RED CAMPION 21 



The Violet was dedicated to Venus. 



In Greece violets were worn in the chaplet because it was imagined 

 they dispelled the fumes of wine and drove away headaches. Its sweet 

 scent is employed in perfumery. The petals are used in syrup given 

 to children. It had many fanciful qualities in mediaeval times. Thus, 

 " stamped with water it casts out a broken bone ". 



The root is emetic, being employed as a substitute for ipecacuanha. 

 The syrup is used by chemists as a test for acids or alkalies, being 

 cultivated at Stratford-on-Avon for that purpose. The Violet is 

 laxative. Sherbet is supposed to have violet syrup as one of its 

 constituents. The Koran praises it, holding it, like the Prophet high 

 over men, superior to all other flowers. When dried the flowers are 

 used in bonbons, being candied. The seeds are diuretic, and pow- 

 dered were used for gravel and stone. 



The species is cultivated, and white and blue forms are equally 

 sweet-scented, while both single and double forms are produced. 



This plant was used as a beautifier to render the eye lustrous, 

 enlarging the pupil. The Grecian women colour their eyelids blue 

 with it, and make a preparation of it for the eyes. 



The Violet is a humus-loving plant requiring a humus soil, which 

 is obtained in woods and under hedge banks. It grows on a variety 

 of subsoils formed by different geological formations, both arenaceous 

 and oolitic. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



42. Viola odorata, L. Stem with stoles from axils of terminal 

 rosettes, creeping, leaves cordate, crenate, downy, flowers blue or 

 white, scented, spur straight, lance-shaped sepals obtuse, bracts above 

 middle of peduncles. 



Red Campion (Lychnis dioica, L.) 



This plant has been found in Interglacial, late Glacial, Neolithic, 

 and lacustrine deposits. To-day it is found in the Temperate and 

 Arctic Zones in Arctic Europe to the Caucasus, Siberia up to Lake 

 Baikal, and Greenland. It is found in every part of Great Britain, 

 except Hunts, Stirling, Main Argyll, and Caithness. 



In most of our English counties we look for the Red Campion in 

 early spring, with its pink blooms, springing up from the moist soil of 

 ditch or hedge bank. But there are in some districts wide areas where 

 it is entirely absent, and these same districts also lack its usual 

 associates elsewhere Dog's Mercury, and Lords-and- Ladies or 



