358 
4HE.. GARDENERS. CHRONICLE. 
[SEPTEMBER 19, 1874, 
“however, it became disused ; the alphabet was shorn 
and to fill the gap thus created, Z 
the prea one ioe in its place, 
every one 
finish wi 
accusto! ed W ya 
minute he starting, The oe Ses position corre- 
with that of the Hebrew vax or waf, and i in 
is ded in “‘ win 
ogy such sort o 
of a Grov ve’s ««Convertibility of Forces,” 
bE as Casuy 
dao nce of the digamma from a given 
e, and the latter 
Enough of etymology. “Whe ther Homer intend 
our modern y Violet by y his zon it be be feast cits to 
assert, still more he phe ny 
positi and, until clear wick ha 
“of the  eepucehes Of the Vila odorata in the 
Te} 
p 
i=} 
been baton 
y Helen was mag **ion-coloured,” and what 
that wie may hav 
he course does no 
to get fda Homer kejar A applies the same 
epithet elsewhere called oo ck,”’* ‘n 
Pinda he i ion is prred a yor d flower, a 
adjective “yet a from it being spia very degpatly 
to the rich tresses of the Muses—Jov: 
* Nine ata saabesbcetahony: daughters,” 
and again to the locks of the Ba DIR little maid Evadne, 
who, like the Mi -haired.” 
le was admired so pects by the ene, 
and this colour so nearly approaches a burnished an 
such as that of what 
” that to suppose any other ps Ra 
the inquiry as to 
upon Ulysses by. Athen of **hyacinthine locks.” 
Massive and | I glets, such as would befit a 
this beautiful ey ‘pith , and s tl 
But it is pabut "to the spirit of 
Homers descriptions to suppose that colour was in 
tended as well orm ; ve kn h 
yacinths which mingle in 
rose-coloured, 
qn the 
paira from thé 
_ This of 
Theocri 
rs, speaks 
to flow 
"e — who —— 
sions of the 
different piaite ee dakk hued,” and as ‘ white ed oy 
* See Odyssey, iv. 13 
ag eg ; Iliad, xi. 299, and xxiv. 79. 
Pye i, 2, and as vi: sre 
§ X vii. 64, and x, 20, 
t See Tew vi. 55. 
the latter of which epithets wee probably the parent 
Virgil’s Jalleus, appli the flowers of the 
** Viola” in his second Ecl 
ere we are introduced to the employment of Viola 
by js ancient Romans. Whatever in 
the Dame’s Rocket, and that ad lame the 
Matthiola Aki ridispidata, which like the and the 
t lilac and fragrani 
one of the Primrose, and in the pleasant 
ser een of ` silvery foliage, gives to scenes o 
Sweet and ong-enduring samy and could 
peg: fail to at Wallflower 
grows taii in ia dry a Pit Noe i in Southern 
Eur "E epg e’s Rocket in hedges, bushy places, 
and o oods, Some of these plants, at all events, 
are intended. in the Zeucoion of Diosco 
appears to employ Viola in the 
e broad or collective sense, which pertains in 
ilast + verse to r iu rsephone was 
strewing flow t T ,” he says, 
but hu ble oeii to them is affection more 
pleasing than a costly gift. Enough for 
. are chaplets lucked Violets.” * 
Who can read these tender words loin thin ing 
a, daughter of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 
Shakspear w when she enters with her pealis of onii 
ing tr 
be ie no, I will rob Tellus of her weeds, 
To strew th n with flowers : the yellows, blues, 
The purple Violets, and Marigolds, 
Shall, as a chaplet, om T thy grave 
hile summer days do T 
In the earlier portion of this wonderful old store- 
ho f antiquities, the i S 
of his ‘* Violets” as flowers originally tpt from 
SO! r of mpli- 
me forei 
cities, prior to the times when 
costus, and frankincense, and saffron 
fon had intodiced 
“ Si quis erat, factis prati de fire coronis 
ui poterot viola 
> CLAL 
“r 
certainly did not Tand a a flow 
a se ee = pe in 
of supposing th 
in this peek A a 
ae Iris or Fleur- ae -lis 
p 
pointing the 
of Viola given i By Pliny, one ea these 
ing yellow aes pew ae mmon in the genus 
ris, but not perta ining to wc or genuine 
Violets, while the native abdis E rocky hills, 
osed to the sun, whereas the Violet ipsissina is 
proverbial ie loving the shade.|| Virgil speaks of 
gs Ag to the honey- bees, { and for some 
obvious, in o 
ua ‘Beane T was betore bi 
of ** soft.” 
Giru a B i Pliny has 
t Act Lib, 
as ‘se ee = iterar Grete a 
* Lib. ii 539. 
a X. 190-193. 
24, 
th Ecl ii, 58, sid. vi ea 
§§ ATONE V.. 106. 
ert eo 
tt Me 
II] Lib, ari he 
great haste to decide what’ plant an old e 
intend, purely and wit thout further r igiit? OEA 
onise wi 
th 
to the early botani 
ming and herbalists, p 
author imiiediately pr pre 
find Viola used i 
eda the time of Shaksp 
common 
n Dalec! 
arhat " eee e 
nanan 3 r 
Viola lunaria 
ered g 
Dodonzus, agit, the CF 
iola matronalis ; while in A 
palustri e last 
Rocket is 
the se ce is Viola 
per i 
oe was obably deivei 
uchsius wie in I fi 
Viola alba. In ai 
med because of its ur, w of course, counts 
for nothing in scientific inne rece e Pia 
lum, it t ck nc te _Tefer 
olet, with the unhappy addition 
of Doe peer Violet, the latter Fi, = to the genus 
rythr 
What a i akii that, with the greatest of poets, 
m Violet, bas never need hesitate, 
by adopting which word for oad 
** English eae 3 how de Sager. gi ould our verna 
cular be enr 
iola 
ee paa beside that Sther, in the Afidswmmer Nights 
show us that we Tast not not ee 
and loving appreciation whic a 
ever he talks of, mak er seem so much 
told a thing as to O E omes of 
heir independence d their reali 
ry well for an author to employ pretty ihn and 
to intr lusions to things that have ‘been 
oured and reverenced for age he 
his ve » by virtue of personal observation and — 
compani began in childhood, growing with 
his growth and strengthening with his strength sad 
mistake is it to suppose, any do, that the mere use 
of beantiful imagery will elevate a line, a composition, 
a stanza, into the realm of the poetical. It is 
paty oa | T the words aag yed declare r em 
l, is the r flex of snnsthta ing a e i 
familiar and passionately beloved, no matter how it © 
i h 
vesitlevtions, - He puts 
of How poor, comparatively, are the 
bame eem maruse or “‘beds of Violets,” even could 
be assured that they were the pene See ge when 
placed besid 
Night :— 
e the picture at the opening of Twelfth 
t“ That strain again ; it had a dying fall : 
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south 
That breathes üpon a bank of Violets, 
Stealing and dour,” 
‘Cam mm 
CAM i 
SOE pN e blows, 
_ Where Oxlip and the nodding Violet grows.” ” 
“Beds of Violets,” artifici 
