186 THE FLORIST. 



' its exhalations greatly assist in removing the affections of the head 

 caused by wine.' Athenaeus states that at Cyrene the scent of the 

 Violet is ' especially strong and divine, as is that of other flowers there, 

 excepting the Crocus ; ' a statement probably borrowed from Theophrastus. 

 He also assigns to ' the black Violet the most agreeable scent.' 



" The old Greek poets, in their admiration of the Violet, prettily 

 feigned that when Io was changed into a cow, the earth ' honouring her,' 

 brought forth the Violet for her to feed upon ; and Jane Taylor, in her 

 delightful ' Nursery Rhymes,' as prettily, though quite unintentionally, 

 re-echoes the idea of its being a favourite food of the cow : — 



" ' Where the purple Violet blows, 

 Pretty cow go there and dine.' 



" Nicander, however, ignores this fable, and substitutes for it the 

 legend already mentioned. 



" There is, probably, no land in which the Violet grows — and it 

 abounds in every part of Europe, in Barbary, Palestine, Japan, China, 

 and America — in whose language its praises have not been sung. The 

 Welsh poet says : — 



" ' Beautiful are Violets on the broken bank 

 When starting into sudden bloom ; 

 All trustfully they smile upon the snow 

 That coldly shrouds the hills above. 



They are beautiful ! 



Ob, they are beautiful ! " 



"The American bard says : — 



" ' When its long rings uncurls the Fern, 

 The Violet nestling low, 

 Casts back the white lid of its urn, 



Its purple streaks to shew. 

 Beautiful blossom ! first to rise 

 And smile beneath spring's wakening skies, 



The courier of a band 

 Of coming flowers, what feelings sweet 

 Gush, as the silvery gem we greet 

 Upon its slender wand.' 



" Robert Storey, the Northumbrian poet, thus alludes to the 

 emblematic meaning attached to the Violet in common with other blue 

 flowers : — 



* * " ' Telling me in every wreath I made, 

 Not to omit the Violet, which meant truth.' 



"The Violet was the appropriate May-day prize bestowed on the 

 troubadour, or the minnie-singer of the olden time. Its place was 

 afterwards taken by a golden Violet; and a remembrance of the 

 custom survived in the Toulouse Academy cf Floral Games. 



"The words of Shakespeare — 



" ' To gild refined gold,' 

 are familiar to every one, but we seldom recollect that the illustration 

 is, to the full, as apt when he pronounces it an equally — 



" ' Wasteful and ridiculous excess 

 To throw a perfume on the Violet.' 



" This perfume, according to Lord Bacon, may be preserved for a 

 year or more by repeatedly infusing the petals in vinegar. 



