SOME EARLY FLOWERS 291 



idea expressed by some one that flowers are beautiful 

 and precious to us because, apart from their intrinsic 

 charm of colour, fragrance and form, they are abso- 

 lutely unrelated to our human life with its passions, 

 sorrows and tragedies ; and, finally, he said of the 

 blue flower, that if it had any associations at all they 

 were not human ; the suggestion was of the blue sky, 

 the open air, of fair weather. It was so in his own 

 case " I can feel the different blues of skies and air 

 and distances in flower blue." 



Undoubtedly he was right as to the fair-weather 

 suggestion in the blue flower I could not look at 

 the vernal squill without feeling convinced of it. 

 Then, oddly enough, another correspondent who was 

 also among my opponents kindly sent me this striking 

 passage from an old writer, Sir John Feme, on azure 

 in blazonry : " Which blew colour representeth the 

 Aire amongst the elements, that of all the rest is the 

 greatest favourer of life, as the only nurse and main- 

 tainer of spirits in any living creature. The colour 

 blew is commonly taken from the clear skye which 

 appeareth so often as the tempests be overblowne, 

 and note prosperous successe and good fortune to the 

 wearer in all his affayres." 



My view now is that the human association is a 

 chief factor in the expression of blue flowers in some 

 species, such as pansy, violet, speedwell and various 

 others, which bloom sparsely and are seen distinctly 

 as single flowers and not as mere splashes of colour ; 

 and that with blue flowers seen in masses, as in the 

 case of the wild hyacinth and sometimes the viper's 



