It probably is one of the most lasting of evergreens after being gathered, though we can scarcely credit the statement recorded by Phillips that "it is the custom in France to put a branch of Rosemary in the hands of the dead when in the coffin, and we are told by Valmont Bomare, in his 'Histoire Naturelle,' that when the coffins have been opened after several years, the plant has been found to have vegetated so much that the leaves have covered the corpse." These were the general and popular uses of the Rosemary, but it was of high repute as a medicine, and still holds a place, though not so high as formerly, in the "Pharmacopœia." "Rosemary," says Parkinson, "is almost of as great use as Bayes, both for inward and outward remedies, and as well for civill as physicall purposes--inwardly for the head and heart, outwardly for the sinews and joynts; for civile uses, as all do know, at weddings, funerals, &c., to bestow among friends; and the physicall are so many that you might as well be tyred in the reading as I in the writing, if I should set down all that might be said of it." With this high character we may well leave this good, old-fashioned plant, merely noting that the name is popularly but erroneously supposed to mean the Rose of Mary. It has no connection with either Rose or Mary, but is the Ros marinus, or Ros Maris (as in Ovid-- "Ros maris, et laurus, nigraque myrtus olent;" _De Arte Aman._, iii, 390), the plant that delights in the sea-spray; and so the old spelling was Rosmarin. Gower says of the Star Alpheta-- "His herbe proper is Rosmarine;" _Conf. Aman._, lib. sept. a spelling which Shenstone adopted-- "And here trim Rosmarin that whilom crowned The daintiest garden of the proudest peer." It was also sometimes called Guardrobe, being "put into chests and presses among clothes, to preserve them from mothes and other vermine." FOOTNOTES: [256:1] Grace was symbolized by the Rue, or Herb of Grace, and remembrance by the Rosemary. RUE. (1) _Perdita._ For you there's Rosemary and Rue. _Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (74). (_See_ ROSEMARY, No. 1.) (2) _Gardener._ Here did she fall a tear; here in this place I'll set a bank of Rue, sour Herb of Grace: Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall beseen, In the remembrance of a weeping queen. _Richard II_, act iii, sc. 4 (104). (3) _Antony._ Grace grow where these drops fall. _Antony and Cleopatra_, act iv, sc. 2 (38). (4) _Ophelia._ There's Rue for you; and here's some for me: we may call it Herb-grace o' Sundays: O, you must wear your Rue with a difference. _Hamlet_, act iv, sc. 5 (181). (5) _Clown._