THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 3 



will not see the heart's-ease or pansy. The latter name is 

 a corruption of the French "pense'e," thought, though 

 why, in the language of flowers this modest violet should 

 come to have such significance, is past finding out. It 

 has, however, been attributed to the nodding or drooping 

 attitude of the flowers suggesting contemplation. The 

 sentiments attaching to flowers often seem quite forced 

 and fanciful even to the riotousty imaginative ; it is im- 

 possible even to guess their origin. 



Speaking of old gardens, some years ago we visited 

 Salem in midsummer. Next the quaint old house in which 

 we sojourned was an abandoned garden of a rich estate. 

 Wholly neglected in the absence of the owner, all sorts of 

 plants, both weeds and exotics, had sprung up simultan- 

 eously. Here could be seen the golden stars of coreopsis, 

 the white and crimson tints of holhdiocks with errant 

 bees encamped therein, the tropical blooin of yucca, inisty 

 sprays of red and white spirfeas, IdIuc columbine, lark- 

 spurs, monkshood, and no end ot pansies^ 



Perhaps in the long ago, Alice Pyncheon herself gath- 

 ered pansies in this garden » Nothing is A'oung in Salem. 

 Who knows ? We mused long and deep as we wandered 

 through the tangle, thinking of gable-roofed houses, witch 

 craft, the famous White murder, and man}' local incidents. 

 The plants grew with a rich luxuriousness, \vhich, under 

 cultivation they might not have attained. For us the 

 confusion was, more charming that the set beds of foliage 

 plants one now sees everywhere, very prim, ver}'- harmon- 

 ious, but certainly not natural. We are so pre-Raphaelite 

 as to admire Nature. She weaves her mats much as do the 

 Persians, without much apparent thought of the result. 

 She does not ask whether such and such colors will blend 

 or contrast, but simply puts them together. Should we 

 attempt to imitate either the oriental or the Good 

 Mother, the chances are that w^e might have to chronicle 

 a conspicuous failure. There is perhaps a subtle design 

 under a kaleidoscopic effect. 



The colors exhibited by pansies are most extraordin- 



