22 



PROSERPINA. 



26. And if, at the time you read this, you can run out 

 and gather a true violet, and its leaf, you will find that 

 the flower grows from the very ground, out of a cl.ister 

 of heart-shaped leaves, becoming here a little rounder, 

 there a little sharper, but on the whole heart-shaped, and 

 that is the proper and essential form of the violet leaf. 

 You will find also that the flower has five petals ; and 

 being held down by the bent stalk, two of them bend 

 back and up, as if resisting it ; two expand at the sides ; 



and one, the principal, grows downwards, 

 with its attached spur behind. So that the 

 front view of the flower must be some modifi- 

 cation of this typical arrangement, Fig, M, 

 (for middle form). Now the statement above 

 quoted from Figuier, 16, means, if he had 

 been able to express himself, that the two lat- 

 eral petals in the violet are directed down- 

 wards, Fig. II. A, and in the pansy upwards, 

 Fig. II. c. And that, in the main, is true, 

 and to be fixed well and clearly in your mind. 

 But in the real orders, one flower passes into 

 c the other through all kinds of intermediate 

 IG ' ' positions of petal, and the plurality of species 

 are of the middle type, Fig. II. B.* 



27. Next, if you will gather a real pansy leaf, you 

 will find it not heart-shape in the least, but sharp oval 



* I am ashamed to give so rude outlines; but every moment now 

 is valuabl e to me: careful outline of a dog-violet is given in Plate X. 



