AND ORNAMENTAL TREATMENT. 43 



ingly small, while the general growth is often ill-adapted for the specific requirements of ornamental 

 art; in some cases the leaves are very large and coarse, while in others, again, they are so 

 minutely divided that they are equally non-available. 



The remaining sketches call for but slight comment ; our readers will, no doubt, perceive 

 that the desigri, fig. 219, is intended to be bi-symmetrical, and that only the exigencies of the 

 space at our disposal have necessitated our giving it in its present unilateral and somewhat 

 maimed form. Fig. 220 is a simple repeat, at regularly recurring intervals, of a single leaf. Our 

 designs are necessarily, as we have already pointed out, somewhat simple in character, but the 

 student reader must not imagine that the simple treatments we here, and from time to time, 

 introduce, by any means express all that the plant is capable of affording to the designer. We 

 content ourselves here with slight suggestions ; the practical designer should find no difficulty in 

 adapting much that is herein given to the requirements of specific work, whether calico-printing, 

 lace, iron-work, or whatever other medium may present itself for treatment, 



PLATE 27. 



" Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell— 

 It fell upon a little Western flower, 

 Before milk-white, now purple with Love's wound, 

 And maidens call it ' Love-in-idleness.' " — Shakespeare. 



Violets and pansies have, from the associations connected with them, been favourite flowers 

 with all our poets. Owing to these associations, poetical and legendary, no less than from the inherent 

 beauty of the flowers, considerable use has been made of them in past art, and the designer will, 

 therefore, do well to acquaint himself with their structure ; and, to assist him in this end, we have 

 represented two varieties, selecting them as being not so immediately accessible to him ' as the 

 common hedge-row Violets or the garden Heart's-ease. 



The allusions to this genus amongst the poets are too numerous to quote at any length ; 

 yet some few examples of the affection in which it has been held may not be without interest. 

 Thus Sir Henry Wotton writes — 



'' Ye violets that first appear, 

 By your pure purple mantles known, 

 Like the proud virgins of the year, ' 

 As if the spring were all your own." 



A reference will also be found in Chaucer's " Assemblie of Ladies." The following lines many 

 of our readers will, no doubt recall, as occurring in the " Comus" of Milton — 



" The shepherds at their festivals 

 Carol her good deeds loud in rustic lays. 

 And throw sweet garland wreaths into the stream 

 Of pancies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils." 



Milton also mentions it in his " Lycidas" and " Paradise Lost ;" while, not to weary our 

 readers, we will content ourselves, in conclusion, by quoting the following passage from Spencer — 



" Strew me the ground with Daffe-down-dillies, 

 And Cowslips, and Kingcups, and loved Lillies. 



The pretty Paunce 



And the Chevisaunce 

 Shall watch with the fair Fleur-de-Luce." 



The name pansy is evidently a corruption from the French pensie ; and Shakespeare 

 alludes to this in the passage where Ophelia says, " There's pansies — that's for thoughts." The 

 Viola tricolor, so commonly to be met with in cultivated fields, has many expressive provincial 

 names, as " Three-coloured Violet," " Three Faces under a Hood," " Herb Trinity," &c. The 

 latter name we may explain by a quotation from one of the old monkish herbals — "This 

 flower is but one, in which be three sundrye colours, and yet but one sweete savour. So 

 God is three distinct persons in one undivided Trinitye, united together in one eternal glory and 

 divine majestie. It is called Herba Trinitatis because it has three colours." The Welsh name, 

 Llys y Drindod, has the same significance. It is also called the Mam yn gyfraith, or Mother-in- 

 law ; the Danish name, Stifmoder blomst (the Step-mother) having a very similar meaning, the 

 fancy in each case being that the two large, plain-coloured petals are the new connexions, the 

 others, more gaily attired, being her own daughters. 



The sweet-scented Purple Violet (Vtola odorata) may be seen as a bordering in a i6th 

 century MS. in the collection of the British Museum : it is, like most of the work of that period, 

 painted in a somewhat too naturalistic manner. It may, also, be found very tastefully embroidered 



