DOG'S-TOOTH 

 VIOLET. 



Eri/lh roii'n'iii (Jvus-nniis. 



I.SEUTERS of |,l;ints wlio 

 cndeuNoui' to iinderj^tanil 

 their names have usually 

 a touij;'h task before them. 

 ]\Iaiiy nam eSjinileecl .carry 

 their meanings in their 

 faces, Ijut mauv have no 

 meaning at all; and, 

 a;;ain, many are founded 

 on sueh sulitle distinctions 

 or fanciful notions that 

 it is not in the })lant but 

 in the mind of the \V)- 

 meiielator that we must seek 

 t(ir the coveted explanation, 

 lilt whatever the vices of 

 111 tinical terniinoloo-y — and 

 the) are terribly numerous — 

 there arc many reasons wh\- 

 names inteudi'd to be dcsenpti\'e should lie foun<led on 

 obvious characters that are displayed above yround. Here 

 is a dog's-tooth violet, and the iiKjuiring amateur may be 

 led to search leaves and Howers for some resemblance to the 

 dog's-tooth moulding that so often occnrs in architecture, 



