaves of trees, 
instead of down or feathers. It is an old joke against the effeminate Sybarites, that one of them complaining 
he had not slept all night, and being asked the reason why, said that a rose-leaf had got folded under him. 
In Naples, and in the Vale of Cachemere (I have been told also that it sometimes occurs in Chester,) 
gardens are formed on the roofs of houses : “On a standing roof of wood is laid a covering of fine earth, 
which shelters the building from the great quantity of snow that falls in the winter season. This fence 
communicates an equal warmth in winter, as a refreshing coolness in summer, when the tops of the houses, 
which are planted with a variety of flowers, exhibit at a distance the spacious view of a beautifully chequered 
parterre.” (Forster.) The famous hangings of Babylon were on the enormous walls of that city. 
A garden usually makes a part of every Paradise, even of Mahomet’s. In Milton’s Paradise, the oc- 
cupation of Adam and Eve was to tend the flowers, to prune the luxuriant branches, and support the roses, 
heavy with beauty. 
Medical Properties and Uses. — As a condiment, pimento is very generally employed; and in 
medicine is much used as an adjunct to bitters in dyspepsia when attended with much flatulence ; also in 
arthritic and hysterical affections. The watery infusion, sweetened with sugar and added to a little milk, is 
readily taken by children, and is an excellent cordial in malignant measles, scarlatina, small-pox, and other 
fevers of a typhoid description. But it is principally employed to cover the taste of other medicines, and 
to impart warmth. 
Off. Prep. — Aqua pimentae. L. E. D. 
Oleum pimentae. L. E. D. 
Pilulae opiatse. E. 
Spiritus pimentae. L. E. D. 
Syrupus rhamni. L. 
* See Tully’s Narrative of a Residence in Tripoli. 
b Moore in his notes to Lalla Rookh, says, “the roses of the Sinan Nile, or garden of the Nile, attached to the Emperor of Morocco’s 
palace, are unequalled ; and mattrasses are made of their leaves, for men of rank to recline upon.” 
