C4 FLORA HISTORICA. 



Mycologists also tell us, that Proserpine was 

 gathering Violets as well as Narcissuses when she 

 was seized by Pluto. 



"Iov, the Greek name for this flower, is said to 

 have been given it because Io fed on Violets, when 

 she was transformed by Jupiter into a heifer : others 

 tell us that it was so called after some nymphs of 

 Ionia, who first presented these flowers to the Fa- 

 ther of the Gods. 



That the ancients were acquainted with ana- 

 grams, we learn by Lycophron, who lived in the 

 time of Ptolemy Philadelphia, about 280 years 

 before Christ. This Greek grammarian found, in 

 the name of Ptolemy, the Greek word for honey ; 

 and in that of the Queen Arsinoe, Violet of Juno. 

 It is through ancient anecdotes 



. The piercing eye explores 



The manners and the pomp of ancient days, 

 "Whence cnlls the pensive hard his pictured stores : 



Nor rough, nor barren, are the winding ways 

 Of hoar antiquity, but strewed with flowers. 



T. Warton. 



The sweet Violet, Viola odorata, when growing, 

 naturally, is found on banks where the soil is light, 

 and where it has partial shade. It seems to love a 

 mixture of chalk in the earth, as we have observed 

 that it propagates itself most rapidly in such situa- 

 tions, both by its runners, in the manner of straw- 

 berries, and also by seed. 



