n by
the betrothed as tokens of their engagement, and Quarles in his
"Sheapheard's Oracles," 1646, tells us how,

"Love-sick swains
Compose rush-rings and myrtle-berry chains,
And stuck with glorious kingcups, and their bonnets
Adorn'd with laurell slips, chaunt their love sonnets."

Spenser, too, in his "Shepherd's Calendar" for April, speaks of
"Coronations and sops in wine worn of paramours"--sops in wine having
been a nickname for pinks (_Dianthus plumarius_), although Dr. Prior
assigns the name to _Dianthus caryophyllus_. Similarly willow was worn
by a discarded lover. In the bridal crown, the rosemary often had a
distinguished place, besides figuring at the ceremony itself, when it
was, it would seem, dipped in scented water, an allusion to which we
find in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Scornful Lady," where it is asked,
"Were the rosemary branches dipped?" Another flower which was entwined
in the bridal garland was the lily, to which Ben Jonson refers in
speaking of the marriage of his friend Mr. Weston with the Lady
Frances Stuart:--

"See how with roses and with lilies shine,
Lilies and roses (flowers of either sex),
The bright bride's paths."

It was also customary to plant a rose-bush at the head of the grave of a
deceased lover, should either of them die before the wedding. Sprigs of
bay were also introduced into the bridal wreath, besides ears of corn,
emblematical of the plenty which might always crown the bridal couple.
Nowadays the bridal wreath is almost entirely composed of
orange-blossom, on a background of maiden-hair fern, with a sprig of
stephanotis interspersed here and there. Much uncertainty exists as to
why this plant was selected, the popular reason being that it was
adopted as an emblem of fruitfulness. According to a correspondent of
_Notes and Queries_, the practice may be traced to the Saracens, by whom
the orange-blossom was regarded as a symbol of a prosperous marriage--a
circumstance which is partly to be accounted for by the fact that in the
East the orange-tree bears ripe fruit and blossom at the same time.

Then there is the bridal bouquet, which is a very different thing from
what it was in years gone by. Instead of being composed of the scarcest
and most costly flowers arranged in the most elaborate manner, it was a
homely nosegay of mere country flowers--some of the favourite ones, says
Herrick, being pansy, rose, lady-smock, prick-madam, ge