mmon repast when they met at the
Cymortha or Association, and mutually helped one another in ploughing
their land.

In Ireland the shamrock is worn on St. Patrick's Day. Old women, with
plenteous supplies of trefoil, may be heard in every direction crying,
"Buy my shamrock, green shamrocks," while little children have
"Patrick's crosses" pinned to their sleeves, a custom which is said to
have originated in the circumstance that when St. Patrick was preaching
the doctrine of the Trinity he made use of the trefoil as a symbol of
the great mystery. Several plants have been identified as the shamrock;
and in "Contributions towards a Cybele Hibernica," [1] is the following
extensive note:--"_Trifolium repens_, Dutch clover, shamrock.--This is
the plant still worn as shamrock on St. Patrick's Day, though _Medicago
lupulina_ is also sold in Dublin as the shamrock. Edward Lhwyd, the
celebrated antiquary, writing in 1699 to Tancred Robinson, says, after a
recent visit to Ireland: 'Their shamrug is our common clover' (_Phil.
Trans._, No. 335). Threkeld, the earliest writer on the wild plants of
Ireland, gives _Seamar-oge_ (young trefoil) as the Gaelic name for
_Trifolium pratense album,_ and expressly says this is the plant worn by
the people in their hats on St. Patrick's Day." Some, again, have
advocated the claims of the wood-sorrel, and others those of the
speedwell, whereas a correspondent of _Notes and Queries_ (4th Ser. iii.
235) says the _Trifolium filiforme_ is generally worn in Cork, the
_Trifolium minus_ also being in demand. It has been urged that the
watercress was the plant gathered by the saint, but this plant has been
objected to on the ground that its leaf is not trifoliate, and could not
have been used by St. Patrick to illustrate the doctrine of the Trinity.
On the other hand, it has been argued that the story is of modern date,
and not to be found in any of the lives of that saint. St. Patrick's
cabbage also is a name for "London Pride," from its growing in the West
of Ireland, where the Saint lived.

Few flowers have been more popular than the daffodil or lent-lily, or,
as it is sometimes called, the lent-rose. There are various corruptions
of this name to be found in the West of England, such as lentils,
lent-a-lily, lents, and lent-cocks; the last name doubtless referring to
the custom of cock-throwing, which was allowed in Lent, boys, in the
absence of live cocks, having thrown sticks at the flower. Accor