THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
65 
“ Flower of the solitary place ! 
Gray Ruin’s golden crown, 
That lendest melancholy grace 
To haunts of old renown.” 
Moir. 
“ An emblem true thou art 
Of love’s enduring lustre, given 
To cheer a lonely heart.” 
Barton. 
Minstrels and troubadours formerly wore a sprig of 
wall-flower as the emblem of an affection which resists 
time and survives misfortune. During the reign of terror 
in France, the sepulchres of the kings in the Abbey of 
St. Denis were broken open and violated, and the remains 
thrown into an obscure court behind the choir of the 
church. There the revolution forgot them. The poet 
Treneuil, going to visit this sad spot, found it brilliant 
with the blossoms of the wall-flower. This plant, true 
to its character, breathed out its perfume, like incense 
rising to heaven, and inspired the poet with a fine apos¬ 
trophe to it. 
