200 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



also Nastnerzo de las Indias, which is Nasturtium 

 Indicum; and we thereafter in English, Indian 

 Cresses. Yet it may be called from the form of the 

 flowers Yellow Lark's heels." 



This flower is phosphorescent and is said to emit 

 sparks, which are visible in the dark. 



VII 



Pansies for Thoughts and Poppies for "Dreams 



PANSY (Viola tricolor). "Pansies that's for 

 thoughts," exclaims Ophdia, as she holds out 

 the flower that the French call pensee (thought). 

 And it is the pansy that is "the little western flower" 

 upon which "the bolt of Cupid fell" and made 

 "purple with love's wound" and which "maidens 

 call Love in Idleness," the flower that Oberon 

 thus described to Puck when he sent him to gather it. 

 The juice of it squeezed by Oberon upon Titanid s 

 eyelids and by Puck upon the Athenian youths and 

 maidens, who were also sleeping in the enchanted 

 wood on that midsummer night, occasioned so many 

 fantastic happenings. 



The pansy in those days was the small Johnny- 

 Jump-Up, a variety of the violet, according to the 

 old writers, "a little violet of three colors, blue, 



