ies in common, some
of these being the meadow-sweet, fleabane, osmund-fern, herb-impious,
everlasting-flower, and baneberry.

Throughout August, during the ingathering of the harvest, a host of
customs have been kept up from time immemorial, which have been duly
noticed by Brand, while towards the close of the month we are reminded
of St. Bartholomew's Day by the gaudy sunflower, which has been
nicknamed St. Bartholomew's star, the term "star" having been often used
"as an emblematical representation of brilliant virtues or any sign of
admiration." It is, too, suggested by Archdeacon Hare that the filbert
may owe its name to St. Philbert, whose festival was on the 22nd August.

The passion-flower has been termed Holy Rood flower, and it is the
ecclesiastical emblem of Holy Cross Day, for, according to the
familiar couplet:--

"The passion-flower long has blow'd
To betoken us signs of the Holy Rood."

Then there is the Michaelmas Day, which:--

"Among dead weeds,
Bloom for St. Michael's valorous deeds,"

and the golden star lily, termed St. Jerome's lily. On St. Luke's Day,
certain flowers, as we have already noticed, have been in request for
love divinations; and on the Continent the chestnut is eaten on the
festival of St. Simon, in Piedmont on All Souls' Day, and in France on
St. Martin's, when old women assemble beneath the windows and sing a
long ballad. Hallowe'en has its use among divinations, at which time
various plants are in request, and among the observance of All Souls'
Day was blessing the beans. It would appear, too, that in days gone by,
on the eve of All Saints' Day, heath was specially burnt by way of a
bonfire:--

"On All Saints' Day bare is the place where the heath is burnt;
The plough is in the furrow, the ox at work."

From the shape of its flower, the trumpet-flowered wood-sorrel has been
called St. Cecilia's flower, whose festival is kept on November 22. The
_Nigella damascena_, popularly known as love-in-a-mist, was designated
St. Catherine's flower, "from its persistent styles," writes Dr.
Prior,[5] "resembling the spokes of her wheel." There was also the
Catherine-pear, to which Gay alludes in his "Pastorals," where
Sparabella, on comparing herself with her rival, says:--

"Her wan complexion's like the withered leek,
While Catherine-pears adorn my ruddy cheek."

Herb-Barbara, or St. Barbara's cress (_Barbarea vulgaris_), was so
called from g