BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
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’ Even the medical uses of the Sweet Violet have something poetical in them ; for Culpepper tells us that 
the flowers of this plant, when held in the palm of the hand and pressed against the temples, were found to 
relieve headaches and revive the drooping spirits. 
It may perhaps be also interesting to the young student in botany, to know that it was from having 
the curious construction of the Violet pointed out to him, that Bartram, the celebrated American botanist, 
first began to take an interest in the study of plants. 
The White Violet is only a variety of the common kind; but it is still more fragrant. It grows abundantly 
on calcareous soils; and I remember gathering it in my youth in great abundance in the woods round the 
ruins of Dudley Castle. The White Violet in the floral language, is made the emblem of candour, as the 
common kind is that of modesty. 
2.— THE DOG VIOLET. (Viola canina, Lin.) 
Engravings. —Eng.Bot., t. 620 ; 2nd ed., t. 331 ; and our Jiff. 2, Leaves oblong, heart-shaped. Calyx acute. Stipules serrated, 
in PI. 13. Bracteas awl-shaped, entire. (Smith.) 
Specific Character. —Stem at length ascending, channelled. I 
Description, &c. —This species having no fragrance, is sometimes called the scentless Violet. It is common 
in every copse and heath, where it can find shade; while, as it never appears till the sweet-scented Violet has 
gone out of flower, it was supposed by some of the old writers on floriculture to be the same plant after it had 
lost its scent and part of its colour from being exposed to the heat of the sun. The following lines have been 
addressed to it:— 
Deceitful plant 1 from thee no odours rise, 
Perfume the air, or scent the mossy glade, 
Although thy blossoms wear the modest guise 
Of her, the sweetest offspring of the shade. 
Yet not like her’s, still shunning to be seen, 
And by their fragrant breath alone betray’d 
Veil’d in the vesture of a scantier green, 
To every gazer are thy flowers display’d. 
Thus virtue’s garb hypocrisy may wear, 
Kneel as she kneels, or give as she has given ; 
But ah ! no meek retiring worth is there, 
No incense of the heart exhales to heaven ! ”— C. II. Townsend. 
3.—THE WILD HEART’S-EASE. (Viola tricolor, Lin.) 
Synonymes. —V. arvensis, Sibth. The Pansy. 
Engravings. —Eng. Bot., t. 1287 ; 2nd ed., t. 333 ; and our Jig. 
3, in PI. 13. 
Specific Character. —Stem angular, diffuse, divided. Leaves 
oblong, deeply crenate. Stipules lyrate, pinnatifid. Bracteas obsolete. 
(Smith.) 
Description, &c. —The wild Heart’s-ease, or Pansy, is a very common British annual, growing most 
commonly in the headlands, or unploughed part of corn-fields; but also by the roadside, and in various other 
situations wherever there is a portion of waste, marly ground. The different kinds of Heart’s-ease cultivated in 
gardens, spring partly from this species, and partly from V. lutea, hybridised by various foreign kinds. The 
botanical construction of the Heart’s-ease is the same as that of the sweet Violet, excepting that the spur of the 
flower is much shorter. Perhaps no flower had ever more popular names than this : besides its ordinary names 
of Pansy and Heart’s-ease, it is called Love in idleness; Three faces under a hood; Kiss behind the garden-gate; 
Jump up and kiss me, and by various other fanciful appellations. The name of Pansy is evidently derived from 
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