"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."