Flowers and Gardens 



still is there. And this, I believe, leads 

 Milton to call the Violet " glowing." If 

 it were not fragrant, the term would have 

 little meaning ; as it is, an idea suggests 

 itself that the flower is slowly burning, and 

 an aroma rising up from it like incense. 1 

 And it is singular to see what a very 

 faint perfume can give an impression of 

 warmth. We often smell carefully at 

 flowers without detecting the slightest 

 odour, or perhaps nothing more than we 

 find in the Snowdrop a cold, feeble, 

 unpleasant smell, like vegetable tissues 

 crushed, which is altogether nugatory. 

 But let there be real perfume, though 

 faint as that of the Pyrus japonica or 

 Crocus, and we recognise it at once as a 

 warm atmosphere about the flower. The 

 contrast between the Scented and the 

 Dog Violet is a very remarkable one. 

 How nearly they are alike in general 

 aspect, yet how wide a difference in the 

 details ! First there are the leaves. 

 Those of the Scented Violet you can tell 



1 [There is undoubtedly some correlation between the 

 scent and the heat of flowers. In several of the aroids 

 the rise of temperature can be measured at the same time 

 that the scent is most offensive. It is possible that this 

 may be in all flowers, but too slight to be measured ; and 

 it is only true with flowers scented leaves are not so 

 affected. H. N. E.] 



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