332 
The Floral Oracle. 
Browne, of “ Pastoral ” fame, alludes thus to some olden 
floral custom: 
“ The primroses, when with six leaves gotten grace, 
Maids as a true-love in their bosoms place.” 
This custom is probably akin to a curious old one still 
practised in some country places with the rose: thus, on Mid¬ 
summer-eve, any girl who wishes to peep into futurity, goes 
backwards in a garden, and, without speaking a word, gathers 
a rose. She puts the flower away in a sheet of white paper, 
and does not look at it again until Christmas-day, when it will 
be found as fresh as in June. If she then places it in her bosom, 
he that is to be her husband will come and take it out; but 
if, prompted by curiosity, she prys into the packet before the 
appointed time, the charm will be broken. 
“ The moss-rose that, at fall of dew, 
Ere eve its duskier curtain drew, 
Was freshly gathered from its stem, 
She values as the ruby gem; 
And, guarded from the piercing air, 
With all an anxious lover’s care, 
She bids it, for her shepherd’s sake, 
Await the New Year’s frolic wake— 
When, faded, in its alter’d hue 
She reads the rustic is untrue; 
But if its leaves the crimson paint, 
Her sickening hopes no longer faint. 
The rose upon her bosom worn, 
She meets him at the peep of mom; 
And lo ! her lips with kisses prest, 
He plucks it from her panting breast.” 
In Owen’s “ Welsh Dictionary,” the natives of Cambria are 
said to have a play in which the youth of both sexes seek for 
an even-leaved sprig of the ash ; and the first of either sex 
that finds one calls out, “ cyniver,” and is answered by the first 
of the other that succeeds; and these two, if the omen fails not, 
are to be joined in wedlock. 
Gesner, the pastoral poet and botanist, says that the lads 
and lasses of certain Swiss villages proved the sincerity of their 
lovers by placing a petal of the poppy-blossom in the hollow 
of the left hand-palm, and then striking it with the other hand. 
If it broke with a sharp report, it attested the fidelity of the 
wooer; whilst if, on the contrary, it failed to break, it proved 
his or her faithlessness: 
“ By a prophetic poppy-leaf I found 
Your changed affection, for it gave no sound. 
Though in my hand struck hollow as it lay; 
But quickly withered, like your love, away.” 
It is the custom with some young folks to burn the holly and 
