1 64 May Pansies. 



trumpet and clash of cymbals ; it answers, also, in gas- 

 tronomy, to the hottest of London pickles, of which one 

 knows not which element is most fierce. 



I mentioned pansies just now, but did not stop to 

 dwell upon them. They have several notable merits 

 and pleasant associations. One of their merits is that 

 of variety. Hardly any plant in a wild state is so 

 various as the pansy ; other plants become various in 

 the hands of the horticulturist, who obtains curious 

 novelties by selection and culture, but Nature herself 

 does this with the pansy, and you have it purple, or 

 yellow, or whitish, or mixed in ways that it would be 

 an endless business to describe. Another merit is that 

 it flowers for many months ; unlike the broom, which 

 blazes only for a week or two, and is then completely 

 extinguished, like a fire that has burned itself out. 

 Then one likes the pansy for its pretty association with 

 kindly and affectionate thought, with the memory of 

 those we love who are separated from us by distance. 

 Pansy is the French word pensee, scarcely even cor- 

 rupted, but rather written phonetically in a rude, ap- 

 proximative way ; and in France the flower penste is 

 connected only with thoughts of a tender and kindly 

 nature. Many such a flower, that bloomed in a bygone 

 summer, is still religiously preserved in an old letter or 

 book, and never looked upon without a moistening of 

 the eyes. So Ophelia said, 'There's rosemary, that's 

 for remembrance : pray you, love, remember ; and there 

 is pansies, that's for thoughts.' In English the pansy 

 violet is called heartsease also, showing in another form 



