“Rosemary is for remembrance
  Between us day and night,
  Wishing that I may always have
  You present in my sight.”

And in “Hamlet,” where Ophelia seems to be addressing Laertes, she says (Act iv. sc. 5):—­

  “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance.”

Vervain, from time immemorial, has been the floral symbol of enchantment, owing to its having been in ancient times much in request for all kinds of divinations and incantations.  Virgil, it may be remembered, alludes to this plant as one of the charms used by an enchantress:—­

  “Bring running water, bind those altars round
  With fillets, with vervain strew the ground.”

Parsley, according to floral language, has a double signification, denoting feasting and death.  On festive occasions the Greeks wore wreaths of parsley, and on many other occasions it was employed, such as at the Isthmian games.  On the other hand, this plant was strewn over the bodies of the dead, and decked their graves.

“The weeping willow,” as Mr. Ingram remarks, “is one of those natural emblems which bear their florigraphical meaning so palpably impressed that their signification is clear at first sight.”  This tree has always been regarded as the symbol of sorrow, and also of forsaken love.  In China it is employed in several rites, having from a remote period been regarded as a token of immortality.  As a symbol of bitterness the aloe has long been in repute, and “as bitter as aloes” is a proverbial expression, doubtless derived from the acid taste of its juice.  Eastern poets frequently speak of this plant as the emblem of bitterness; a meaning which most fitly coincides with its properties.  The lily of the valley has had several emblems conferred upon it, each of which is equally apposite.  Thus in reference to the bright hopeful season of spring, in which it blossoms, it has been regarded as symbolical of the return of happiness, whilst its delicate perfume has long been indicative of sweetness, a characteristic thus beautifully described by Keats:—­

  “No flower amid the garden fairer grows
  Than the sweet lily of the lowly vale,
  The queen of flowers.”

Its perfect snow-white flower is the emblem of purity, allusions to which we find numerously scattered in the literature of the past.  One of the emblems of the white poplar in floral language is time, because its leaves appear always in motion, and “being of a dead blackish-green above, and white below,” writes Mr. Ingram, “they were deemed by the ancients to indicate the alternation of night and day.”  Again, the plane-tree has been from early times made the symbol of genius and magnificence; for in olden times philosophers taught beneath its branches, which acquired for it a reputation as one of the seats of learning.  From its beauty and size it obtained a figurative meaning; and the arbutus or strawberry-tree (Arbutus unedo) is the symbol of inseparable love, and the narcissus denotes self-love, from the story of Narcissus, who, enamoured of his own beauty, became spell-bound to the spot, where he pined to death.  Shelley describes it as one of the flowers growing with the sensitive plant in that garden where:—­