88 PANSY, VIOLA AND VIOLET 



"Wordsworth compares the sweetness of a maiden by 

 reference to 



" A Violet by a mossy stone 

 Half hidden from the eye, 

 Fair as a star, when only one 

 Is shining in the sky," 



a most delightful method of conveying the impression he 

 desires to make. 



A pleasant retrospect is suggested in the lines by 

 Tennyson : 



" The smell of Violets hidden in the green 

 Pour'd back into my empty soul and frame 

 The times when I remember to have been 

 Joyful and free from blame." 



Although all these sing of the purple Violet and its 

 delicious fragrance, yet the yellow Violet is not forgotten 

 by one poet. 



" When beechen buds begin to swell, 

 And woods the blue-bird's warble know, 

 The yellow violet's modest bell 

 Peeps from the last year's leaves below. 



Ere russet fields their green resume, 

 Sweet flower, I love, in forest bare, 

 To meet thee, when thy faint perfume 

 Alone is in the virgin air. 



And when again the genial hour 

 Awakes the painted tribes of light, 

 I'll not o'erlook the modest flower 

 That made the woods of April bright." 



As a rule, when speaking of Violets one is apt to 

 think only of the purple-coloured varieties of Viola 

 odorata, which we are so accustomed to see in the 

 hedgerow, in our gardens, and on sale in the street ; 

 and to forget the existence of other forms of the Violet, 



