DAME'S VIOLET 17 



veined White Butterfly (P. napi), Halictus leucopns, H. albicans, 



pellucens, Rliingia. 



There are two large, green, fleshy honey-glands at the base of 

 the short stamens, well developed internally, and the honey collects 

 between the pistil and base of three stamens each side. The longer 

 anthers fill the entrance of the flower, and when withered project, 

 while the shorter stand inside below them, opening close to the stigma, 

 afterwards protruding. The pistil is elongated, and the anthers thus 

 opening internally, cover the stigma with pollen. When insects visit 

 the flowers at the right time they cross-pollinate them, honey-seekers 

 touching the stamens and stigma on opposite sides of the proboscis, 

 and this happens in the case of pollen-seekers occasionally. 



Dame's Violet disperses its seed itself. The dry pod opens and 

 the seeds fall out around the plant by tension of the valves, or are 

 blown away by the wind. 



Requiring a sand soil, or partly a humus soil, it is a sand lover. 

 There are no fungi which are parasitic upon it. The butterflies and 

 moths, Large White (Picris brassicec], Orange-tip (Euchloe Carda- 

 mines), Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia), Buff Ermine (Spilo- 

 sonia lubricipeda), Plutella porrectella, feed upon it. 



Pliny applied the name Hesperis, Greek kcspera, evening; and 

 the Latin matronalis means Dame's. 



The English names are: Close Sciences, Damask Violet, Dame's 

 Violet, Double Sciney, Eveweed, Gilliflower, (Dame's, Queen's, Rogue's, 

 Whitsun, Winter) Rocket, (Red, White) Rocket, Sciney, Summer Lilac. 

 Because ladies in Germany were said to put pots of it in their 

 boudoirs it is called Dame's Violet. Sciney is a contraction for 

 Damascena, once its specific name. The name Eveweed refers to 

 its sweet scent at night. 



It is cultivated as a garden plant, but it does not remain double- 

 flowered any length of time. In the garden it needs a good loamy 

 soil. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



30. Hesperis matronalis, L. Stem erect, tall, branched above, 

 pubescent, leaves oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, dentate, flowers lilac, 

 scented, calyx erect, pedicels twice as long, pods tetragonal, stigma 

 lobed. 



17 



