XXIX 



ON PANSIES, VIOLAS, AND SWEET VIOLETS 



ELSEWHERE in this work I have remarked that there 

 are some flowers whose appeal is so intimate and 

 irresistible that they do more than stimulate interest 

 and admiration they arouse our love. The Pansy is 

 one of them. Its flowers may be excelled in beauty 

 as they certainly are in size by those of many plants, 

 but it is winning where they are no more than brilliant, 

 and so it probes deeply into our hearts, and finds an 

 abiding resting-place there. 



People sometimes speak of the popular names of the 

 Pansy, as though the names of the books and catalogues 

 were a scientific one. Pansy is itself a " popular " 

 name, and it has become generic by mere right of long 

 usage. It is a corruption of pense'e, the French word for 

 thought, but why the French gave this name to the little 

 flower is not obvious. Was it supposed to stimulate 

 reflection ? Were the thoughts pleasant or painful ? 

 We should say that they were agreeable if we knew of 

 one other common name only, " Heartease," but there 

 is another, " Love-in-idleness," and this really meant 

 love in vain. 



Perhaps we should not be far wrong if we assumed 

 that it was originally " the flower of one's thoughts," 

 for la dame de ses pensees, or " one's lady-love," is a 



phrase that might have been copied. As an abbre- 



270 



