V»*eJ Va^j^ Vs*c<J Khr^sJ K^-^J K&£eJ Ka^sJ Kcs^eJ K&^s) Kts*gJ Va^a^ 



CHAPTER II 



'A 



VIOLETS, PRIMROSES AND 

 WALLFLOWERS 



YOUNG MAN in green, with a Garland of 

 Mirtle, and Hawthorn Buds, Winged, in one hand 

 Primroses and Violets, in the other the sign Taurus.' So 

 run the instructions in a seventeenth-century book for 

 embroidering a figure representing Spring. 



1 Violets are the spring's chiefe flowers for beauty, 

 smell and use.' The sweet-scented violet {Viola odorata) 

 is a native not only of Europe, but also of Persia, Palestine, 

 Barbary, Arabia, Japan and China. In the East as in the 

 West it has been beloved from time immemorial. Violets 

 preserve in their scent the memory of Orpheus, for one 

 day, being weary, he sank to sleep on a mossy bank, and 

 where his enchanted lute fell, there blossomed the first 

 violet. The magic music of his lute still haunts the 

 scent of violets. Deep-toned melodies from faerie 

 linger iD 



1 the sweet sound 



That breathes upon a bank of violets, 



Stealing and giving odour.* 



The violet is regal in its humility, and what a splendour 

 of purple radiates from the petals of this shy flower. It 

 glows with the fragrance and warmth of its beauty. 

 * And the more vertuous the flower thereof is the more 

 it bendeth the head thereof downward. The lyttlenesse 

 thereof in substance is nobly rewarded in greatnesse of 



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