HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



99 



extensively sold at Athens in a market appropriated 

 for their disposal ; even in the cold season violets were 

 to be seen there — for Aristophanes, in his Seasons, 

 speaking of the glories of that luxurious city, says : 



" There you shall at mid winter see 

 ******* 



wreaths of fragrant violets. 

 Covered with dust as if in summer." 



Yitruvius, a celebrated writer, who flourished under 

 Julius Ccesar, tells us that the flowers of the violet 

 were not only used to adulterate or counterfeit the 

 celebrated blue of Athens, but were also employed to 

 moderate hunger, to cure ague and inflammation of the 

 lungs, &c, and the blossoms worn as garlands were 

 considered as a charm against falling sickness. The 

 Romans used to put large quantities of violet petals 

 into casks, and cover them with good wine ; from 

 this infusion they procured a drink called Violatum, 

 which was only used on festive occasions. The petals 

 of roses were also used in the same fashion, and called 

 Rosaltum. Pliny gives a long list of the virtues of this 

 flower. The ancients believed the seed counteracted 

 the effect; of scorpions' stings. The violet has been 

 in all ages a favourite flower, and is recognised by the 

 poets as the emblem of modesty and innocence. 

 Spencer calls it the cool violet, and Shakespeare 

 compares the soft strains of plaintive music to its 

 perfume. 



" That strain again ; it had a dying fall. 



O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, 

 That breathes upon a bank of violets. 

 Stealing and giving odour." — Twelfth Xiglit. 



And again, the touching remark of Ophelia, who 

 coloured all nature with hues of her own sad thoughts, 

 "I would give you violets, but they withered all when 

 my father died." Milton makes echo dwell amongst 

 violets : 



" Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph that lives unseen, 

 By slow Meander's margent green 

 And in the violet embroider'd vale." 



From Googes' translation of that old work, the 

 Popish Kingdom, we find that the violet was among 

 the flowers used in the ceremony called " creeping to 

 the cross "on Good Friday, and, no doubt, it was 

 present in all the old floral usages of spring in " days 

 gone by." Our old botanist Gerard mentions several 

 kinds of violets in his Herbal, but the sweet violet he 

 says has a great prerogative above all others, for one 

 reason he states, "because they are delightful to look 

 upon, and pleasant to smell too. They also bring to 

 the mind the remembrance of all kinds of virtues. 

 For it would be unseemlie for him that doth look 

 upon and handle faire and beautiful things, and who 

 frequenteth and is conversant in faire and beautiful 

 things to have his mind not faire — but filthee and 

 deformed." In the reign of Charles II. a conserve 

 called violet sugar, or violet plate, was sold by 

 apothecaries, and continually recommended by phy- 

 sicians to their consumptive patients. 



This flower has been made the badge of political 



feeling in France, the violet being the emblem of the 

 liberal party. In 1814 many pictures were circulated 

 in France which appeared to represent merely a 

 bunch of most innocent violets, but a little scrutiny 

 of the shadows cast by the violets enabled any one 

 looking for such a thing to discover portraits of the 

 first Napoleon and his wife and son — (vide " Flower 

 Lore.") The violet was the favourite flower with 

 Napoleon the first ; and the Bonapartists, during the 

 banishment of their chief to Elba, while plotting for 

 his return, filled their snuff-boxes with violet-scented 

 snuff, and when offering a pinch would significantly 

 enquire : Do you love this perfume ? and at the time 

 when he was expected to return to France, they 

 toasted his health under the name of Caporal Violetta 

 or the flower that returns with the spring. 



Botanically, the violet belongs to the order Violacese. 

 which contains about a hundred species spread over 

 the greater part of the globe, but is limited in Europe 

 to the single genus Viola, containing several varieties, 

 as the marsh violet ( V. palustris), hairy violet ( V. 

 hirta), dog violet ( V. canina) — {V. tricolor) heart's- 

 ease or pansy — all (except V. odorata) with scentless 

 flowers. In all the British violets, except the pansy, 

 the perfect flowers seldom set their fruit ; but if a plant 

 is examined during the summer and autumnal months, 

 large capsules, containing fertile seeds, will be found 

 produced by minute flowers almost without petals or 

 stamens. 



It was the violet which induced John Bertram, a 

 Quaker of Pennsylvania, and the friend and patron of 

 Alexander Wilson, to study plants. He had employed 

 his time in agricultural pursuits without the know- 

 ledge of botany, but one day he gathered a violet, 

 examined its formation, and reflected upon it until he 

 became so prepossessed with the flower that he dreamed 

 of it. This circumstance inspired him with a desire of 

 becoming acquainted with plants, he therefore learned 

 for that purpose as much Latin as was necessary, and 

 soon became the most learned botanist of the new 

 world. The colour extracted from the violet by in- 

 fusion affords the very delicate test called violet paper 

 used by chemists for acids and alkalies, being reddened 

 by the former, and rendered green by the latter. 

 Syrup of violets is greatly used by confectioners for 

 making confections, candies, &c, also by perfumers for 

 scenting oils, pomades, and making Eau desViolettes- 

 Large quantities of violets used to be cultivated at 

 Stratford-upon-Avon for this purpose. The root, or 

 rather the underground stem, has a strong smell, 

 particularly when dried, and its taste is acrid, bitter 

 and nauseous. 



Professor Burkman states, that in some parts of 

 Gloucestershire the violet is considered unlucky to 

 have in the house, the reason alleged being that these 

 flowers "certainly brought in fleas." Probably the 

 warmer weather of spring which ushers in the violet, 

 said to be "a stinking flower" by the foxhunter. 

 causes the troublesome little insect to be hatched. 



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