particulars are for the climate of London; but my meaning is perceived, that you may have ver perpetuum,[1] as the place affords.
And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight, than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air. Roses, damask and red, are fast[2] flowers of their smells; so that you may walk by a whole row of them, and find nothing of their sweetness; yea[3] though it be in a morning's dew. Bays[4] likewise yield no smell as they grow. Rosemary little; nor sweet marjoram.[5] That which above all others yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the violet, specially the white double violet, which comes twice a year; about the middle of April, and about Bartholomew-tide.[6] Next to that is the musk-rose.
- ↑ Perpetual spring.
- ↑ Fast. Firm; tenacious. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." I. Corinthians xvi. 13.
- ↑ Yea. Not this alone; not only so, but also; what is more.
"Many of you, yea, most, return no more."
Tennyson. The Holy Grail.
- ↑ Bay, also called Sweet Bay, the Laurus Nobilis, an arborescent shrub cultivated in English gardens, with deep green leaves and a profusion of dark purple berries. The leaves, when crushed or bruised give out the odor of cinnamon, and on this account, together with their beauty, they were used in olden times to garnish dishes for a banquet. The Bible refers to the very ancient superstition that the flourishing of the bay tree meant good, and its withering, evil.
- "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.
- "Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." Psalms xxxvii. 35 and 36.
- ↑ Sweet marjoram. A plant of the mint family, Origanum Majorana, peculiarly aromatic and fragrant, flowers purplish pink.
- ↑ St. Bartholomew's day, August 24 O. S.
