;
So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread,
Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,
But thou shall hear it."

Shakespeare also refers to the custom of sticking yew in the shroud in
the following song in "Twelfth Night" (Act ii. sc. 4):--

"My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
Oh, prepare it;
My part of death, no one so true
Did share it."

Unhappy lovers had garlands of willow, yew, and rosemary laid on their
biers, an allusion to which occurs in the "Maid's Tragedy":--

"Lay a garland on my hearse
Of the dismal yew;
Maidens, willow branches bear--
Say I died true.
My love was false, but I was firm
From my hour of birth;
Upon my buried body lie
Lightly, gentle earth."

Among further funeral customs may be mentioned that of carrying a
garland of flowers and sweet herbs before a maiden's coffin, and
afterwards suspending it in the church. Nichols, in his "History of
Lancashire" (vol. ii. pt. i. 382), speaking of Waltham in Framland
Hundred, says: "In this church under every arch a garland is suspended,
one of which is customarily placed there whenever any young unmarried
woman dies." It is to this custom Gay feelingly alludes:--

"To her sweet mem'ry flowing garlands strung,
On her now empty seat aloft were hung."

Indeed, in all the ceremonial observances of life, from the cradle to
the grave, flowers have formed a prominent feature, the symbolical
meaning long attached to them explaining their selection on different
occasions.

Footnotes:

1. See "Flower-lore," p. 147.

2. "The Ceremonial Use of Flowers."

3. _Fraser's Magazine_, 1870, p. 711.

4. "Flower-lore," pp. 149-50.

5. Miss Lambert, _Nineteenth Century_, May 1880, p. 821.

6. _Nineteenth Century_, September 1878, p. 473.

7. "Popular Antiquities," 1870, ii. 24, &c.

CHAPTER XIII.

PLANT NAMES.

The origin and history of plant names is a subject of some magnitude,
and is one that has long engaged the attention of philologists. Of the
many works published on plant names, that of the "English Dialect
Society"[1] is by far the most complete, and forms a valuable addition
to this class of literature.

Some idea of the wide area covered by the nomenclature of plants, as
seen in the gradual evolution and descent of vernacular names, may be
gathered even from a cursory survey of those most widely known in our
own and other countries. Apart, too, from their etymologic