Shelley describes it as one of the
flowers growing with the sensitive plant in that garden where:--
"The pied wind flowers and the tulip tall,
And narcissi, the fairest among them all,
Who gaze on their eyes in the stream's recess,
Till they die at their own dear loveliness."
The sycamore implies curiosity, from Zacchaeus, who climbed up into this
tree to witness the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem; and from
time immemorial the violet has been the emblem of constancy:--
"Violet is for faithfulness,
Which in me shall abide,
Hoping likewise that from your heart
You will not let it hide."
In some cases flowers seem to have derived their symbolism from certain
events associated with them. Thus the periwinkle signifies "early
recollections, or pleasures of memory," in connection with which
Rousseau tells us how, as Madame Warens and himself were proceeding to
Charmattes, she was struck by the appearance of some of these blue
flowers in the hedge, and exclaimed, "Here is the periwinkle still
in flower."
Thirty years afterwards the sight of the periwinkle in flower carried
his memory back to this occasion, and he inadvertently cried, "Ah, there
is the periwinkle." Incidents of the kind have originated many of the
symbols found in plant language, and at the same time invested them with
a peculiar historic interest.
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