THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 9 
It is impossible to speak of flowers with¬ 
out giving that unrivalled passage from the 
“Winter’s Tale,” in which Perdita wishes 
for those which had faded, before the golden 
harvest came:— 
^ “ O Proserpina, 
For the flowers now, that frighted thou let’st fall 
From Dis’s waggon ! daffodils. 
That come before the swallow dares, and take 
The winds of March with beauty ; violets dim, 
But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes. 
Or Cytherea’s breath ; pale primroses. 
That die unmarried ere they can behold 
Bright Phoebus in his strength. . . . 
. . . . Bold oxlips and 
The crown imperial ; lilies of all kinds. 
The flower-de-luce being one ! ” 
Surely this is the most lovely bouquet 
that poet ever wove ! and they have all 
rendered due homage to the flowers, from 
the httle daisy up to the sovereign rose. 
The great poetic nation, Greece, gave an 
actually human interest to these fair children 
of the earth, and linked a legend of man’s 
love, or woe, or triumph to every blossom. 
The laurel was but Daphne, crowning the 
noble, the brave, and the gifted with her 
