198 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



the noble frankincense and the hidden violet, 

 and further addresses her as 



' A living Paradise 

 Of grandly coloured flowers.' ^ 



But though poets, and particularly German 

 poets, ranged widely through the fields in their 

 search for blossoms which by their beauty or 

 by their healing virtues were fit to symbolize 

 the Virgin, the early artists painted very few. 

 In those mystical Enclosed Gardens which so 

 charmed the Germans of the fifteenth century, 

 only a few plants appear. The lily, which is often 

 the lily of the valley, the rose, the violet, and 

 the strawberry, are the most usual. Later the 

 iris, the royal lily, was added, and sometimes the 

 seven-blossomed columbine. Occasionally in 

 Italy the jasmine and the daisy are also found 

 in the vase beside her, but aU other flowers of 

 the garden and field, the tulip, anemone, ranun- 

 culus, primrose, daffodil, dahlia, etc., were rigidly 

 excluded. 



It will be noticed that, with the exception of 

 the rose, all the flowers of the Virgin are white 



' Goldene Schmiede. 



