22 
THE MORAL OF FLOWERS. 
tering with dew, cannot but be struck with the elegant 
propriety of the name.” But it is not confined to such 
situations, though it may prefer them ; for Bacon speaks 
of heaths of rosemary, which, he says, “ will smell a 
great way in the sea, perhaps twenty miles.” 
This statement is corroborated by later travellers, 
who mention its growing, along with lavender, in the 
Great Desert; which circumstance explains the following 
passage in the sweet ode above alluded to : — 
“ And throw across the desert gloom 
A sweet decaying smell.” 
And also these lines, by a celebrated living author : — 
-“ The humble rosemary, 
Whose sweets so thanklessly arc shed 
To scent the desert and the dead.” 
Several ancient authors have alluded to the rosemary. 
“ From its smelling like incense, they termed it Liba- 
notis; and Coronarius, on account of its being used in 
o-arlands.” Among our own bards, Shakspeare, who 
immortalises every flower he names, under the supposi¬ 
tion, which in his time generally prevailed, that it 
