ntle-heart, and
maiden-blush. A spray of gorse was generally inserted, in allusion, no
doubt, to the time-honoured proverb, "When the furze is out of bloom,
kissing is out of fashion." In spring-time again, violets and primroses
were much in demand, probably from being in abundance at the season;
although they have generally been associated with early death.

Among the many floral customs associated with the wedding ceremony may
be mentioned the bridal-strewings, which were very prevalent in past
years, a survival of which is still kept up at Knutsford, in Cheshire.
On such an occasion, the flowers used were emblematical, and if the
bride happened to be unpopular, she often encountered on her way to the
church flowers of a not very complimentary meaning. The practice was not
confined to this country, and we are told how in Holland the threshold
of the newly-married couple was strewn with flowers, the laurel being as
a rule most conspicuous among the festoons. Lastly, the use of flowers
in paying honours to the dead has been from time immemorial most
widespread. Instances are so numerous that it is impossible to do more
than quote some of the most important, as recorded in our own and other
countries. For detailed accounts of these funereal floral rites it would
be necessary to consult the literature of the past from a very early
period, and the result of such inquiries would form material enough for
a goodly-sized volume. Therespect for the dead among the early Greeks
was very great, and Miss Lambert[6] quotes the complaint of Petala to
Simmalion, in the Epistles of Alciphron, to show how special was the
dedication of flowers to the dead:--"I have a lover who is a mourner,
not a lover; he sends me garlands and roses as if to deck a premature
grave, and he says he weeps through the live-long night."

The chief flowers used by them for strewing over graves were the
polyanthus, myrtle, and amaranth; the rose, it would appear from
Anacreon, having been thought to possess a special virtue for
the dead:--

"When pain afflicts and sickness grieves,
Its juice the drooping heart relieves;
And after death its odours shed
A pleasing fragrance o'er the dead."

And Electra is represented as complaining that the
tomb of her father, Agamemnon, had not been duly
adorned with myrtle--

"With no libations, nor with myrtle boughs,
Were my dear father's manes gratified."

The Greeks also planted asphodel and mallow rou