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GILLYFLOWER.» 
Fair is the gillyflower of garden sweet. 
GAY. 
Tur Greeks who cherished flowers, never 
acquired the art of cultivating and improving 
them. They simply planted them in the 
fields and received as nature yielded them. 
The Romans, with the arts of Greece, also 
received a taste for flowers; and such was their 
passion for floral crowns that they were obliged 
to confine their use to a favoured few. These 
masters of the world cultivated nothing but 
violets and roses,—the fields were covered, and 
flowers seemed to be encroaching rapidly on 
the rights of Ceres. 
The Gauls were long ignorant of every deli- 
cacy. Their warlike hands disdained the handle 
of the plough. With them, the garden, under 
the charge of the mistress of the family, con- 
tained only aromatic plants, and such as were 
useful for culinary purposes. At length, their 
manners became softened, and Charlemagne, 
who was the terror of the world, and the father 
of his people, delighted in flowers, and recom- 
mended the culture of lilies, roses, and gilly- 
flowers. Foreign flowers were not introduced 
