Hartstongue. _Asplenium Scolopendium._
Dedicated to _St. Marcella_.
[Illustration: FEBRUARY.]
------- Then came cold February, sitting
In an old waggon, for he could not ride,
Drawne of two fishes, for the season fitting,
Which through the flood before did softly slyde
And swim away; yet had he by his side
His plough and harnesse fit to till the ground,
And tooles to prune the trees before the pride
Of hasting prime did make them burgeon round.
_Spenser._
This month has Pisces or the fishes for its zodiacal sign. Numa, who was
chosen by the Roman people to succeed Romulus as their king, and became
their legislator, placed it the second in the year, as it remains with
us, and dedicated it to Neptune, the lord of waters. Its name is from
the _Februa_, or Feralia, sacrifices offered to the manes of the gods at
this season. Ovid in his _Fasti_ attests the derivation:
In ancient times, purgations had the name
Of _Februa_, various customs prove the same;
The pontiffs from the _rex_ and _flamen_ crave
A lock of wool; in former days they gave
To wool the name of Februa.
A pliant branch cut from a lofty pine,
Which round the temples of the priests they twine,
Is Februa called; which if the priest demand,
A branch of pine is put into his hand;
In short, with whatsoe’er our hearts we hold
Are purified, was Februa termed of old;
_Lustrations_ are from hence, from hence the name
Of this our month of February came;
In which the priests of Pan processions made;
In which the tombs were also purified
Of such as had no dirges when they died;
For our religious fathers did maintain
Purgations expiated every stain
Of guilt and sin; from Greece the custom came,
But here adopted by another name;
The Grecians held that pure lustrations could
Efface an impious deed, or guilt of blood
Weak men; to think that water can make clean
A bloody crime, or any sinful stain.
_Massey’s Ovid._
Our Saxon ancestors, according to Verstegan, “called February
_Sprout-kele_, by kele meaning the kele-wurt, which we now call the
colewurt, the greatest _pot-wurt_ in time long past that our ancestors
used, and the broth made therewith was thereof also called kele; for
before we borrowed from the French the name of potage, and the name of
herbe, the one in our owne language was called _kele_, and the other
_wurt_; and as this kele-wurt, or potage-hearbe, was the chiefe
winter-wurt for the sustenance of the husbandman, so was it the first
hearbe that in this moneth began to yeeld out wholesome yong sprouts,
and consequently gave thereunto the name of _Sprout-kele_.” The “kele”
here mentioned, is the well-known kale of the cabbage tribe. But the
Saxons likewise called this month “Solmonath,” which Dr. Frank Sayers in
his “Disquisitions” says, is explained by Bede “mensis placentarum,” and
rendered by Spelman in an unedited manuscript “_pan-cake_ month,”
because in the course of it, cakes were offered by the pagan Saxons to
the sun; and “Sol,” or “soul,” signified “food,” or “cakes.”
In “The Months,” by Mr. Leigh Hunt, he remarks that “if February were
not the precursor of spring, it would be the least pleasant season of
the year, November not excepted. The thaws now take place; and a clammy
mixture of moisture and cold succeeds, which is the most disagreeable of
wintry sensations.” Yet so variable is our climate, that the February of
1825 broke in upon the inhabitants of the metropolis with a day or two
of piercing cold, and realized a delightful description of January
sparkled from the same pen. “What can be more delicately beautiful than
the spectacle which sometimes salutes the eye at the breakfast-room
window, occasioned by the hoar-frost dew? If a jeweller had come to
dress every plant over night, to surprise an Eastern sultan, he could
not produce any thing like the ‘pearly drops,’ or the ‘silvery plumage.’
An ordinary bed of greens, to those who are not at the mercy of their
own vulgar associations, will sometimes look crisp and corrugated
emerald, powdered with diamonds.”