73 
She has virgins man}', 
Freshe and faire ; 
Yet you are 
More sweet than any. 
Y’are the maiden posies, 
And so grac’t 
To be plac’t 
’Fore damask roses. 
Yet though thus respected. 
By and by 
Ye doe lie, 
Poore Girles, neglected. 
In these our records of the Romance of Flowers, far be 
it from us to neglect the gi’aceful fables in which the Violet 
plays her part. Some relate, that the delicate and fragrant 
blossom was first produced by the earth at the bidding of 
Jupiter, to be food for Id during her metamorphosis: others 
say that Venus, hastening to meet Adonis, trod on a thorn, 
and that the blood from her celestial foot dyed the flower, 
which was then white, with its present dim purple. 
Herrick tells a story different from both these; and though 
evidently the coinage of his own prolific brain, rather than a 
versification of any popular notion, it is too fanciful to be 
overlooked. 
HOW VIOLETS CAME BLEW. 
Love on a day, wise poets tell, 
Some time in wrangling spent. 
Whether the violet should excell. 
Or she in sweetest scent. 
L 
