LANDMARKS OF BOTANICAL HISTORY GREENE 23 1 



base into a hollow protuberance or spur, such a corolla is not with 

 him a flower but a "violet." The proper violets, that is the 

 acaulescent kinds, and the pansies or tricolor kinds, are regarded by 

 Tragus as by all others before him, as of two genera with different 

 generic names; yet flowers of both are spoken of not as flowers 

 but as "violets"; and the same term is applied to the flowers of 

 larkspurs. 1 



But there is a second and very different corolla-type which is 

 also called by Tragus a violet-flower, namely, the cruciform. 

 This came about by reason of the familiarly known fact that in 

 the nomenclature of that period there was a genus Viola purpurea — 

 sometimes called Viola Martia { = Viola), and also a genus Viola 

 alba { = Matihiola) , besides even a Viola lutea { = Cheiranthus). It 

 is with this cruciferous viola type in mind that he describes the 

 flower corymbs of Viburnum ■ Opulus as adorned with "an outer 

 circle of large white violets consisting of four leaves. "^ But among 

 the crucifers particularly, the flowers of all that have rather large 

 and showy petals he habitually speaks of as violets; for example 

 those of the mustard,^ the cabbage,'* and the turnip,' with also that 

 of celandine.* That it was not the merely cruciform arrangement 

 of spreading petals that caused a flower to be called a violet of 

 this type becomes apparent when one has observed that Tragus 

 never applies it to the blossom of any small-flowered crucifer. In 

 the case of the lepidiums, and Bursa Pastoris, and all others having 

 diminutive petals, it is his custom to say only that the flowers are 

 small and of such or such a color; never speaking of them as even 

 small violets. For the crucifer-violet to be called a violet there 

 must be some approximation to the size and showiness of the wall- 

 flower and gilliflower. 



But now, the learned philologist may interpose that, after all, 

 both rose and violet, in the speech of primitive peoples are terms 

 indicative of not particular kinds of flowers ; that each, in its origin^ 

 is but the synonym of that other and later word flower. Nor may 

 this be successfully controverted. The very nomenclature of scores 

 of familiar flowers to-day attests the truth of it. There is Christ- 

 mas Rose (=Helleborus), China Rose {= Hibiscus Rosa Sinensis),. 



» Stirp. Comm., p. 568, 903. 



» Ibid., p. looa, under the name Sambucus aqttatica, 



» Ibid., p. 100. 



« Ibid., p. 718. 



» Ibid., p. 728. 



« Ibid., p. 106. 



