Tio THE ASSOCIATIONS OF FLOWERS 
life, that the ancients crowned the corpse witn myrtle. 
The practice was long continued, nil the fathers of the 
church at length forbade it, because it was taken from 
heathen people; but so old and pleasing a custom — one 
which expressed so well the feelings of the mourner — 
was not easily done away, and the remains of it reached, 
in our own land, even down to the present ceui ry, when 
the dead were enwreathed with flowers, or a chaplet hung 
up in the church or laid upon the tomb. 
We learn, from Evelyn, that myrtles were urtroduced 
into England long before the invention of greenhouses. 
It is, however, supposed that our forefathers had some 
means of sheltering them from cold, which was apparently 
more severe in the winter of past years than at present. 
Few people make greater use of the myrtle in modern 
times than do the Swiss. They dye their cloth with its 
berries, and use them as an ingredient in tanning. 
They improve their brandy with some admixture of its 
fruit; and when rvinter comes down upon the mountains, 
and renders the hearth the meeting-place of friends and 
families, then the trunks and stems of the myrtle make 
excellent firewood, and its bright blaze is reflected on the 
happy faces of many a peasant's fireside. 
The myrtle belongs to the natural order Myrtaceas, 
which contains some other plants besides those strictly 
termed myrtles, though all very similar in appearance. 
They have all dotted leaves, and contain a fragrant oil. 
Their blossoms — the joy of plants, as Pliny terms them 
— ^are all beautiful. They contain numerous stamens, 
arranged in circular rows around the pistil or central co- 
lumn of the flower. Their flowers are iisualiy white or red. 
To this order belongs the pomegranate, with its rich 
red blossoms and glossy green leaves, and the luscious 
guava of the Indies. The allspice is the berry of a 
shrub formerly called myrtle (Myrtus pimento), but it 
now bears the latter name only, and is not considered a 
myrtle; this tree is a native of Jamaica. To this be- 
long also the Eucalyptus, or gum-tree, of Australia, which 
is among the loftiest timber-trees of the forests of that 
country, and the aromatic clove (Caryophyllus), every part 
of which possesses considerable fragrance, while its fruit 
is considered one of the hottest of aromatic substances. 
