io8 NOTES. 



3. Because Pliny also describes the Violet as growing 

 in sunny and barren places ("apricis et macris locis "), 

 whereas really Violets always grow in the shade. 



4. Because he speaks of the Violet as springing from 

 a fleshy root-stock ("ab radice carnoso"), whereas the 

 Violet root is fibrous. 



5. Because Ovid couples the Violet with the Poppy 

 and the Lily as flowers which, when broken off, hang their 

 heads to the ground. 



I need not say much as to Lord Stanhope's not 

 finding Violets in Sicily in winter, for the question is, 

 whether he would not find them in Italy in spring. Nor 

 does the fact of the Sicilian peasants speaking of the 

 Iris as a Violet disturb me any more than when I 

 hear a Scotch peasant speak of the "Harebell" as a 

 "Bluebell." 



The real authority is Pliny, and Pliny settles the ques- 

 tion completely. He says (I quote for convenience from 

 Bonn's translated edition) : " Next after the Roses and 

 the Lilies, the Violet is held in the highest esteem. Of 

 this there are several varieties, the purple, the yellow, and 

 the white, all of them reproduced from plants, like the 

 Cabbage. The Purple Violet, which springs up spon- 

 taneously in sunny spots with a thin meagre soil, has 

 larger petals than the others, springing immediately from 

 the root, which is of a fleshy substance. This Violet 

 has a name, too, distinct from the other wild kinds, 

 being called ' ion,' and from it the ianthine cloth takes 

 its name." 



He goes on to say that of cultivated kinds the Yellow 

 Violet is held in most esteem. He speaks then of the 

 Tusculan and Marine Violet as having broader petals than 



