WILD FLOWEES OF 



days, and these alone can recall the past vision now. 

 -All ! there, as in olden days, still they are, on the 

 very same bank as erst I knew them, when stooping, 

 wond'ring, laughing, smelling, my first bouquet was 

 gathered, and the white and purple violets were 

 proudly marshalled in my hand, and blandly to all my 

 young compeers was the cry " Smell at my violets !" 

 Short, however, is the reign of the sweet March 

 violets ; they are lost like the charm of life's early 

 spring, and are succeeded by other more specious 

 violets without scent, the " Dog- Violet," that, like 

 the hopes of life, presents a fair picture, beautiful to 

 the eye, but deceptive in the expected realization. 

 There are, however, other violets that will rouse the 

 botanist to exertion, if they do not tempt the explo- 

 ration of the exciteful poet. A violet of fainter scent 

 than the genuine odorata may be often noticed with 

 its lateral petals devoid of hairs, and hence called 

 wiberbis ; and the hairy -leaved violet, Viola liirta, the 

 last of which is particularly fond of calcareous soil. 

 Then there is the delicate little marsh violet (V. pa- 

 lustris), that crouches its fair form amidst dripping 

 mosses and bogs ; and the Yellow Violet, that confines 

 itself to the bleak mountain side, and must be sought 

 among the misty heights of Siluria and Dimetia ; and 

 there are yet two other familiar violets that flower all 

 the summer in every waste spot common and value- 

 less as that universal production, advice the V. arven- 

 sis or field Violet, and the V. tricolor, Heartsease, or 

 three-coloured violet, from the latter of which all the 

 large and showy varieties of the garden Pansy have 

 originated 



" Heart's-ease, like a gallant bold, 

 In his cloth of purple and gold." 



