Viola 



Xev/cotov, which is evidently not a violet, but what 

 gardeners call a soft-wooded plant. It is usual to 

 identify it with the hoary stock (Matthiola incana), 

 still known in Italy as \ violacciocco bianco,' the 

 epithet presumably referring to the hoariness of the 

 leaves and stem. The plant once grew on the 

 Hastings cliffs, and may still occasionally be found 

 at Freshwater Bay in the Isle of Wight. It is the 

 ancestor of our garden Queen and Brompton stocks, 

 and, like the violet, was a garland flower. 



The violet was extensively grown not only for 

 bees, but for its scent, and for a purple dye of no 

 great value. Pesto was as famous for violets as for 

 roses. 



Flower of Violets, March and April. 



Flower of Stock, March to May. 



Italian names : Viola (violet). 



Fiorbono, Fiorbianco, and 

 Violacciocco bianco (stock). 



Viscum. 



' Solet silvis brumali frigore viscum 

 fronde virere nova, quod non sua seminat arbos, 

 et croceo foetu teretes circumdare ramos' (Ae. vi. 205 sqq.). 



Virgil well indicates the curious green -yellow 

 colour of the mistletoe (Viscum album), and its con- 

 spicuousness on a leafless tree in winter. The berries 

 were made into bird-lime, and for this purpose were 

 gathered before they were ripe. There are two 

 varieties, and that which has an oval and yellowish 



*37 



