THE VIOLET. 199 



one which we find frequently and variously ex- 

 pressed, when he says : 



* * " Lay her i' the earth, 



And from her fair and unpolluted flesh 

 May violets spring." 



Or, as Herrick has it, 



" From her happy spark, here let 

 Spring the purple violet." 



Partly perhaps for this reason the violet, su- 

 preme in its sweetness, finds its place with these 

 and other sweet-smelling herbs in the graveyards of 

 Wales ; and the Romans called the days set apart 

 for decking their graves with flowers "Dies vio- 

 laris" In allusion to this use of the flower, 

 Shelley says : 



" Lilies for a bridal bed, 

 Hoses for the matron's head, 

 Violets for a maiden dead." 



And again, 



" His head was bound with pansies overblown, 

 And faded violets, white, pied, and blue." 



The violet was a great favourite with the Greeks, 

 claiming, according to Theocritus, the earliest place 

 in the flowers chosen for the wreath ; and Homer, 

 as translated by Cowper, says : 



* "Everywhere appeared 



Meadows of softest verdure, purpled o'er 

 With violets ; it was a scene to fill* 

 A god from Heaven with wonder and delight." 



* " Odyssey," Book v. 



