52 
LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
are reared, and household hearths blaze above the 
place where it has for ages shaken its beautiful blue¬ 
bells to the breeze. That botanist displayed some 
taste who first selected these bell-shaped flowers as 
the emblem of Constancy, for “ true blue” is one of 
the few colours about which'Britons boast; they are 
truly English flowers — 
“ Sweet daughters of the earth and sky.” 
The Rosemary is so often mentioned by our early 
writers, both in prose, poetry, and our oldest dramas, 
that a long article, possessing great interest to 
such as love old-fashioned things, might be written 
upon it. The Rosemary was used both at their 
feasts and their funerals,—the christening-cup was 
stirred with it, and it was worn at their marriage 
ceremonies. Shakspeare has chosen it for the emblem 
of Remembrance, and who would attempt to change 
the meaning of a flower which his genius has hal¬ 
lowed, or disturb a leaf over which he has breathed 
his holy “superstition?”—in memory of him we 
use the latter word in all reverence. A few years 
ago it was customary in many parts of England 
to plant slips of Rosemary over the dead, nor has 
the practice yet fallen altogether into disuse,—rural 
cemeteries will revive these ancient customs. But 
I have entered rather lengthily into this subject 
in my “ Pictures of Country Life,” under the article 
