JUNE. 185 



" Thus the uses of the plant, as well as its exquisite beauty, have 

 attracted attention wherever it occurs — and it is by no means sparingly 

 distributed. Aboo Rumi, the eastern poet, exclaims ; ' It is not a 

 flower — it is an emerald bearing a purple gem ! ' And it has been 

 said that the Arabs expressively describe the eye of a beautiful woman 

 by comparing it to a Violet. The ancient Greeks attributed to the 

 goddess of beauty, ' Violet-like eyelids,' and Shakespeare speaks of — 

 " ' Violets dim, 

 But sweeter thau the lids of Juno's eyes.' 



Comparisons which we may refer rather to the delicate tinting of 

 purple which gives so great a charm to some eyelids, especially to those 

 of little babies, rather than to the ancient practice of imitating this 

 tinge by colouring the eyelids with powder of antimony, to which some 

 commentators have attributed it : since the black kohl or antimony 

 cannot well be compared in colour to the Violet. 



" Shakespeare alludes to a very old belief, and one which we find 

 frequently and variously expressed, when he says : 



* * " ' Lay her i' the earth, 



And from her fair and unpolluted flesh 



May Violets spring.' 



" Or, as Herrick has it — 



" ' From her happy spark, here let 

 Spring the purple Violet.' 



" Partly perhaps for this reason the Violet, supreme in its sweetness, 

 finds its place with these and other sweet-smelling herbs in the grave- 

 vards of Wales ; and the Romans called the days set apart for decking 

 their graves with flowers ' Dies violaris. y In allusion to this use of 

 the flower, Shelley says : — 



" ' Lilies for a bridal bed, 



Roses for the matron's head, 

 Violets for a maiden dead.' 

 " And, again, — 



" ' His head was bound with Pansies overblown, 

 And faded Violets, white, pied, and blue.' 



" The Violet was a great favourite with the Greeks, claiming, 

 according to Theocritus, the earliest place in the flowers chosen for the 

 wreath ; and Homer, as translated by Cowper, says : — 



* " ' Everywhere appeared 



Meadows of softest verdure, purpled o'er 

 With Violets ; it was a scene to fill 

 A god from heaven with wonder and delight.' 



" Athens was noted for its love of Violets. Aristophanes (Knights) 

 ?ays, ' he lives in the ancient Violet-crowned Athens ; ' and (Acharn), 

 ' first they called you (Athenians) Violet-crowned.' The same epithet 

 was applied to the Muses, and Homer even calls Venus 'crowned 

 with Violets.' 



" Athenseus, like other ancient writers, speaks of the use of Violets for 

 chaplets ; but in another place, he pretends that they were excluded 

 from banquets because they affected the head by their scent. In this, 

 however, he is contradicted by Plmy ; and Plutarch more distinctly says 



