lO THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
rest which he hoped to find in the grave. ‘‘ I feel,” he said to 
the friend who watched his dying moments—" I feel the daisies 
already growing over me and there, we are told, where death 
prematurely overtook him, and he was lapped in mother-earth 
beneath the walls of imperial Rome, do even grow all the winter 
long, violets and daisies, mingled with fresh herbage, and, in 
the words of Shelley, ‘ ‘ making one in love with death to think 
that one should be buried in so sweet a place. ” The blossoms 
of the Pyrola, or Winter-green, so called because it keeps its 
foliage fresh and verdant through the winter, may also still be 
gathered in the woods of Kent and Yorkshire and other parts of 
England, although it is not at any time a flower to be frequently 
met with. 
“ I found within the pleasant wood 
The lone Pyrola growing,” 
sings Mary Howitt, alluding, no doubt, to the round-leaved 
Winter-Green, which blooms the latest, and has white spreading 
flowers. Upon sandy banks and dry pasture-lands may be 
gathered the Meadow-Pink, whose generic name, Dianthus 
(Flower of God), pertains to all the beautiful and fragrant Pinks 
and Carnations of the garden ; this, however, is a very simple 
flower, with little or no scent, something in appearance like its 
relative, the yet rarer Castle-Pink, which is still blooming luxu¬ 
riantly upon our garden walls, the seed having been procured 
from the lofty keep of Rochester Castle, one of the few spots 
in England where it is to be found. 
Upwards of three thousand species of Ferns are known ; our 
native species, which number about five hundred, are mostly 
herbaceous; they are most numerous in the southern counties 
of England, and the boggy tracts of Ireland. Many are found 
amid the romantic scenery of Wales. But Devonshire is perhaps 
their most favoured locality ; this county has long been cele¬ 
brated for its “ ferny coombes,” and these plants are found 
there in greater luxuriance and variety than in any other part 
of Britain. 
Everywhere, and at all seasons, if we only look closely enough. 
