2i8 the associations of flowers 
turesj besides Our Lady’s mantle, Our Lady’s thistle, and 
the foxglove, which bore the old name of “ Gant de notre 
Dame ” — all called, with a hundred others, in honour of 
the Virgin Mary. 
Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, Herrick, Ben Jonson, 
Milton — how have their writings handed down to modern 
times customs connected with flowers, which else had been 
unknown ! Milton, in his “ Paradise Lost, ’ ’ when he por- 
trays Adam as having forfeited that clearness of vision 
which he had once enjoyed, represents Michael, when 
about to direct his eye into futurity, as having first 
“ The film removed. 
Which that false fruit that promised clearer sight 
Had bred, then purged with euphrasy and rue 
The visual nerve, for he had much to see.” 
The pretty little euphrasy, or eye-bright, is a common 
plant on hilly pastures and moorlands. The Highlanders 
still use it, infused in milk, for complaints of the eye ; 
and it is, in villages, often employed in the same way, 
though pronounced decidedly injurious to the eye by men 
of science. It was, doubtless, in Milton’s time, in high 
repute as a remedy. 
Rue was, in the days of Shakespeare, called herb of 
grace. Thus says the queen of Richard III. : 
“ Here in this place 
I’ll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace; 
Rue, even for ruth, shall shortly here be seen. 
In the remembrance of a weeping queen.” 
“ Here’s rue for you,” says Ophelia, “ and some for me; 
we may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays ” — that is, by its 
Sunday name. 
It was thus called because handfuls of the plant were 
used by the priests to sprinkle holy water upon the con- 
gregation assembled for public worship. That it was also 
used in enchantments we may infer from the lines of 
Michael Drayton : 
“ Then sprinkles she the juice of rue. 
With nine drops of the midnight dew 
From lunarie distilling.” 
