"THE SWEET O' THE YEAR" 



Primroses, Cowslips, and Oxlips 



PRIMROSE (Primula vulgaris). English 

 poets have always regarded the primrose as 

 the first flower of spring the true Flor di 

 prim a vera. This name calls to mind Botticelli's 

 enchanting Primevera that hangs in the Uffizi, in 

 which the sward is dotted with spring flowers that 

 seem to have burst into blossom beneath the foot- 

 steps of Venus and her three Graces those lovely 

 ladies of the Italian Renaissance, clad in light, flut- 

 tering draperies. This decorative picture expresses 

 not only the joy and beauty of newly-awakened 

 spring, but something much deeper, something tKat 

 the painter did not realize himself; and this was 

 what the Italian Renaissance was destined to mean 

 to all the world: a New Birth of beauty in the 



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