"Glad earth perceives, and from her bosom pours
Unbidden herbs and voluntary flowers:
Thick, new-born violets a soft carpet spread,
And clust'ring lotos swelled the rising bed;
And sudden hyacinths the earth bestrow,
And flamy crocus made the mountain glow."
According to a very early custom the Grecian bride was required to
eat a quince, and the hawthorn was the flower which formed her wreath,
which at the present day is still worn at Greek nuptials, the altar being
decked with its blossoms. Among the Romans the hazel held a
significant position, torches having been burnt on the wedding evening
to insure prosperity to the newly-married couple, and both in Greece
and Rome young married couples were crowned with marjoram. At
Roman weddings, too, oaken boughs were carried during the ceremony
as symbols of fecundity; and the bridal wreath was of verbena, plucked
by the bride herself. Holly wreaths were sent as tokens of congratulation,
and wreaths of parsley and rue were given under a belief that they were
effectual preservatives against evil spirits. In Germany, nowadays, a
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,