IT-A PROSERPINA. 



definable leaves, their colour a little more violet than the 

 blossom. 



These, and such undeveloping leaves, wherever they occur, 

 are called ' bracts ' by botanists, a good word, from the Latiii 

 'bractea/ meaning a piece of metal plate, so thin as to 

 crackle. They seem always a little stiff, like bad parchment, 



born to come to nothing a sort of infinitesimal fairy-law- 

 yer's deed. They ought to have been in my index at p. 237, 

 under the head of leaves, and are frequent in flower structure, 



never, as far as one can see, of the smallest use. They are 

 constant, however, in the flower-stalk of the whole violet 

 tribe. 



20. I perceive, farther, that this lanky flower-stalk, bend- 

 ing a little in a crabbed, broken way, like an obstinate person 

 tired, pushes itself up out of a still more stubborn, nondescript, 

 hollow angular, dogs-eared gaspipe of a stalk, with a section 



something like this, ^ft but no bigger than ^^ with 



a quantity of ill-made and ill-hemmed leaves on it, of no 

 describable leaf-cloth or texture, not cressic, (though the 

 thing does altogether look a good deal like a quite uneatable 

 old watercress) ; not salvian, for there's no look of warmth or 

 comfort in them ; not cauline, for there's no juice in them ; 

 not dryad, for there's no strength in them, nor apparent use : 

 they seem only there, as far as I can make out, to spoil the 

 flower, and take the good out of my garden bed. Nobody in 

 the world could draw them, they are so mixed up together, 

 and crumpled and hacked about, as if some ill-natured child 

 had snipped them with blunt scissors, and an ill-natured cow 

 chewed them a little afterwards and left them, proving far 

 too tough or too bitter. 



21. Having now sufficiently observed, it seems to me, this 

 incongruous plant, I proceed to ask myself, over it, M. 

 Figuier's question, ' Qu'est-ce c'est qu'un Pensee ? ' Is this a 

 violet or a pansy or a bad imitation of both ? 



Whereupon I try if it has any scent : and to my much sur- 

 prise, find it has a full and soft one which I suppose is what 

 my gardener keeps it for ! According to Dr. Lindley, then, 



