HEART'S EASE. 



Viola Tricolor. 

 (For Viola, see Violet.) 



Viola tricolor, or Pansy Violet, from the French pen- 

 see, thought. 



And there are Pansies, that's for thoughts. 



Shaks. Hamlet. 



And thou, so rich in gentle names, appealing 

 To hearts that own our nature's common lot; 



Thou, styl'd by sportive fancy's better feeling, 

 ". thought," "the Heart's Ease," or "Forget me 

 not." Barton. 



And faith that a thousand ills can brave, 

 Speaks in the blue leaves, Forget me not. 



Percival. 



And the Pansy freakt with jet; 

 The glowing violet. Milton. 



The V. Tricolor, is a beautiful variety of the violet) 

 differing from it, in the variety of its colouring, the petals 

 being chiefly yellow, variegated with black and purple. Its 

 fragrance is very inferior, and too weak to be regarded in 

 a single flower. It is a native of Europe, North America, 

 &c. The root is annual, but it renews itself readily from the 

 scattering seeds, so as to keep up a continual bloom all the 

 year; even in the depths of winter, in a warm situation, it 

 may be seen beautifully contrasted with the white snow, 

 which surrounds it. 



There are many varieties of the blue and purple Heart's 

 Ease to be found all over North America. I cannot forbear 

 giving in the Bard's own beautiful language the fanciful origin 

 of its colour. 



I saw 



Flying between the cold Moon and the Earth, 

 Cupid all arm'd; a certain aim he took 

 At a fair vestal, throned by the west; 

 And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow, 

 As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts: 

 But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft 

 Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry Moon; 

 And the Imperial vot'ress passed on, 

 In Maiden meditation, fancy free. 

 Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: 

 It fell upon a little western flower, 

 Before milk-white; now purple with Love's wound, 

 And Maidens call it Love in Idleness. 

 The juice of it, on sleeping eye-lids laid, 

 Will make or Man or Woman madly doat 

 Upon the next live creature that it sees. 



Shaks. Mid. JV. Dream. 



In gardens oft a beauteous flow'r there grows, 



By vulgar eyes unnoticed, or unseen 



In sweet security it humbly blows, 



And rears its purple head to deck the green. 



This Flower, (as Nature's Poet sweetly sings,) 

 Was once milk-white, and Heart's Ease was its name, 

 Till wanton Cupid poised his roseate wings 

 A vestal's sacred bosom to inflame. 



With treacherous aim the God his arrow drew, 

 Which she with icy coldness did repel 

 Rebounding thence, with feathery speed it flew, 

 Till on this lovely flow'r at last it fell. 



Heart's Ease no more the wand'ring shepherd found, 

 No more the Nymphs its snowy form possess 

 Its white now changed to purple, by Love's wound, 

 Heart's Ease no more, 'tis " Love in Idleness." 



Mrs. R. B. Sheridan. 



HELIOTROPE; or, TURNSOLE. 

 Heliotropium. 



Heliotropium, L. from the Greek >ixic;, the sun, and 

 re-a-oj, to turn, " because," says Dioscorides, " it turns its 

 leaves round with the declining sun." 



This flower has been confounded with the Helianthus, 

 or Sun-flower, but is of a different genus. Both have had 

 ascribed to them the property of turning towards the sun, 

 and following his course round the horizon. A property not 

 confined to these flowers alone, as other plants do the same, 

 in a more or less degree, particularly when confined in a 

 room, turning the shining surface of their leaves, and bend- 

 ing their whole branches to catch the light. 



It is surprising that two flowers so unlike, as the Sun- 

 Flower and Heliotrope, should ever have been mistaken 

 for each other. The blossoms of the Sun-Flower are too 

 well known to need a description here; those of the Helio- 

 trope, are very small, delicate, fragrant blossoms, generally 

 of a faint purple colour, or white, sometimes red, and bluish 

 white. It is made to be yellow, and confounded with the 

 Sun-flower in the following lines 



Browne. 



What yellow, lovely as the golden morn, 

 The lupine, and the heliotrope adorn. 



The snowy rose is there 



A silver moon, the heliotrope a Sun! 



Jlndrein's -Adam. 



The fabulous account of the origin of the Heliotrope, is, 

 that Clytia (daughter of Oceanus) being deserted by Apollo, 

 with whom she was enamoured, pined away, and was changed 

 into a flower commonly called sun-flower, which still turns 

 its head towards the Sun, in his course, as in pledge of her 

 love. Ovid says of her 



All day, all night, in trackless wilds, alone 

 She pin'd and taught the list'ning rocks her moan. 

 On the bare earth she lies, her bosom bare, 

 Loose her attire, dishevell'd is her hair. 



* * # # 



She turn'd about, but rose not from the ground, 

 Turn'd to the Sun, still as he roll'd his round : 



