AN EXCURSION. 25 



as it originally came from Mexico. But that is a 

 story of olden days ! 



THE PANSY. In brilliant contrast with the modest 

 grace of the Daisy and embosomed in their midst lay 

 dominating over them in glory and pride a group of 

 PANSIES or the Butterfly flowers of the Indian gardhers. 



It is a well known British flower. Among the vari- 

 ous names by which it is designated in different parts 

 of England and Scotland the "Heart's Ease" seems to be 

 the most appropriate. The Heart's Ease of Indian poetry 

 is however quite another plant. It is the famous Asoka 

 or (sorrowless,) of which more hereafter. The Pansy is 

 probably the flower which, as critics think, bewitched the 

 Queen of the Fairies in the "Midsummer Night's Dream." 



Pansies belong to the Violet family, and are all herbs, 

 with stipulate leaves. The flowers are irregular with a 

 spurred corolla ; two of the stamens have honey-secreting 

 apparatus : the pistil is connected with a one-celled ovary, 

 with three rows of ovules. As a result of cultivation the 

 garden flowers have generally some of the stamens and 

 even the pistil transformed into petals. The coloration 

 is superb, purple, black, white, yellow or crimson. The 

 family is represented in India by a number of species, 

 the common among them being the Viola primulifvlia^ 

 Willd, which grows wild in various parts of Bengal,- and 

 blossoms more or less the whole year. 



The SWEET VIOLET, from which the family derives its 

 name, is an uninteresting flower to look at, but owing to 

 its exquisitely delicate fragrance, it is a great favorite with 



