•^ Violets, ^Primroses and Wallflowers $£ 



of colour, and exquisite forme, doe bring to a liberall and 

 gentlemanly minde the remembrance of honestie, come- 

 liness, and all kinds of vertues. For it would be an 

 unseemly thing for him that doth looke upon and handle 

 faire and beautifull things, and who frequenteth and is 

 conversant in faire and beautifull places, to have his 

 minde not faire.' 



Our great-grandmothers not only candied violets as we 

 do, but they made various confections scented with 

 violets, chiefly violet syrup and violet tablet. Violet 

 syrup was made by macerating two pounds of fresh violets 

 in five pints of distilled water for 24 hours. Then the 

 liquor was strained off, sugar added (allowing a pound of 

 sugar to each pint of liquor) and then boiled to a syrup. 

 Violet tablets were made by steeping violets in lemon 

 juice, adding sugar in the same proportion as above, and 

 then boiling till when cold it set firm. They also used to 

 eat young violet leaves fried and served with slices of 

 lemons and oranges. No less an authority than John 

 Evelyn describes this as ' one of the most agreeable of all 

 the herbaceous dishes.' 



Pansies and violas, which are so nearly related to 

 violets, have, with few exceptions, little scent when smelt 

 singly, but a cluster of either gives out a sweet though 

 faint perfume. The soft mauve-blue Maggie Mott is 

 fragrant, and Mrs. E. A. Cade, which is quite the earliest 

 of the rayless yellow violas, is very fragrant. It flowers at 

 least a fortnight earlier than the other rayless yellows, 

 and does well again in early autumn. There are probably 

 few plants with so many curious old country names as 

 pansies, — Heart's-ease, Love-in-idleness, Herb Trinity, 

 Three- Faces-under - a - Hood, Jump - up - and - Kiss - me, 



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