adorned with myrtle--

"With no libations, nor with myrtle boughs,
Were my dear father's manes gratified."

The Greeks also planted asphodel and mallow round their graves, as the
seeds of these plants were supposed to nourish the dead. Mourners, too,
wore flowers at the funeral rites, and Homer relates how the Thessalians
used crowns of amaranth at the burial of Achilles. The Romans were
equally observant, and Ovid, when writing from the land of exile, prayed
his wife--"But do you perform the funeral rites for me when dead, and
offer chaplets wet with your tears. Although the fire shall have changed
my body into ashes, yet the sad dust will be sensible of your pious
affection." Like the Greeks, the Romans set a special value on the rose
as a funeral flower, and actually left directions that their graves
should be planted with this favourite flower, a custom said to have been
introduced by them into this country. Both Camden and Aubrey allude to
it, and at the present day in Wales white roses denote the graves of
young unmarried girls.

Coming down to modern times, we find the periwinkle, nicknamed "death's
flower," scattered over the graves of children in Italy--notably
Tuscany--and in some parts of Germany the pink is in request for this
purpose. In Persia we read of:--

"The basil-tuft that waves
Its fragrant blossoms over graves;"

And among the Chinese, roses, the anemone, and a species of lycoris are
planted over graves. The Malays use a kind of basil, and in Tripoli