92 DROPS FROM FLORA’S CDP. 
THE YIOLET. 
The white violet has been made the emblem of * candor.* It is Baid 
that this flower when planted in rich soil, and cultivated, loses its puritj 
and becomes the purple violet; gaining, however, in fragrance what It 
loees in simplicity, it becomes the emblem of modesty. Thus, candor 
precedes modesty. 
Poets have sung loudly in praise of this little flower, and some deem 
it a rival to the queenly rose; so thought Cornwall: — 
It lias a scent as though love, for a dower, 
Had on it all its odorous arrows tost; 
For though the rose has more perfuming power, 
The violet (haply ’cause’t is almost lost, 
And takes us so much trouble to discover,) 
Stands first with most, hut always with a lover. 
No flower is more universally admired, and nature has spread none 
more profusely abroad. 
In 1324, a golden violet was offered as a poetical prize to the author of 
the best poem in the Provencal language. 
• 
1 And in that golden vase was set 
The prize — the golden violet. ’ 
SMITH. 
Sweet violets stay, till hardier flowers 
Frepare to meet the lovely May; 
Then from your mossy shelter come, 
And rival every richer bloom; 
For though their colors gayer shine, 
Their odors do not equal thine. 
And thus real merit still may dare to vie 
With all that wealth bestows, or pageant heraldry. 
