THE VIOLET. 95 



far from stealing a,wa,j from the orations that were prepared 

 for it, it had the charlatanism to exhibit itself tri-oolonr! 

 Look at this one; its outwai-d corolla is violet, its internal 

 petals are blue and rose-coloured; disguised thus, the gar- 

 deners call it the " violette de Bruneau." 



The violet modest! it has been proscribed, persecuted, 

 exiled, — all which is nothing but so many coquetries. 



The violet modest ! Go to the opera, two hundred women 

 have bouquets of violets in their hands. 



How well it avenges itself for being bom in the shade ! 



But I must reveal to you another ruse which it employs 

 to retain our admiration ; other flowers permit their perinmes 

 to be preserved in essences ; perfumers sell us in the winter 

 odour of roses, odour of jasmine, odour of heliotropes, and 

 of a dozen other flowers. The violet alone refuses to separate 

 its odour from itself, it is to be met with nowhere but in its 

 own corolla; perfumers are obliged to make, with the root 

 of the Iris of Florence, a certain false and acrid violet odour, 

 of which every returning spring compels us to acknowledge 

 the insufficiency. 



" You wish to inhale the odour of violets, my sweet, fair 

 friend," says the violet to a lady very fond of its perfume, — 

 "wait till I return; inhale the scent of roses, or of jasmine, 

 there is no need of roses and jasmines to procure you that 

 pleasure, perfumers put their odours into bottles; hut for me, 

 my dear, you must wait." — And this is the modest violet ! 



The violet is a sort of Cincinnatus, such as modern times 

 produce, who only retire to their country and turn their 

 hands to the plough, upon condition that they shall be there 

 sought for in order to be made consuls, generals, or dictators. 



The ancient poets pretend that when Jupiter had meta- 

 morphosed lo into a heifer, he gave birth to the violet, in 

 order to present her with herbage worthy of her; it was this 

 that made me form the idea of having a plat entirely com- 

 posed of violets. 



There often exhales from certain flowers something more 

 and even better than perfumes ; I mean certain circumstances 

 of life with which they were associated, and with which they 

 inseparably dwell in the mind, or rather in the heart, as the 

 hamadryads were not able to quit their oaks! And may 



