202 WILD FLOWERS. 



The American bard says : 



" When its long rings uncurls the fern, 



The violet nestling low, 

 Casts back the white lid of its urn, 



Its purple streaks to shew. 

 Beautiful blossom ! first to rise 

 And smile beneath Spring's wakening skies, 



The courier of a band 

 Of coming flowers, what feelings sweet 

 Gush, as the silvery gem we greet 

 Upon its slender wand." 



Robert Storey, the Northumbrian poet, thus 

 alludes to the emblematic meaning attached to the 

 violet in common with other blue flowers : 



* # Telling me in every wreath I made 

 Not to omit the violet, which meant truth." 



The violet was the appropriate May-day prize 

 bestowed on the troubadour, or the minnie-singer 

 of the olden time. Its place was afterwards taken 

 by a golden violet ; and a remembrance of the cus- 

 tom survived in the Toulouse Academy of Floral 

 Games.* 



The words of Shakespeare 



" To gild refined gold," 



are familiar to every one, but we seldom recollect 

 that the illustration is, to the full, as apt when he 

 pronounces it an equally 



" Wasteful and ridiculous excess. 

 To throw a perfume on the violet." 



This perfume, according to Lord Bacon, may be 

 * See the Works of Marmontel. 



