66 2FDe Garten's S>to*. 



ascribing fragrance to his yellow violet, blos- 

 soming 



Beside the snow-bank's edges cold. 



The Violas are so associated with odor that it 

 is difficult to think of any as entirely scentless. 

 From the hosts of blue, purple, lavender, yellow, 

 and white species that carpet the ground, and 

 which, except the white blanda, are usually con- 

 sidered odorless, there certainly does arise a per- 

 ceptible fragrance, perhaps best described by 

 Bryant as a "faint perfume." Lorenzo de' 

 Medici, a distinguished gardener and floricultur- 

 ist himself, tells us in sonnet-form how the vio- 

 let came blue. Originally white, Venus, seeking 

 Adonis in the woods where it grew, stepped 

 upon a thorn, which, piercing her foot, caused 

 the purple drops to fall upon the flowers 

 Tingeing the luster of their native hue. 



Shakespeare's violet was V. odorata, com- 

 mon in Europe and in many portions of Great 

 Britain. " Viola odorata flowers all winter, but 

 chiefly in March ; the typical color is a deep 

 purple-blue," Rev. Wolley Dod, of Cheshire, 

 writes me ; " it is not unlike indigo-dye, but in 

 gardens there is every shade, down to pure 

 white, the latter being, I think, the sweetest of 

 all." The passage in which the violet figures 



