NOTES. 



NOTE I. 



ON THE VIOLA OF THE ROMANS, 



I contributed the following note on "The Violn of the 

 Romans," to the Gardeners' Chronicle of September 26, 

 1874, as I found a correspondent had been adopting 

 Lord Stanhope's views. 



Mr. Ruskin in his Queen of the Air wrote, " I suspect 

 that the flower whose name we translate 'Violet' was in 

 truth an Iris " (he is speaking of the Greek ion, but the 

 Viola no doubt is whatever the ion was). 



In Lord Stanhope's Miscellanies, second series, which 

 was published in 1872, a paper, which had been pre- 

 viously (in 1830) read before the Society of Antiquaries, 

 treats of the "Viola of the Ancients." 



Lord Stanhope identifies it with the Iris, and on the 

 following grounds : 



1. Because when riding through Sicily in the winter 

 of 1825, he saw many Irises and no Violets, and heard 

 that the country people called the Iris Viola. 



2. Because Pliny speaks of Violae luleae, whereas there 

 are no Violets of that colour. 



