THE MYRTLE 
105 
CHAPTER VIII. 
MyrlU — Myrtle in England : at Cape of Good Hope : in 
Madeira — Elowers of Madeira — Myrtles on Mountains 
— Jew^s Myrtle — Use of Myrtle at E east of Taber- 
nacles — Myrtle of Judea — Scent of Myrtle — Anecdotes 
of Astringent Property of Myrtle — Eragrant Essences 
— Regard of the Ancients for Myrtle — Myrtle Wreaths 
— Uses of Myrtle among the Swiss — Allspice Tree — 
Clove Tree. 
‘‘ AbcJ myrtle blooming on the sea-beat shore.” 
Sotheby's Virgil. 
It is in Africa, or in the land of the East, the dime of 
the sun, or beneath the ever blue and smiling skies of 
southern Europe, that we must look for the myrtle 
hedges, so beautiful, so fragrant, and so often the theme 
both of ancient and modern poetry. In our own less 
congenial and continually varying climate, the odour of 
the myrtle, sweet though it be, is not very powerful, and 
the favoured spots are few, where the shrub is so plentiful 
or so luxuriant, as to present anything like the groves of 
which the poets sing. Indeed the myrtle in most parts 
of England requires during winter the protection of the 
greenhouse, though there are some sheltered places where 
it will bear exposure. In Cornwall and Devonshire it 
well endures the winter, and grows around the garden 
bower, or against the wall of many a dwelling. 
Sacred to Venus is the myrtle shade.” 
“The shrub consecrated to love,” says a French tra- 
\ elle:r, forms in Candia, hedges, thickets, etc., and is 
so common that it might almost be considered as the 
