72 
THE ASSOCIATIONS OF FLOWERS 
A few years since, when this flower was the emblem 
of Napoleon’s party, and that general was called le pere 
la violette, a small bunch of violets hung up in the house, 
or worn about the person of a Frenchman, characterised 
his politics as certainly as once in our own country the 
red or white rose bespoke the adherence of the wearer to 
the house of York or Lancaster. 
Many ancient fables have accounted for the origin of 
the name of violet; for not to modern poets only has the 
flower been an object of beauty. From Homer, down 
to our own Byron and Wordsworth, few poets have failed 
to mention it. To one, it has suggested the image of a 
secluded miaiden ; to another, a beautiful eye has seemed 
a violet dropping dew. We are all acquainted with 
Shakspeare’s beautiful comparison : — 
“ That strain again — it had a dying fall ; 
Oh! it came o’er my ear, like the sweet south 
That breathes upon a bank of violets. 
Stealing and giving odours.” 
Perhaps of the various etymologies assigned to the name, 
that may be truest which derives its origin from the 
word Vias (wayside), whence its sweet fragrance often 
greets the wanderer in the country. 
In former times various flowers bore the name of 
violet. Thus the snowdrop was called the bulbous or 
narcissus violet ; the wallflower was termed the Garnesee 
violet ; and in French, Viole jaune. The plant now 
comonly known by the name of honesty, had, in addi- 
tion to that of moonwort, the appellation of Strange 
violet; and two species of gentian were called, one the 
autumn bell-flower, or Calathian violet, and another the 
Marion’s violet. The periwinkle, now generally known 
in France by the name of Pervenche, went, in other times, 
by that of du lisseron, or Violette des sorciers ; and our 
own favourite spring-flower was called, in distinction from 
the others, the March violet, and by its French synonym 
of Violette de Mars. 
A wine made from the flowers of the sweet violet was 
much used by the Romans, and the sherbet of the Turks 
is composed of violet syrup, mingled with water. The 
