34)8 WILD FLOWERS. 



In France the periwinkle is considered the em- 

 blem of purity, and in Be'arn and the Western 

 Pyrenees, it was formerly the custom to place a 

 spray of it in the bridal coronal. The name peri- 

 winkle is evidently the same as pervenche, or per- 

 vinca ; but there has been a question respecting the 

 origin of vinca. It has been thought by some to 

 have been derived from its power of resisting the 

 effects of weather ; " Vinca per vinca, quia vereat 

 semper, acresque injurias vincat et pervincat."* 

 Others, again, are of opinion that the name vinca 

 has been given to it from the circumstance of its 

 being used to bind or wreathe the bodies of the 

 dead ; a custom which is still observed in some parts 

 of Italy, where it is called fior di morto, and which 

 would seem to be indicated in the Welsh name llys 

 y cyrph, " the plant of the dead/' I am not, how- 

 ever, aware that it is, at the present day, more used 

 than any other flower for funereal purposes ; while 

 the other name it bears, erllys geleiaf, signifies a small 

 rod, or branch, which pushes forward in allusion to 

 the speedy and trailing growth of the plant. 



Chaucer celebrates the flower in the following 

 passage : 



" There sprang the violet alle newe, 

 And fresh pervinke, rich of hewe, 

 And flouris yellow, white and rede ; 

 Such plente grew there, nor in the mede 

 There lack'd no floure to my dome, 

 Ne not so moche as floure of bronie, 

 Ne violet, ne eke pervinke, 

 Ne flowre more than man can on thinke." 



* Vossius. 



