Among the Greeks and Romans, the oak was dedicated to Jupiter, the olive
to Minerva, and the Myrtle, from the delicacy and beauty of its foliage,
to Venus; and the temple of this goddess was surrounded by Myrtle
groves. Hence the Myrtle and the rose have always been twined with
garlands and prizes for beauty,—the one being admired for its flowers,
the other for its delicate and aromatic leaves. A great deal of the
romance of botany is lost to us, the inhabitants of the New World, on
account of the absence from our woods of many of the plants most
celebrated in classic poetry and medieval romance. We have not the
heath, nor the olive, nor the ivy; and many of the humble flowers of the
meadow, familiar to the reader of classical lore, are absent from our
soil. Their absence, notwithstanding the beauty and elegance of many
flowers and shrubs that seem to stand in the place of them, can never
cease to be felt. The sacredness which a plant acquires by its
association with ancient poetry and romance and with Holy Writ cannot be
transferred to one of our indigenous plants of equal beauty. But there
is romance in our own lives, and there are plants never mentioned in the
literature of the romantic ages which are associated with certain
hallowed periods and events in our youth that render them ever sacred to
memory.
There are two or three plants in our own land that bear the classical
name of Myrtle, not from any botanical resemblance or affinity to this
plant, either in leaf or in flower, but from the aromatic odor of the
leaves, like that of the true Myrtle. These plants are the Sweet-Gale,
the bayberry, and the sweet-fern.