200 WILD FLOWERS. 



Virgil, too (Bucol. Eel. 1 47), weaves it into his 

 garland of blossoms : 



" Pallentes violas, et summa papavera carpens, 

 Narcissum, et florem jungit bene olentis anethi. 

 Turn casia, atque aliis intexens suavibus herbis, 

 Mollia luteola pingit vaccinia caltha." 



Athens was noted for its love of violets. Aris- 

 tophanes (Knights) says, "he lives in the ancient 

 violet-crowned Athens ;" and (Acharn.'), "first they 

 called you (Athenians) violet-crowned." The same 

 epithet was applied to the Muses, and Homer even 

 calls Venus " loo-re^avoi/ " " crowned with violets/' 



Athenseus (Deipn. xv. p. 680), like other ancient 

 writers, speaks of the use of violets for chaplets ; 

 but in another place (p. 675), he pretends that they 

 were excluded from banquets because they affected 

 the head by their scent. In this, however, he is 

 contradicted by Pliny (xxi. 1 9.) ; and Plutarch more 

 distinctly says (Symp. iii. 1.), "its exhalations greatly 

 assist in removing the affections of the head caused 

 by wine/' Athenseus (xv. p. 682), states that at 

 Gyrene the scent of the violet is " especially strong 

 and divine, as is that of other flowers there except- 

 ing the crocus ; a statement, probably, borrowed 

 from Theophrastus (vi. p. 643). He also assigns to 

 " the black violet the most agreeable scent ;" and 

 adds, " Apollodorus writes that this is called by some 

 chamcepiten (chamoepites, 'creeping on the ground'); 

 by the Athenians, Ionian ; by the Euboeans, Side- 

 ritin;" and, according to Meander, "certain nymphs 

 named ladae or lonides (loniades), first gave the 

 violet (Ion) to Ion," when " after hunting he had 



