140 
FLORAL EMBLEMS. 
human things.” Plato holds this chain to be 
the power of the divine spirit.—(See Homer s 
Iliad , Book VIII.) 
FEAST, OR BANQUET. 
Parsley .—Apium Petroselinum. 
“ Let parsley spread 
Its living verdure o’er the feast.” 
Horace, 36. 
The beautiful curled foliage of this plant 
having been used to decorate viands, from the 
time of Virgil’s friend to the present day, has 
caused it to be made emblematical of a feast. 
In the hieroglyphic language ot flowers, the 
gift of parsley implies a wish of the person’s 
death to whom it is presented ; for parsley 
has ever been the herb with which the Greeks 
decorate their graves and tombs; and hence 
a eiadcu aeXivov; to want parsley, was an expres¬ 
sion applied to a person at the last extremity. 
