Rosemary. 
201 
mary was also still more prized as a decoration at biidals and 
other domestic occasions. It was worn at weddings, remaiks 
Miss Kent, to signify the fidelity of the lovers. 
“Will I be wed this morning. 
Thou shalt not be there, nor once be graced with 
A piece of rosemary,” 
remarks one of the characters in “ Ram Alley, and in tne 
“Noble Spanish Soldier” we read: 
“I meet few but are stuck with rosemary: every 
One asked me who was to be married.” 
It is not only from the pages of poets and literary men 
o-enerally, however, that these allusions may be culled. Ro¬ 
bert Hacket, a whilom celebrated doctor of divinity, in a 
sermon, which was published in 1607, under the title of “A 
Marriage Present,” thus expatiates upon the powers of rose¬ 
mary : “ It overtoppeth,” he says, “ all the flowers in the garden 
boasting man’s rule. It helpeth the brain, strengthened the 
memorie, and is very medicinable for the head. A.nother 
property of the rosemary is, it affects the heait. Let this 
rosmarinus , this flower of men, ensign of your wisdom, love, 
and loyaltie, be carried, not only in your hands, but in your 
hearts and heads.” . _ . 
Rosmarinus, as this plant is botanically styled, signifies the 
“ dew of the sea,” and is so called because of its fondness for 
the sea-beat shores, whence its perfume often greets the mariner 
as he sails by. Formerly the plant was styled Rosmarinutn 
coronarium; “that is to say, observes Lyte, rosemaiie wheie- 
of they make crowns and garlands. Frequently, entwined 
with laurel and myrtle, rosemary was formed into chaplets, 
with which the principal personages at feasts weie crowned. 
In his “Garden of Flowers,” Parkinson, after recounting the 
numerous symbolic and other uses to which bay-leaves are put, 
remarks that “Rosemary is almost of as gieat use as bayes, 
as well for civil as physical purposes ; for civil uses, as all doe 
know, at weddings, funerals, &c., to bestow among friends.” 
Respecting its employment at funerals, Mr. Martyn observes 
that in some parts of England, in his time, it was still cus¬ 
tomary to distribute it among the company, who frequently 
threw sprigs of it into the grave. Slips of it were also some- 
