116 OCCASIONAL PAPERS. 



IX. VIOLETS. 



Read before the Folkestone Natural History Society, 

 at Saltwood, June 6th, 1879. 



" Spring Violets ! " says Miss Pratt in her 

 " Flowering Plants of Great Britain " ; " What lover 

 of the country is not gladdened by their coming ?" 

 I leave the question to be answered by those whose 

 hearts have been gladdened by the balmy (?) days of 

 the late spring, if they have noticed such a season. 

 True the Violet is essentially a spring flower, asso- 

 ciated with verdant banks, young lambs, and the 

 warbling of birds under a blue and sunny sky ; at 

 least so we have been taught. I suppose such things 

 have been in the past, in the good old times, just as 

 there have been fairies and Arabian Nights. Now, 

 alas ! all are fled. 



When I first thought of writing a few lines about 

 Violets, I felt in duty bound to keep up old traditions, 

 and had already made a choice selection from poets 

 and others of suitable phrases, such as " the velvet 

 foot of Spring," " balmy breeze," " vernal airs," 

 " the kisses of the April wind," &c., &c. I sat 

 down it was on the ninth of May in the present 

 year of our nineteenth century the century of pro- 



