elaborate and extensive was the knowledge of plants in primitive
periods, and how magnificent must have been the display of these
beautiful and brilliant offerings. Amongst some tribes, too, so sacred
were the flowers used in religious rites held, that it was forbidden so
much as to smell them, much less to handle them, except by those whose
privileged duty it was to arrange them for the altar. Coming down to the
historic days of Greece and Rome, we have abundant details of the skill
and care that were displayed in procuring for religious purposes the
finest and choicest varieties of flowers; abundant allusions to which
are found in the old classic writings.

The profuseness with which flowers were used in Rome during triumphal
processions has long ago become proverbial, in allusion to which
Macaulay says:--

"On they ride to the Forum,
While laurel boughs, and flowers,
From house-tops and from windows,
Fell on their crests in showers."

Flowers, in fact, were in demand on every conceivable occasion, a custom
which was frequently productive of costly extravagance. Then there was
their festival of the Floralia, in honour of the reappearance of
spring-time, with its hosts of bright blossoms, a survival of which has
long been kept up in this country on May Day, when garlands and carols
form the chief feature of the rustic merry-making. Another grand
ceremonial occasion, when flowers were specially in request, was the
Fontinalia, an important day in Rome, for the wells and fountains were
crowned with flowers:--