310 
F OVULAR TALES OF FLOWERS 
Affection — the devotedness of a fond heart, that clings 
unto what it loveth until it dies; but it shall not outlive 
the object to which it is wedded, for, when once untwined 
from its affectionate embrace, it shall wither and pine, 
and die away, and be no more. Not so with the Wall- 
flower : when all beside have perished and decayed, when 
the carved and vaulted roof has mouldered away, when 
the tall turret has fallen, stone by stone, and crumbled 
into dust, it shall still wave above the mound of buried 
ruins, like Beauty bending over and silently contemplating 
Desolation ; the emblem of faithfulness in adversity, the 
garland with which Time shall enwreath the grey piles of 
silent and untrodden ruins, which in his devastating march 
he has overturned.” 
As many of the flowers thus passed through their hands, 
they gave to them some new charm which they had never 
before possessed; sometimes varying and mingling their 
fragrances together, and throwing a warm, pearly flush 
over what was before of a pale and deathly hue. 
They gave a pale blush to the blossoms of the Haw- 
thorn, and pressed the white roses to their cheeks until 
they left on them every tinge, from the warm tint of 
Beauty to the lily-whiteness of their own swan-like necks. 
Into some of the Violets they looked until they partook 
of the hue of their own deep-blue eyes; and others, which 
were before of a dark purple, they buried in their own 
snowy bosoms until they faded into a pearly white, then 
laughingly planted them again in the ground, causing 
them for ever to partake of the candour, and sweetness, 
and innocence of the tender hearts on which they were 
first nursed, and the gentle spirit by whose purity their 
colour was changed. 
Round the Daisy, whose edge before was a white un- 
broken rim, they clipped the ridge into the star-like silver 
which it now wears, and called it the Eye of Day. 
They picked up the smallest Primroses they could find, 
and, planting them upon one stem, spotted their centres 
with the deepest crimson, and thus formed the Cowslip. 
Theye copied the colours of the golden-banded bees, 
and shaped the flowers of the Orchis after the form of 
the insect : not a winged butterfly flew past that escaped 
their eyes: — they transferred to the blossoms the hues of 
its deep-%ed wings. 
