PERIWINKLE. 
155 
PERIWINKLE. 
(Tender Recollections.) 
I N France the Periwinkle, which there is sometimes 
called “ the magician’s violet,” is considered the 
emblem of sincere friendship, and as such is much used 
in their language of flowers. The English have adopted 
this evergreen plant as the representative of tender 
recollections. 
In Italy, the country people make garlands of this 
plant, to place upon the biers of their deceased children, 
for which reason they name it the ‘' flower of death.” 
But in Germany it is the symbol of immortality; and, 
because its fine, glossy, myrtle-green leaves flourish all 
through the winter, they term it “ winter verdure.” 
Chaucer repeatedly speaks of it m his “ Romaunt of 
the Rose,” even making it one of the ornaments of the 
God of Love : 
\ 
“His garment was every dele 
Ipurtraied and wrought with floures, 
By divers medeling of coloures ; 
Floures there was of many a gise, 
Iset by campace in a sise ; 
There lacked no floure to my dome, 
Ne not so much as floure of brome, 
He violet, ne eke perevink, 
.We floure none that men can on think** 
