in the highest estimation by the Romans, and a festival,
called the Floralia, was celebrated in her honour from the 28th of April to
the 1st of May. This festival was a season of universal merriment, in which
flowers were used profusely in adorning houses, streets, &c., and were worn
by young girls in their hair.

Flora, who typified the season of Spring, is generally represented as a
lovely maiden, garlanded with flowers.

ROBIGUS.

In opposition to Flora we find an antagonistic divinity, called Robigus, a
worker of evil, who delighted in the destruction of the tender herbs by
mildew, and whose wrath could only be averted by prayers and sacrifices,
when he was invoked under the title of Averuncus, or the Avertor.

The festival of Robigus (the Robigalia) was celebrated on the 25th of
April.

POMONA.

Pomona was the goddess of orchards and fruit-trees, who, according to Ovid,
cares not for woods or streams, but loves her gardens and the boughs that
bear the thriving fruit.

Pomona, who typifies Autumn, is represented as a lovely maiden, laden with
branches of fruit-trees.

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VERTUMNUS.

Vertumnus was the god of garden and field produce. He personifies the
change of seasons, and that process of transformation in nature by means of
which the leaf-buds become developed into blossoms, and the blossoms into
fruit.

The change of seasons is symbolized in a myth which represents Vertumnus as
metamorphosing himself into a variety of different forms in order to gain
the affection of Pomona, who so loved her vocation that she abjured all
thoughts of marriage. He first appears to her as a ploughman, typifying
Spring; then as a reaper, to represent Summer; afterwards as a
vine-gatherer, to indicate Autumn; and finally as a gray-haired old woman,
symbolical of the snows of Winter; but it was not until he assumed his true
form, that of a beautiful youth, that he succeeded in his suit.

Vertumnus is generally represented crowned with wheat-sheaves, and bearing
in his hand a cornucopia.

PALES.

Pales, a very ancient Italian divinity, is represented sometimes as a male,
sometimes as a female power.

As a male divinity he is more particularly the god of shepherds and flocks.

As a female deity, Pales presides over husbandry and the fruitfulness of
herds. Her festivals, the Palilia, were celebrated on the 21st of April,
the day on which the city of Rome was founded. During this festival it was
customary for she