VIOLA ODORATA— SWEET VIOLET. 
Class V. PENTANDRIA.— Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, VIOLACE^.— THE VIOLET TRIBE. 
The subject of this article is a common indigenous plant, growing in most parts of our island, and uni- 
versally Esteemed for the beauty of its flowers, and the sweetness of their scent. It is most frequently found 
in woods, and moist banks; but a variety, with double flowers, is chiefly cultivated for medicinal purposes. 
The violet is a native of every part of Europe, and Desfontaines says, that it is common in Barbary, in 
the palm groves, where the blue and white grow promiscuously, and flower in the winter. Hasselquist found 
it in Palestine and Japan, and Loureiro saw it in China near Canton. The ancient fables feigned that vio- 
lets were the first food of the cow Io, one of Jupiter’s mistresses, and hence the Greek word Ion, of which 
Viola is a diminutive. 
The violet is liable to change in the colour of its blossom from blue purple to red purple, pale flesh 
colour, and white. In the white specimens the lateral petals are sometimes without hairs which grow on 
the inside claws in the purple kinds, and which would appear to afford a peculiar protection to the nectary ; 
but the fragrance is the same. (A double purple variety of exquisite odour is frequently cultivated in gar- 
dens, flowering both in spring and autumn. The stalks of the late flowers are so short as scarcely to elevate 
the capsules above ground, and in such petals are often wanting.) 
The petals give colour to the syrup of violets, for which purpose they are cultivated in large quantities 
at Stratford upon Avon (Mr. Purton, of Alcester, prepares twenty or thirty gallons annually, for the use of 
the druggists, chiefly from the petals of the wild violets. The flowers are gathered by women and children, 
and the petals carefully picked from the calyx.) This syrup is very useful in many chemical investigations, 
to detect an acid or an alkali, the former changing the blue colour to red, and the latter to green. Slips of 
white paper, stained with the juice of the petals, and kept from the air and light, answer the same purpose. 
Qualities and Chemical Properties. — The odour of violets is particularly pleasant, but they 
are somewhat bitter to the taste. They yield their colour and flavour to boiling water. At a sitting of 
the Academie Royale de Medecine, M. Boullay read a paper on the analysis of the violet, from which 
it appears that it contains an active alkaline principle, which is bitter and acrid, similar to the Emetine 
of Ipecacuanha, and which he proposes to name, Emetine of the violet, indigenous emetine or violine. Ac- 
cording to M. Orfila, it is energetically poisonous. It is found to reside equally in the root, leaves, flowers, 
and seeds of the plants; but associated with different proximate principles, so as to have its action on the 
animal system modified. It is procured in the same manner as that from the Ipecacuanha, and possesses 
the same properties, excepting its being united to the malic acid, instead of the gallic. ( Journal de Phar- 
macie. Jan. 1824.) 
The violet is the emblem of modesty; and if the rose reminds us of the dazzling radiance of a full- 
blown beauty, the violet is like some pretty village girl who shrinks from a fixed gaze, and blushes to be 
admired. This flower has always been a favourite of the poets, nor could it well be otherwise; how could 
any thing so sweet, so charming, and so simple, be unmentioned by Homer, Theocritus, or Shakespeare ? 
Thus we find the violet covering the meadows near the delightful grotto of Calypso : 
Four fountains of serenest lymph 
Their sinuous course pursuing side by side, 
Strayed all around, and every where appeared 
Meadows of softest verdure, purpled o’er 
With Violets ; it was a scene to fill 
A God from heaven with wonder and delight. 
Odyssey , Boole v. Camper's Translation . 
In one of the Idylls of Theocritus we are reminded that though the rose is fair, it decays with time, and 
though the violet is beautiful in the spring, it quickly grows old. In another, the poet desires that brambles 
may bear the violet, and the narcissus grow upon the juniper, that all things may be changed, in short, 
because Daphnis is dead. But perhaps the most original use made of this flower is in the 10th Idyll, where 
Battus in praising a dark and slim beauty, consoles her for the colour of her complexion by telling her that 
though the violet is dark, it is in great request for garlands. There is some Doric humour as well as elegance 
in the passage: 
Others, Bombyce, call you wondrous thin, 
And cry, how sun-burnt is that Syrian skin ! 
