132 
it bears without injury the milder winter of Devonshire 
and Cornwall. It is supposed by some to have been 
brought here by Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis 
Carew in 1585, after their residence in Spain. Others 
assign a later date to its introduction; but Evelyn rather 
corroborates the former notion as to the time of its first 
appearance amongst us, by stating, in 1678, that “ he 
knew of a myrtle near eighty years old, which had been 
continually exposed, unless during very sharp seasons 
a little straw had been thrown upon it.” 
Gifted as it is both by nature and story, the myrtle 
seems to be the very subject for the muse; and we find 
when Milton enumerates “ flowers worthy of paradise” 
he does not forget it. Beautifully does he represent 
Eve, yet unfallen, in a bower “ of roses intermixed 
with myrtle” at her “ pleasant task,” “ oft stooping to 
support each flower of slender stalk,” 
-“ them she upstays 
Gentle with myrtle band, mindless the while 
Herself, though fairest unsupported flower, 
From her best prop so far, and storms so nigh.” 
And again, when he twines the funereal chaplet for 
Lycidas, for which he culls every thing that is fair and 
