A SECRET OF THE CHARM OF FLOWERS 145 



heartsease, are familiar examples. Heartsease 

 and pansy both strike us as peculiarly appropriate 

 to one of our commonest and most universal 

 garden flowers ; yet we see something besides 

 the sympathetic and restful expression which 

 suggested these names in this flower — a certain 

 suggestion of demureness, in fact, reminding 

 those who have seen Guido's picture of the 

 "Adoration of the Virgin," of one of his loveliest 

 angels whose angelical eyes and face reveal some 

 desire for admiration and love in the spectator. 

 And that expression, too, of the pansy has been 

 described, coarsely or rudely it may be, in some 

 of its country names : " Kiss me behind the 

 garden gate," and, better (or worse) still, " Meet- 

 her-i'-th'-entry-kiss-her-i'-th'-buttery." Of this 

 order of names are "None so pretty" and 

 " Pretty maids," with many more. 



A writer on our wild flowers, in speaking of 

 their vernacular names of this kind, has said : 

 " Could we penetrate to the original suggestive 

 idea that called forth its name, it would bring 

 valuable information about the first openings 

 of the human mind towards nature; and the 

 merest dream of such a discovery invests with 



