wreath of vervain is presented to the newly-married bride; a plant
which, on account of its mystic virtues, was formerly much used for
love-philtres and charms. The bride herself wears a myrtle wreath, as
also does the Jewish maiden, but this wreath was never given either to a
widow or a divorced woman. Occasionally, too, it is customary in Germany
to present the bride and bridegroom with an almond at the wedding
banquet, and in the nuptial ceremonies of the Czechs this plant is
distributed among the guests. In Switzerland so much importance was in
years past attached to flowers and their symbolical significance that,
"a very strict law was in force prohibiting brides from wearing chaplets
or garlands in the church, or at any time during the wedding feast, if
they had previously in any way forfeited their rights to the privileges
of maidenhood."[5] With the Swiss maiden the edelweiss is almost a
sacred flower, being regarded as a proof of the devotion of her lover,
by whom it is often gathered with much risk from growing in inaccessible
spots. In Italy, as in days of old, nuts are scattered at the marriage
festival, and corn is in many cases thrown over the bridal couple, a
survival of the old Roman custom of making offerings of corn to the
bride. A similar usage prevails at an Indian wedding, where, "after the
first night, the mother of the husband, with all the female relatives,
comes to the young bride and places on her head a measure of
corn--emblem of fertility. The husband then comes forward and takes from
his bride's head some handfuls of the grain, which he scatters over
himself." As a further illustration we may quote the old Polish custom,
which consisted of visitors throwing wheat, rye, oats, barley, rice, and
beans at the door of the bride's house, as a symbol that she never would
want any of these grains so long as she did her duty. In the Tyrol is a
fine grove of pine-trees--the result of a long-established custom for
every newly united couple to plant a marriage tree, which is generally
of the pine kind. Garlands of wild asparagus are used by the Boeotians,