THE SWEET VIOLET. 



Viola odorata. Nat. Ord., Violacea". 



n ^ wild flower is so 



well known or such a general 

 favourite as the sweet violet, the 

 Viola odorata of the botanist. Its 

 fragrance betrays it to the rambler 

 by the country hedge-side, and has 

 made it no less attractive to the 

 townsman, for whose benefit hun- 

 dreds of thousands of its flowers are 

 regularly cultivated, the sale of which 

 has become a recognised street in- 

 dustry. 



The generic title has been by some 

 writers assigned a Celtic origin, but 

 as the plant is in Latin Viola, we 

 need hardly, perhaps, look much 

 farther afield for a derivation. The 

 name was first bestowed on the genus 

 by the great Linnaeus, and as by far 



the greater number of the names he assigned to various 

 plants are either Latin or Greek in their origin, we 

 may reasonably assume that in the present case he 

 more probably went to a classic than a Celtic source. 

 Odorata, the specific name, also Latin, we need scarcely 

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