VIOLETS AS MEDICINE 145 



dark bluish-purple, 1 but at times reddish-purple, 

 and not infrequently white, and, whatever their 

 colour, they are deliciously fragrant. It is curious 

 that these flowers seldom mature their fruit, the 

 seed-bearing capsules being produced by minute 

 blossoms, almost devoid of petals, which come on 

 afterwards. The leaves are very typically cordate, 

 heart-shaped, and with toothed margins. 



Many plants of the order have strong medical 

 properties, and the roots of our little English 

 violets have powers so pronounced that they have 

 been used as a substitute for, or an adulterant of, 

 the potent Ipecacuanha, which is also one of the 

 Violacece. A syrup is also made of the petals, and 

 the flowers and leaves had a great vogue in earlier 

 days as remedies for a great variety of ailments, 

 but their various "vertues" have proved more or less 

 illusory, and the chief value of the plant now is as 

 a colouring agent and the yielding of a fragrant 

 perfume. A conserve in the proportion of one 

 part of the flowers to two of white sugar is used 

 to pleasantly modify the flavour of medicines 

 unpleasant to the taste or to render insipid and 

 mawkish ones somewhat more agreeable to the 

 fanciful invalid. Boorde, we see in his " Dyetery," 

 published in the year 1542, gives a recipe for what 



1 " Purpled o'er with violets." HOMER. 

 "As purple violets scent the ground." CLARE. 

 " Violets darkly blue." THOMSON. 

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