VIOLA. 171 



of the wise classifying people, who say that violets and pansies 

 are the same thing and that neither of them are of much 

 interest ! As, for instance, Dr. Lindley in his ' Ladies' Bot- 

 any.' 



" Violets sweet Violets, and Pansies, or Heartsease, repre- 

 sent a small family, with the structure of which you should 

 be familiar ; more, however, for the sake of its singularity than 

 for its extent or importance, for the family is a very small 

 one, and there are but few species belonging to it in which 

 much interest is taken. As the parts of the Heartsease are 

 larger than those of the violet, let us select the former in 

 preference for the subject of our study." Whereupon we 

 plunge instantly into the usual account of things with horns 

 and tails. " The stamens are five in number two of them, 

 which are in front of the others, are hidden within the horn of 

 the front petal," etc., etc., etc. (Note in passing, by the ' horn 

 of the front' petal he means the 'spur of the bottom' one, 

 which indeed does stand in front of the rest, but if therefore 

 it is to be called the front petal which is the back one ?) 

 You may find in the next paragraph description of a " singu- 

 lar conformation," and the interesting conclusion that "no 

 one has yet discovered for what purpose this singular con- 

 formation was provided." But you will not, in the entire 

 article, find the least attempt to tell you the difference be- 

 tween a violet and a pansy ! except in one statement and 

 that false ! " The sweet violet will have no rival among flow- 

 ers, if we merely seek for delicate fragrance ; but her sister, 

 the heartsease, who is destitute of all sweetness, far surpasses 

 her in rich dresses and gaudy III colours." The heartsease is 

 not without sweetness. There are sweet pansies scented, and 

 dog pansies un scented as there are sweet violets scented, 

 and dog violets unscented. What is the real difference ? 



14. I turn to another scientific gentleman more scientific 

 in form indeed, Mr. Grindon, and find, for another interest- 

 ing phenomenon in the violet, that it sometimes produces 

 flowers without any petals! and in the pansy, that "the flow- 

 ers turn towards the sun, and when many are open at once, 

 present a droll appearance, looking like a number of faces all 



