18-1 TIIE FLORIST. 



VIOLETS. 



With me, Violets are held in great esteem. I was therefore quite 

 delighted to see Mr. Shrimpton's excellent paper on the Neapolitan 

 sort in your last number. In " Weeds and Wild Flowers " Lady- 

 Wilkinson has the following pleasant gossip about this my favourite 

 flower, which may not be uninteresting to your readers : — 



"'Violets,' says Gerarde, ' haue a great prerogative aboue others, 

 not only because the mind conceiueth a certain pleasure and recreation 

 by smelling and handling those more odoriferous floures, but also for 

 that verie manie of these Violets receiue ornament and comely grace, 

 for there be made of them garlands for the head, nosegaies, and posies, 

 which are delightful to look upon, and to smel to ; speaking nothing of 

 their appropriat virtues ; yea gardens themselves receiue by these the 

 greatest ornament of all, chiefest beauty, and most excellent grace, and 

 the recreation of the mind which is taken hereby cannot be but very 

 good and honest.' 



" Vitru\ius tells us that the flowers were not only used to adulterate 

 or counterfeit the celebrated blue of Athens, but were also employed to 

 ' moderate anger,' to cure ague and inflammation of the lungs, to allay 

 thirst, procure sleep, and ' comfort and strengthen the heart, as well as 

 for cooling plasters ; ' besides being worn as a charm against the 

 ' falling sickness,' and headaches ; and Pliny gives a long catalogue of 

 their virtues ; affirming that they are cooling, good for inflammation, 

 weak eyes, quinsey, swellings, &c, &c, and recommending garlands of 

 the blossoms to be worn for the preservation of the head. The seeds 

 were formerly believed to counteract the effects of a scorpion's sting. 

 The peasant mother — though she no longer uses the Violet in her 

 ' pottage ' — administers its syrup to her infant as a medicine suited to 

 its tender age ; the Moslem quaffs a similar preparation as one of his 

 favourite sherbets ; and the chemist employs it as his most delicate 

 test for acids or alkalis ; the former giving it a red tinge, and the 

 latter one of green. The French make the greatest use of the flowers 

 in their • confitures ' and household remedies ; and on turning over 

 Machet's ' Confiseur Moderne,' and works of a similar character, we 

 are surprised to find the frequency of receipts for conserve de violettes, 

 (/laces a la violelte, marmalade de violettes, Pains souffles a la violette 

 (in which, however, Prussian blue and carmine usually do duty for the 

 hue of the flower, while ' iris de Florence enpoudre ' represents its scent 

 and flavour) , Pastille a la violette, pates des violettes, gomme de violettes, 

 sirop de violettes, and numberless confections of a similar character. 



" The root of the sweet Violet, V. odorata, acts as a powerful emetic, 

 and is frequently used to adulterate ipecacuanha, and in fact the whole 

 of the Violacese are thus, though in various degrees, distinguished ; the 

 active principle of their roots, which is called violene, closely resembling 

 emetin. Sir William Hooker has satifactorily ascertained the Viola 

 Ipecacuanha, or the Ionidium parviflorum, to be the celebrated 

 ' Cuychunchulle ' of Dr. Bancroft. Pliny describes a liniment of Violet 

 roots and vinegar for gout and ' disorders of the spleen.' 



