198 WILD FLOWERS. 



Sir William Hooker has satisfactorily ascertained 

 the Vwla Ipecacuanha, or the Idnidium parvi- 

 florum to be the celebrated " Cuychunchulle" of Dr. 

 Bancroft. Pliny prescribes a liniment of violet 

 roots and vinegar for gout and " disorders of the 

 spleen." 



Thus the uses of the plant, as well as its exquisite 

 beauty, have attracted attention wherever it occurs 

 and it is by no means sparingly distributed. 

 Aboo Rumi, the eastern poet, exclaims ; " It is not 

 a flower it is an emerald bearing a purple gem \" 

 And it has been said that the Arabs expressively 

 describe the eye of a beautiful woman by comparing 

 it to a violet. The ancient Greeks attributed to 

 the goddess of beauty, "violet-like eyelids/' and 

 Shakespeare speaks of: 



" Violets dim 

 But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes." 



Comparisons which we may refer rather to the deli- 

 cate tinting of purple which gives so great a charm 

 to some eyelids, especially to those of little babies, 

 rather than to the ancient practice of imitating this 

 tinge by colouring the eyelids with powder of anti- 

 mony, to which some commentators have attributed 

 it : since the black kohl, or antimony, cannot well 

 be compared in colour to the violet 



Shakespeare alludes to a very old belief, and 



roots of the plant having, however, its action on the animal 

 system modified in the three first, from its chemical associa- 

 tion with different proximate principles. Violene differs from 

 emetin in its being united with malic instead of gallic acid. 



