Not only were the guests adorned with flowers, but the waiters,
drinking-cups, and room, were all profusely decorated.[1] "In short," as
the author of "Flower-lore" remarks, "it would be difficult to name the
occasions on which flowers were not employed; and, as almost all plants
employed in making garlands had a symbolical meaning, the garland was
composed in accordance with that meaning." Garlands, too, were thrown to
actors on the stage, a custom which has come down to the present day in
an exaggerated form.

Indeed, many of the flowers in request nowadays for ceremonial uses in
our own and other countries may be traced back to this period; the
symbolical meaning attached to certain plants having survived after the
lapse of many centuries. For a careful description of the flowers thus
employed, we would refer the reader to two interesting papers
contributed by Miss Lambert to the _Nineteenth Century_,[2] in which she
has collected together in a concise form all the principal items of
information on the subject in past years. A casual perusal of these
papers will suffice to show what a wonderful knowledge of botany the
ancients must have possessed; and it may be doubted whether the most
costly array of plants witnessed at any church festival supersedes a
similar display witnessed by worshippers in the early heathen temples.
In the same way, we gain an insight into the profusion of flowers
employed by heathen communities in later centuries, showing how
intimately associated these have been with their various forms of
worship. Thus, the Singhalese seem to have used flowers to an almost
incredible extent, and one of their old chronicles tells us how the
Ruanwellé dagoba--270 feet high--was festooned with garlands from
pedestal to pinnacle, till it had the appearance of one uniform bouquet.
We are further told that in the fifteenth century a certain king offered
no less than 6,480,320 sweet-smelling flowers at the shrine of the