16 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



and honest, — for flowers, througli their beauty, variety of colour, and exquisite forme, 

 do bring to a liberal and gentle manly mind the remembrance of honestie, comliness, 

 and all kinds of vertues ; for it would be an unseemly and filthy thing (as a certain wise 

 man saith) for him that doth look upon and handle faire and beautiful things to have 

 his mind not faire, but filthy and deformed." He goes on to enumerate the many 

 excellencies of his favourite flower as a medicine : " Syrup of Violets," says he, " is good 

 against inflammation of the lungs and brest, against pleurisie and cough." This belief 

 has not shared the fate of most of our good friend's remedies ; it is still given, and in 

 the country is a favourite medicine for coughs and hoarseness. The French make great 

 use of Violets in their confitures and household remedies; and we have seen and partaken of 

 a delicate sweetmeat composed simply of the Violet flower prepared with sugar, yet retain- 

 ing its delicious perfume. In the neighbourhood of Stratford-on- Avon Violets are largely 

 grown for the purposes of perfume and as a colouring agent. The syrup forms a prin- 

 cipal ingredient in the Oriental sherbet; and with this in view, probably, Mahomed asserts 

 that the Violet is as superior to other flowers as he himself claimed to be over the rest 

 of mankind. The association of the Violet with female beauty is of very ancient date; 

 for, long before we read of " violet-like eyelids," we are told that the Britons used them 

 as a cosmetic ; for in a Celtic poem extant they are recommended to be employed, 

 steeped in goat's milk, as a certain mode of increasing female beauty, perhaps by giving 

 the blue tinge of woad to the complexion, then so much admired. Thus we see that 

 it is not alone the external attractions of scent and beauty which have given its charm 

 to the Violet, but a certain notion of its value as a useful plant. Shakespeare alludes 

 to the Violet frequently and variously : — 



" Violets dim, 

 But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes." 



And again : — 



" Lay her i' the earth ; 

 And from her fair and unpolluted flesh 

 May Violets spring." 



Violets find a very constant place in churchyards and on the resting-places of the 

 dead, placed there by the hands of those who love to associate the ideas of purity and 

 beauty with departed loved ones. Shelley says, — 



" Lilies for a bridal bed, 

 Roses for the matron's head, 

 Violets for a maiden dead." 



The Violet was a great favourite with the Greeks. 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, — " ancient Violet-crowned Athens." 

 The same epithet was applied to the Muses ; and Homer even calls Venus loaTe<pavov, 

 — " crowned with Violets." Plutarch says : " Its exhalations greatly assist in removing 

 aflfections of the head caused by wine." The Violet was the appropriate May-day prize 

 bestowed on the troubadour, or the minnesinger of olden times. It was afterwards 



