The Myrtle. 
63 
Not only was this plant environed with the sanctity of love, 
but its beauty and fragrance likewise rendered it a favourite 
with several nations of antiquity, who gave particular attention 
to odorous shrubs. With the Jews the myrtle is a symbol of 
peace, and, with that signification attached to it, many allusions 
are to be found in the Old Testament. The common myrtle, 
which grows plentifully in Judea, is the plant referred to in the 
Scriptures, but there are many varieties of it. One variety, 
frequently called the Broad-leaved Jews’ Myrtle, is in much 
regard amongst this people, and is ofttimes used in those re¬ 
ligious ceremonies which, through weal or woe, they have so 
tenaciously kept up. This broad-leaved variety, to which some 
especial veneration appears attached, is cultivated by nursery¬ 
men, who supply it exclusively to their Hebrew customers, so 
that, in this country at least, it can only be procured at con¬ 
siderable trouble and expense. 
Emblematic of its pacific meaning is that vision of Ze- 
chariah’s, wherein that prophet beheld the angel who foretold 
the restoration of Israel standing in the midst of myrtles. 
Nehemiah, when exhorting the people to go forth and gather 
“the boughs of goodly trees” for use at their annual Feast of 
the Tabernacles, includes myrtle-branches; and Isaiah, when 
desirous of representing the blessings that would accrue to the 
world under the peaceful reign of Christ, pictures that “Instead 
of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the briar 
shall come up the myrtle.” 
All Oriental nations have a passionate fondness for this 
flowering shrub ; and Mr. Lane remarks that it rivals the 
violet in the esteem of the Arabs, who have a tradition that 
Adam, when expelled from Paradise, brought the myrtle—the 
chief of sweet-scented flowers—into the world with him. With 
the Greeks, this flower was much admired : their groves, so 
renowned in song, were fragrant with its perfume, which the 
richness of the climate rendered far stronger than in ours. 
The Athenian magistrates wore chaplets of myrtle, as symbols 
of their authority ; and conquerors, who during their triumphs 
had obtained a bloodless victory, were allowed to entwine 
their laurel wreaths with sprigs of myrtle. 
Miss Pratt, in her work on “ Flowers and their Associations,” 
thus speaks of the prevalent use of the myrtle for typical 
