58 GUERNSE Y. 
Reseda odorata, the Mignonette of our gardens, is a native of Egypt, 
and found its way to us through France, where it was called 
Mignonette, or Little Darling. Cowper, in the Zask, speaks of ‘the 
fragrant weed, the Frenchman’s darling.’ 
(Helianthemum guttatum, Mill., a plant unknown in Britain 
proper, occurs in profusion on the cliffs in Alderney.) 
(Helianthemum vulgare, Gaert. Common Rock Rose. In 
Major H. Smith’s annotated copy of the Alora Sarnica there is 
this note: ‘Mr. Field states that he saw it (Crstus Hleltanthemumy) 
growing sparingly on Pleinmont, to the northward of the old house.’ 
If this plant really occurred there fifty years ago, it should still be 
found, as no great alteration has taken place in that part of the 
island. ) 
VIOLACEAE. 
Viola Riviniana, Reich. Dog Violet. 
Native. First record: Gosselin, 1865. 
Very common in hedgebanks and on the cliffs. Both Gosselin 
and Babington record it under the old aggregate name of V. canzna. 
VY. Reichenbachiana has not been found in these islands ; the Moulin 
Huet plant, which I recorded as such in 1891, was merely an 
unusual form of the present species. 
In Normandy this plant is called J/Zartinets, and in the Guernsey 
patois it is known, according to Métivier, by the name of Cowcou, or 
Pain a’ Coucou, the latter term being applied in France to the Wood 
Sorrel. Tradition says that the Violet sprang from the body of Io, 
and it is to this that Shakespeare alludes in Hames, v. 1. :— 
* Lay her?’ the earth= 
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh 
May violets spring!’ | 
Viola tricolor, L. Fleartsease. Pansy. 
Colonist First record: Gosselin, 1815. 
Very rare. Lane between Les Annevilles (vir.) and Mont Saint, 
about twenty plants at the foot of a hedge in a length of fitty yards. 
In a field near Pulias (Andrews). Possibly the plant was more 
plentiful formerly, as Gosselin notes it, and so does Babington,. 
though the latter does not mention having found the var. avvemszs in 
Guernsey. Var. arvensis, Murr. Common in cultivated ground 
throughout the island. 
The word Pansy comes, as every one knows, from the French 
sensée— There’s pansies, that’s for thoughts,’ Hamle¢, iv. 5—but it 
was written in various ways in Shakespeare’s day, e.g., pawnce, 
panzie, and pancye. Lyte speaks of ‘the pances or hartes ease,’ 
which he says is also called ‘love in idlenesse.’ Shakespeare gives 
a poetical account of the origin of this pretty flower in some compli- 
