March 1, 1866.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



07 



BOTANY. 



Heartsease, or Pansy {Viola tricolor. Linn.). 

 — "This little Western flower" Shakespeare also 

 calls " Cupid's Flower,"— 



Yet mark'd I where the Bolt of Cupid fell, 



It fell upon a little Western flower, 



Before milk white, now purple with Love's wound, 



And maidens call it " Love in Idleness." 



and Spenser "The pretty Pawncee." It has re- 

 ceived many provincial names, such as " Three- 

 coloured Violet," "Herb of Trinity," "Three Eaces 

 in a Hood," " Cuddle me to you," " Kitty run the 

 Streets," "Jump up and kiss me," "Pinkeney 

 John," "Kiss behind the Garden Wall," "Step- 

 mother." In Italy, " Mother and Daughter." In 

 Germany, " Je linger je leiber" — The longer the bet- 

 ter; also, "Dayfaltig keits blume "— Three-folden- 

 ness Mower. In fact, every country in Europe 

 Las given this favourite flower a pel name, with the 

 exception of Scotland. It was called " Heartsease " 

 long ago ; by that name it was given as a love 

 token in the Court of Henry VIII. Bullein's " Bul- 

 wark e " was written in 1562, and where he alludes 

 to this flower, he says, " some call it ' Heartsease.' ' 

 His account of it is curious : " Pansies, or Three 

 Eaces in a Hodde. — This herb is called 'Herba 

 Trinitatis,' but I read in an old monkish Herbal, 

 wherein the author writteth that this herb sig- 

 nifyethe the Holy Trinitye, and thus he made his 

 allegorie :—" This flower is but one, in which,' said 

 be, ' be three sundrye colours, and yet but one 

 sweete savour. To God is three distinct persons in 

 one undivided Trinitye, united together in one eter- 

 nal glory and divine majestie, &c.' It is caDed 

 ' Herba Trinitatis ' because it has three colours, yet 

 the old Pagan writers did call it ' Jupiter's Herbe,' 

 because of the beauty of its colours." Our Pansy- 

 is obviously a corruption from the Erench pensee. 

 Ophelia says, "There's pansies, that's for thoughts." 

 In " Elowers and their Associations," see the fol- 

 lowing remarks : — " The name of pensee is retained 

 in Erance, and to the Erench this flower conveys a 

 far different meaning than that which it conveys to 

 us. Its familiar name of Heartsease renders it a 

 pleasing emblem; to our neighbours, its name of 

 Thought presents a sad one. 'May they be far from 

 thee ' is a motto affixed to the little painted group 

 of Pensee flowers mingled with Marygolds (Souci) 

 sometimes given as an offering to friends by a Erench 

 lady." Agnes Strickland relates that Francis I. 

 brought into fashion an enigmatical allusion to the 

 Pansy. In Hall's account of the Eield of the Cloth 

 of Gold, the Erench king and his baud were appa- 

 relled in purple satin branched with gold and purple 

 velvet embroidered with "Friers' knotts, and in every 

 knott were pansy flowers, which together signified 

 ' Think on Francis.' " Walpole says, the Heartsease 

 grows profusely on the plains], round Mount Leba- 



non; why did he not add the name there given to 

 it ?— 8. C. 



The Apricot-Tree was first brought to England 

 from Italy, in the year 1521, by Woolf, gardener of 

 Henry VIII., who, it appears, introduced several 

 valuable fruits about the same period. — Gough's 

 British Topography. 



The Horse-Chestnut was first brought from 

 the northern parts of Asia into Europe, about the 

 year 1550, according to Martin's edition of " Miller," 

 and was sent to Vienna about the year 1558 ; but of 

 this statement we are doubtful, as it was certainly 

 not introduced into Erench Flanders before the year 

 1576, when C. Clusius, a celebrated botanist of 

 Arras, received it from the Imperial Ambassador 

 at the Porte, together with a considerable variety 

 of trees new to Europe ; but the horse-chestnut 

 and the cherry-laurel were the only two he suc- 

 ceeded in rearing. — Phillips's Fruits of Great 

 Britain. 



Iodine as a Re-agent. — The Rev. W. A. 

 Leighton calls our attention to an error in our 

 last (p. 12), iu which, instead of six ounces of 

 distilled water, the quantity should have been 

 stated as half an ounce. We copied the error 

 from the same source as the communication. 



LinNjEtjs' System. — It is stated that the Aca- 

 demy of Sciences at Stockholm are about to publish 

 a photo-lithographic fac-simile of the first edition of 

 Linnams' " Systema Naturae." 



Curious Growth of an Oak. — At the village 

 of Soothill, about seven miles from Leeds, there 

 now stands an old oak, which is quite a curiosity in 

 the surrounding district, on account of the fantastic 

 manner in which two of the boughs have grown 

 together ; thus, the lower bough is perforated by 

 the upper, which projects through it at least afoot, 

 and as they both have their point of bifurcation at 

 the same place, and the topmost branch is in the 

 form of a bow, the result of this conformation is the 

 figure of a harp, with only one string, which is called 

 by the country people "David's Harp." Can any 

 correspondent inform me whether any such peculiar 

 manner of growth has been noticed in other parts 

 of the country, and by what means one thick branch 

 should be able to grow through the centre of 

 another ? — H. A. A. 



Botanical Congress. — An International Horti- 

 cultural Exhibition and Botanical Congress is an- 

 nounced to be held in London, in May, 1866. The 

 Congress will be restricted to two morning meetings, 

 when papers, previously printed and accompanied 

 by translations, will be read and discussed. The 

 chair will be taken by M. Alphonse de Candolle, 

 who will deliver an opening address. Dr. Berthold 

 Seemann is honorary secretary to the Congress, to 

 whom any communications should be addressed. 



