VIOLET TRIBE 83 



The south wind that came over the l)e(l of Violets — the touching remark of 

 Ophelia, who coloured all nature with the hues of her own sad thoughts, " I 

 would give you Violets, but they withered all when my father died :" these 

 and many another sweet poetic passage, serve to show how men in all ages 

 have prized our spring flower. Which of us could spare the Violet from the 

 memories of early life 1 And how many of us are even now reminded by its 

 passing scent of scenes wdiich may never be revisited, but whose verdure and 

 sunshine and song make a picture on which the eye of the mind can linger 

 as long as life itself shall last. The Violet is so associated with green 

 meadows speckled .over with lambs, and woods made musical with voices of 

 singing birds and softly breathing winds, that many a lover of Nature can 

 respond to the expression of Willis : — 



" I have found Violets, April liatli come on ; 

 And the cool winds feel softer, and the rain 

 Falls in the beaded drops of summer-time. 

 Yoii may hear birds at morning and at even ; 

 The tame dove lingers till the twilight falls, 

 Cooing upon the eaves, and drawing in 

 His beautiful bright neck ; and from the hills 

 A murmur, like the roaring of the sea, 

 Tells the release of waters ; and the earth 

 Sends up a pleasant smell, and the dry leaves 

 Are lifted by the grass, — and so I know 

 That Nature with her delicate ear hath heard 

 The di'opping of the velvet foot of Spring. 

 Smell of my Violets ! I found them where 

 The liquid south stole o'er them, on a bank 

 That lean'd to running water. There's to me 

 A daintiness about these early flowers 

 That touches me like poetry ; they blow 

 With such a simple loveliness among 

 The common herbs of pasture, and breathe out 

 Their lives so unobtrusively, like hearts 

 Whose beatings are too gentle for this world. 



" I love to go in the capricious days 

 Ot April, and hunt Violets ; when the rain 

 Is in their blue cups trembling, and they nod 

 So gi'acefully to the kisses of the wind. 

 It may be deem'd unmanly, but the wise 

 Read Nature like the manuscript of heaven. 

 And call the flowers its poetry." 



The Sweet Violet is rare in Scotland, and is thought by some botanists 

 not to be truly indigenous to that country. It occurs, however, in most of 

 the countries of Europe. The Violets of Athens and of Psestum have had 

 their praises sung by poets, and these flowers still attract the eye of the 

 traveller among the ruins of Rome. The mechanism of the Violet flower is 

 well worthy of special attention. The tube formed around the pistil by the 

 edges of the anthers coming into close contact, and the extension forwards of 

 the connective, provides a chamber in which the dry pollen is retained after 

 being discharged from the anthers. The spurs from the lower stamens have 

 become honey-excreting organs, and these lie in the hollow spur formed by 

 a backward extension of the lower petal. The bent style with its enlarged 

 head (stigma) occupies the centre of the flower, and a long-tongued bee reach- 

 ing after the honey presses his hairy head against the stigma. In getting at 



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