FLORAL POESY. 

ani 
Ask me why I send to you nil 
This primrose all bepearled with dew : et 
I straight will whisper in your ears 
The sweets of love are washed with tears, 
I 
Ask me why this flower doth show é 
a 
So yellow, green, and sickly too ; 
Ask me why the stalk is weak the 
And bending, yet it doth not break ; 
I must tell you, these discover 
What doubts and fears are in a lover.” 

Shakspeare, whose floral symbolism was perfect, in- 
troduces this delicate blossom into his pathetic drama 
of ‘*Cymbeline,” as typical of the youthful dead : 
‘* With fairest flowers, 
Whilst Summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, 
I'll sweeten thy sad grave : thou shalt not lack I 
The flower that’s like thy face, pale primrose.” 0’ 
Again, in the “ Winter’s Tale,” the grand dramatist 
still more exquisitely expresses his knowledge of its 
symbolic character : 
‘* The pale primroses, 
That die unmarried ere they can behold I 
Bright Phcebus in his strength.” thi 
Milton also styles this vernal bloom “the pale prim- 
rose.” It was described by Carew as “the firstling of 
spring ;” thus Burns also terms it in “The Posie,” 
and Linneus appropriately named it in his botanical | 
system ; whilst in his native Swedish it is known as | 
Maj-nycklar, or the “key of May.” Its English ap- ql 
pellation is derived from primus—*the first ”_and 
happily expresses one of its charms, and shows why it 
is such a meet emblem of youth, 
This fragile flower is known classically as Parahsos, 


