"THE SWEET O' THE YEAR" 97 



rose one or other of these downy, changeful portions 

 is continually coming into view, so that we get a 

 feeling as if there hung about the whole plant a 

 clothing of soft, evanescent mist, thickening about 

 the center of the plant and the undersurfaces of the 

 leaves which are less exposed to the sun. And then 

 we reach one of the main expressions of the prim- 

 rose. When we look at the pale, sweet flowers, and 

 the soft-toned green of the herbage, softened further 

 here and there by that uncertain mist of down, the 

 dryness of the leaf and fur enters forcibly into our 

 impression of the plant, giving a sense of extreme 

 delicacy and need of shelter, as if it were some 

 gentle creature which shrinks from exposure to the 

 weather." 



The Greeks associated the idea of melancholy 

 with this flower. They had a story of a handsome 

 youth, son of Flora and Priapus, whose betrothed 

 bride died. His grief was so excessive that he died, 

 too, and the gods than changed his body into a prim- 

 rose. 



In Shakespeare's time, the primrose was also asso- 

 ciated with early death; and it is one of the flowers 

 thrown upon the corse of Fidele, whose lovely, wist- 

 ful face is compared to the "pale primrose." Thus 

 Arviragus exclaims as he gazes on the beautiful 



