442 FLORA BOMESTICA. 



monly a deep purple : it is sometimes of a paler purple, 

 sometimes a red-purple, flesh-coloured, or quite white ; but 

 it is always delightfully fragrant. 



A syrup is prepared from this Violet, used in chemistry 

 to detect an acid or an alkali, the former changing the 

 blue colour to a red, and the latter to a green. For this 

 purpose, the flowers are cultivated in large quantities at 

 Stratford upon Avon. This Violet is very common in 

 Japan, where it flowers from January to April. There are 

 both double and single-flowered varieties : the white are 

 generally the largest flowers ; some maintain them to be the 

 most fragrant : they blow later than the purple. 



The violet is scarcely less a favourite with the poets than 

 the Rose itself; but whether lovers will acquiesce in the as- 

 sertion made by Mr. Barry Cornwall, they must decide. 



" There was a mark on Lais' swan-like breast, 



(A purple flower with its leaf of green,) 

 Like that the Italian saw when on the rest 



He stole of the unconscious Imogene *, 

 And bore away the dark fallacious test 



Of what was not, although it might have been, 

 And much perplexed Leonatus Posthumus : 



In truth, it might have puzzled one of us. 



" The king told Gyges of the purple flower ; 



(It chanced to be the flower the boy liked most ;) 

 It has a scent as though love, for its dower, 



Had on it all his odorous arrows tost; 

 For though the rose has more perfuming power, 



The violet, (haply 'cause 'tis almost lost, 

 And takes us so much trouble to discover) 



Stands first with most, but always with a lover. ' 



He is not singular, however, in this opinion : 



" Orni il suo crine 

 Di porporine 

 Rose in mezzo a bicchier la gioventu ; 



* That flower, however, was a cowslip. 



