51 
THE HEARTSEASE, OR PANSY VIOLET. 
VIOLA TRICOLOR. 
And “ Thou, so rich in gentle names appealing 
To hearts that own our nature’s common lot ; 
Thou, styled by sportive Fancy’s better feeling, 
‘ A Thought’ —the Heartsease.” 
Besides adorning our own meadows, this favourite 
little flower grows in many parts of Europe, and is also a 
native of Siberia and Japan. There are many varieties, 
the larger ones of which only are odorous. No flower 
was ever gifted with so many names; to enumerate them 
would be a somewhat tedious task, but surely the very 
multiplicity speaks the estimation in which it is held. 
Its more usual appellations are Heartsease and Pansy, 
the latter a corruption of the French pensee; as such, it 
forms part of Ophelia’s mournful wreath; 
- “ There is pansies, 
That’s for thoughts.” 
The “ pansy freaked with jet” is also one of the 
flowers which Milton culls for the bier of Lycidas. 
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