186 
INDEX OF THE 
The flowers generally droop, and thus may be said 
to hang their pensive heads. 
PERFECTION — Wild Strawberry. The Deautiful 
flowers of which may often he seen trailing about 
the hanks of our woodsides and hedgerows. 
PITY— Andromeda. A beautiful flower, found by Lin¬ 
naeus growing on a rock, and reminding him of the 
lovely nymph, whom Perseus rescued from the sea- 
monster, by changing it into a rock: — from this 
rock all hard-hearted men and unfeeling lovers are 
supposed to have sprung. It is an appropriate em¬ 
blem of Pity. 
POETRY— Eglantine, or Sweet-Brier. I will not pause 
to inquire why, for Poetry is a thorny sweetness, 
and those who touch it must not mind a prick or 
two. Even if the world admire not its flowers, there 
is a sweetness about its very leaves; and to he 
nestled near them in a green nook is to enjoy a 
pleasure which needs no praise to enhance it. As 
Touchstone says of Audrey, in “ As You Like It,”— 
“ Though a poor thing, it is mine own; ” and the 
Sweet-Brier, Rose, or Eglantine, has ever been a 
favourite flower with the English poets. So we 
accept the emblem for want of a better. 
POWER — Crown Imperial. So called by Shakspeare in 
the “Winter’s Tale.” It is also, as its name sug¬ 
gests, the emblem of majesty. 
PREFERENCE— Apple-Blossom. See Legend of “How 
the Rose became Red,” page 69. 
PURE LOVE— Pink. See “Violet of the Valley,” page 31. 
PURITY OF HEART— White Water-lily. See “Old 
Saxon Flowers,” page 49. 
RECONCILIATION — Hazel. The best way for young 
lovers to make up a quarrel is to walk into a beau¬ 
tiful wood, and seat themselves upon the flowers 
