78 March — The Periwinkle, 



their English names, and more fortunate in the names 

 that have been given them by other nations. For ex- 

 ample, there is that charming little spring flower which 

 is called in Latin the Vinca, or Pervinca, because it is 

 supposed to conquer (vincere, pervincere) either the 

 frosts of winter or some malady, whichever it may be, 

 for etymologists suggest both explanations. And now 

 for the changes that we have made in the Latin name. 

 The Italians, to begin with, have been in this instance 

 singularly conservative, and they call the flower pervinca 

 still ; but the French have softened the word, and made 

 it more beautiful by changing it into pervenche. How 

 sweetly it occurs in the following verses, addressed by 

 a poet to a young lady who had captivated his admira- 

 tion ! — 



* Je voudrais etre la pervenche, 

 Qui joue avec tes noirs cheveux, 

 Ou ton beau miroir qui se penche, 

 Quand sur lui tu mires tes yeux.' 



The English, on their part, have also deviated from 

 the Latin, but not, I think, with so happy a result. They 

 have changed pervinca into periwinkle, and I submit that 

 it is simply impossible to write about this flower in sen- 

 tences worthy of its charm and beauty when you have 

 to introduce such a barbarous word as that.* A poetical 

 lover might wish to be a violet or a rose, but he would 

 never, in written verse, have the temerity to wish he was 

 a periwinkle. 



* I suppose the change must have come gradually, and through the 

 f orm pervinke, which Chaucer uses. 



