96 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



softness of their tone. And we must not overlook 

 the little round stigma, that green and translucent 

 gem, which forms the pupil of the eye, and is sur- 

 rounded by a deeper circle of orange which helps it 

 to shine forth more clearly. Many flowers have a 

 somewhat pensive look; but in the pensiveness of 

 the primrose there is a shade of melancholy a 

 melancholy which awakens no thought of sadness 

 and does but give interest to the pale, sweet, inquir- 

 ing faces which the plant upturns towards us. 



"In the primrose, as a whole, we cannot help 

 being struck by an exceeding softness and delicacy; 

 there is nothing sharp, strong, or incisive; the smell 

 is 'the faintest and most ethereal perfume,' as Mrs. 

 Stowe has called it in her 'Sunny Memories/ though 

 she was mistaken in saying that it disappears when 

 we pluck the flower. It is meant to impress us as 

 altogether soft and yielding. One of the most beauti- 

 ful points in the primrose is the manner in which 

 the paleness of the flowers is taken up by the herbage. 

 This paleness seems to hang about the plant like a 

 mystery, for though the leaves of the primrose may 

 at times show a trace of the steady paleness of the 

 cowslip, it is more usually confined to their under- 

 surfaces and the white flower-stalks with their cloth- 

 ing of down. And when we are looking at the prim- 



