Chap. 14.] THE VIOLET. 317 



CHAP. 13.- HOW SEED IS STAINED TO PRODUCE TINTED FLOWERS. 



There has been invented 95 also a method of tinting the lily, 

 thanks to the taste of mankind for monstrous productions. 

 The dried stalks 96 of the lily are tied together in the month of 

 July, and hung up in the smoke : then, in the following 

 March, when the small knots 97 are beginning to disclose them- 

 selves, the stalks are left to steep in the lees of black or Greek 

 wine, in order that they may contract its colour, and are then 

 planted out in small trenches, some semi-sextarii of wine-lees 

 being poured around them. By this method purple lilies are 

 obtained, it being a very remarkable thing that we should be 

 able to dye a plant to such a degree as to make it produce a 

 coloured flower. 



CHAP. 14. (6.) HOW THE SEVEKAL VARIETIES OF THE VIOLET 

 ARE RESPECTIVELY PRODUCED, GROWN, AND CULTIVATED. THE 

 THREE DIFFERENT COLOURS OF THE VIOLET. THE FIVE VARIETIES 

 OF THE YELLOW VIOLET. 



Kext after the roses and the lilies, the violet is held in the 

 highest esteem : of this there are several varieties, the pur- 

 ple, 98 the yellow, and the white, all of them reproduced from 

 plants, like the cabbage. The purple violet, which springs 

 up spontaneously in sunny spots, with a thin, meagre soil, has 

 larger petals than the others, springing immediately from the 

 root, which is of a fleshy substance. This violet has a name, 

 too, distinct from the other wild kinds, being called "ion," " 

 and from it the ianthine * cloth takes its name. 



Among the cultivated kinds, the yellow 2 violet is held in the 

 greatest esteem. The Tusculan violet, and that known as the 



95 Fee remarks, that the extravagant proceeding here described by 

 Pliny with a seriousness that is perfectly ridiculous, does iiot merit any 

 discussion. 



96 When detached from the bulb, the stem of the lily will infallibly die. 



97 "Nudantibus se nodulis." There are no such knots in the lily, as 

 Fee remarks. 



98 The Viola odorata of Linnaeus. l9 The Greek name. 



1 "lanthina vestis," violet-coloured. 



2 Desfontaines identifies this with the Cheiranthus Cheiri ; but Fee says 

 that there is little doubt that it belongs to the Viola tricolor herbensis 

 (pansy, or heart's-ease), in the petals of which the yellow predominates, 

 and the type of which is the field violet, or Viola arvensis, the flowers of 

 which are extremely small, and entirely yellow. 



