Rosemary. 
(REMEMBRANCE.) 
“ There’s rosemary for you : that’s for remembrance.” 
Shakspeare. 
N UMBERLESS quotations from our older poets might 
be given to prove that our forefathers invariably adopted 
Rosemary as the symbol of remembraiice; and as it was once 
believed to possess the power of improving the memory, and 
was frequently employed as a means of invigorating the mental 
faculties, it is presumed, and with some show of probability, that 
it thus became the emblem of that quality with which it was 
so frequently associated. Perdita, in the “Winter’s Tale,” 
says: 
“For you there’s rosemary and rue; these keep 
Seeming and savour all the winter long: 
Grace and remembrance be with you both!” 
And then, in Hamlet, as if determined to prove his acquaint¬ 
ance with floral symbolism, Shakspeare makes Ophelia say: 
“ There’s rosemary for you: that’s for remembrance. 
Pray you, love, remember. ” 
Michael Drayton, in his “ Pastorals,” also alludes to this 
emblem in similar terms : 
“ He from his lass him lavender hath sent, 
Showing her love, and doth requital crave; 
Him rosemary his sweetheart, whose intent 
Is that he her should in remembrance have.” 
Highly esteemed as this plant was because of its being consi¬ 
dered “ a comforter of the brain,” and a strengthener of mental 
faculties—and for these reasons deemed typical of that fidelity 
and devotion to the gentler sex which is presumed to have 
been a prominent characteristic of the days of chivalry—rose- 
