The winds forbid the flowers to flourish long, Which owe to winds their name in Grecian song. EUSDEN, FROM OVID. FROM the soft wings of vernal breezes shed, With shining meal o'er all their velvet leaves, THOMSON. SEE yon Anemones their leaves unfold, Ah! crop the flowers of pleasure while they blow, SIR WM. JONES, FROM THE PERSIAN. The Primrose. Primula Vulgaris. Class Pentandria. Order Monogynia. THIS lovely gem of " the darling of the year," appears amongst us in April. Its Swedish name is Maj-nycklar, or the Key of May, the first month of the almost instantaneous summer of high latitudes. The German Schliissel Blume, or key-flower, has the same signification; proclaiming, in the language of Solomon, that "the winter is now over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land." "Now what is the flower, the æ first flower, And what is the bird, the bonnie bonnie bird, "The Primrose is the æ first flower, And the thristle-cock is the bonniest bird, OLD BALLAD. PROUD LADY MARGARET. With fairest flowers, Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, nor The azured hare-bell, like thy veins; no, nor The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, Out-sweetened not thy breath. CYMBELINE. SHE is the Rose, the glory of the day, SPENSER'S DAPHNAIDA. Earine, Who had her very being and her name BEN JONSON. SAD SHEPHERD, BRIDAL SONG OF THESEUS AND ROSES, their sharp spines being gone, But in their hue; Maiden pinks of odour faint, Daisies smell-less, but most quaint, And sweet thyme true. Primrose, first-born child of Ver, Oxlips in their cradles growing, All dear nature's children sweet, Bird melodious, or bird fair, Be absent hence. THE PRIMROSE. J. FLETCHER. Ask me why I send you here Ask me why I send to you This primrose all bepearled with dew? I will whisper in your ears The sweets of love are washed with tears. Ask me why this flower does shew So yellow green, and sickly too? And bending, yet it doth not break? What fainting hopes are in a lover. HERRICK. |