Proserpina, Volume 2 - Studies Of Wayside Flowers by John Ruskin
page 78 of 120 (65%)
page 78 of 120 (65%)
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and Italy.
* * * * * CHAPTER V. BRUNELLA. 1. It ought to have been added to the statements of general law in irregular flowers, in Chapter I. of this volume, § 6, that if the petals, while brought into relations of inequality, still retain their perfect petal form,--and whether broad or narrow, extended or reduced, remain clearly _leaves_, as in the pansy, pea, or azalea, and assume no grotesque or obscure outline,--the flower, though injured, is not to be thought of as corrupted or misled. But if any of the petals lose their definite character as such, and become swollen, solidified, stiffened, or strained into any other form or function than that of petals, the flower is to be looked upon as affected by some kind of constant evil influence; and, so far as we conceive of any spiritual power being concerned in the protection or affliction of the inferior orders of creatures, it will be felt to bear the aspect of possession by, or pollution by, a more or less degraded Spirit.[30] 2. I have already enough spoken of the special manifestation of this character in the orders Contorta and Satyrium, vol. i., p. 91, and the reader will find the parallel aspects of the Draconidæ dwelt upon at length in the 86th and 87th paragraphs of the 'Queen of the Air,' where also their relation to the labiate group is touched upon. But I am far more embarrassed by the symbolism of that group which I called 'Vestales,' from their especially domestic character and their serviceable purity; but which |
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