TRE VIOLET 
69 
CHAPTER III. 
Violet — Love of the Violet in Childhood — Situations of 
Violets — Violets of Pcestum — Autumn Violets — Violets 
in Canada — Bog Violet — Regard of Poets for the 
Violet — Violets of Stratford — Violet in the East — 
Origin of Name — Rarity of Sweet Violet in Scotland 
— Violet Sherbet — Use of Violet in Medicine — Gall on 
Stem of Violet. 
“Fast fading violets covered up with leaves.” — Keats. 
Violets, the white and the blue ! have we not all hunted 
after the violets with hearts brimful of enjoyment, as we 
looked up at first at the sunny sky, and then on the 
banks of the green lane where we wandered ; or, almost 
too busy for a selection, gathered them as they lay scat- 
tered plentifully in our pathway ? Where is the heart 
to which the wild violet does not speak of childhood ? 
Where is he to whom its odour does not breathe of holi- 
day seasons and healthful joys? How well can they who 
spent their childhood in the country, and knew the de- 
lights of a little garden of their own, share in the feelings 
with which Miss Bowles describes the simple beauties of 
her garden plot! 
“ And thriving plants were there, though not of price. 
No puny children of a foreign soil. 
But hardy natives of our own dear earth; 
From many a field, and bank, and streamlet side. 
Transplanted, careful, with the adhering mould. 
The primrose, with her large indented leaves, 
And many blossoms, pale, expanded there. 
With wild anemone and hyacinth. 
And languid cowslip, lady of the mead ; 
And violets’ mingled lines of every sort. 
Blue, white, and purple. The more fragrant white. 
E’en from that very root, in many a patch. 
Extended wide, still scents the garden round.” 
