SECRET OF THE CHARM OF FLOWERS 143 



purple in them, and there are very many distinctly 

 purple flowers that appeal to us in the same way 

 that red flowers do, receiving their expression from 

 the same cause. There is some purple colour in 

 most skins, and even some blue. 



The azured harebell, like thy veins, 



is a familiar verse from Cymbeline ; any one can 

 see the resemblance to the pale blue of that admired 

 and loved blossom in the blue veins of any person 

 with a delicate skin. Purples and purplish reds in 

 masses are mostly seen in young persons of delicate 

 skins and high colour in frosty weather in winter, 

 when the eyes sparkle and the face glows with the 

 happy sensations natural to the young and healthy 

 during and after outdoor exercise. The skin purples 

 and purple-reds here described are beautiful, and 

 may be matched to a nicety in many flowers ; the 

 human purple may be seen (to name a very common 

 wild flower) in purple loosestrife and the large marsh 

 mallow, and in dozens and scores of other familiar 

 purple flowers ; and the purple-red hue in many 

 richly coloured skins has its exact shade in common 

 hounds' tongue, and in other dark and purple-red 

 flowers. But we always find, I fancy, that the ex- 

 pression due to human association in a purple flower 



