12 PKOSERPISTA. 



" Qu'est ce que c'est que la Pensee ? Cette jolie plante 

 appartient aussi ou genre Yiola, mais a un section de ce 

 genre. En eifet, dans les Pensees, les petales superieurs 

 et lateraux sont diriges en haut, Pinferieur seul est 

 dirige en bas : et de plus, le stigmate est urceole, glo- 

 buleux." 



And farther, this general description of the whole 

 violet tribe, which I translate, that we may have its full 

 value : 



" The violet is a plant without a stem (tige), (see 

 vol. i., p. 154,) whose height does not surpass one or 

 two decimetres. Its leaves, radical, or carried on stolons, 

 (vol. i., p. 158,) are sharp, or oval, crenulate, or heart- 

 shape. Its stipules are oval-acuminate, or lanceolate. 

 Its flowers, of sweet scent, of a dark violet or a reddish 

 blue, are carried each on a slender peduncle, which bends 

 down at .the summit. Such is, for the botanist, the 

 Violet, of which the poets would give assuredly another 

 description." 



17. Perhaps ; or even the painters ! or even an ordi- 

 nary unbotanical human creature ! I must set about my 

 business, at any rate, in my own way, now, as I best can, 

 looking first at things themselves, and then putting this 

 and that together, out of these botanical persons, which 

 they can't put together out of themselves. And first, I 

 go down into my kitchen garden, where the path to the 

 lake has a border of pansies on both sides all the way 

 down, with clusters of narcissus behind them. And 



