238 T HE POETRY OF FLOWERS 
YOUR QUALITIES SURPASS YOUR 
CHARMS. 
MIGNIONETTE. 
No gorgeous flowers the meek reseda grace, 
Yet sip with eager trunk yon busy race 
Her simple cup, nor heed the dazzling gem 
That beams in Fritillaria's diadem. 
Dr. Evans. 
The odour exhaled by this little flower is thought by some to 
be too powerful for the house. Linnseus compares its perfumes 
to those of ambrosia; and it is sweeter and more penetrating 
at the rising and setting of the sun than at noon. 
The mignionette has found its way into the armorial hearings 
of an ancient Saxon family; and the following romantic story 
is said to have introduced this fragrant little flower to the pur- 
suivant-at-arms: — 
The Count of Walstheim was the favoured aspirant for the 
hand of Amelia de Nordbourg, a young lady possessing all the 
charms requisite for the heroine of a modern novel, excepting 
that she delighted in exciting jealousy in the breast of her in¬ 
tended lord. As she was the only child of a widowed mother, 
a female cousin, possessing but little personal beauty, and still 
less fortune, had been brought up with her from infancy as a 
companion, and as a stimulus to her education. The humble 
and amiable Charlotte was too insignificant to attract much at¬ 
tention in the circles in which her gay cousin shone with so 
much splendour, which gave her frequent opportunities of im¬ 
parting a portion of that instruction she had received to the 
more humble class of her own sex. Returning from one of 
these charitable visits, and entering the gay saloon of her aunt, 
where her exit or entrance was scarcely noticed, she found the 
party amusing themselves in selecting flowers, while the count 
