ORDER MONOGYNIA. 215 



It is said, the Persian vine-dressers endeavour to make the 

 vine run up the wall, and curl over on the other side, which 

 they do, by tying stones to the extremity of the tendrils. A 

 writer remarking upon this, thinks it may illustrate a passage 

 in Genesis. " Joseph is a fruitful bough ; even a fruitful bough 

 by a well; whose branches run over the wall." " The vine, 

 particularly in Turkey and Greece, is frequently made to en- 

 twine on trellises around a well, where, in the heat of the day, 

 whole families collect themselves and sit under their shade." 



In this class and order is the violet (viola), a genus which 

 contains.many native species. The garden violet is the viola 

 tricolour. It has a variety of common names, as pansy, hearts- 

 ease, &c. Pansy is a corruption of the French pense'e, a 

 thought ; thus Shakspeare, in the character of Ophelia, says, 



" There's rosemary, that's for remembrance ; 



And these are pansies ; 

 ' That's for thought." 



Shakspeare also calls the same flower Love in idleness. You 

 will find the blue violet (viola ccerulia), among the first flowers 

 of spring ; our meadows present a great variety of beautiful 

 and fragrant violets. 



Poets are very fond of the Primrose (Primula), so called 

 from primus, first, on account of its early appearance in the 

 spring. . But the primrose of the poets is not a native plant 

 with us. The cinnamon-rose is frequently, though improper- 

 ly called primrose. The English cowslip is a species of Pri- 

 mula, having the segments of its corolla spotted with a rich 

 yellow colour, which Shakspeare seemed to suppose contained 

 the fragrance of the flower. Thus in the Midsummer Night's 

 Dream ; the Fairy says, 



" I serve the fairy queen, 

 To dew her orbs upon the green : 

 The cowslips tall her pensioners be ; 

 In their gold coats spots you see ; 

 Those be rubies, fairy favours, 

 In those freckles live their savours ; 

 I must go seek some dew drops here, 

 And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear." 



The American cowslip belongs to the genus Caltlia, which 

 is in the class Polyandria. 



Violet Primrose Cowslip. * 



