Violet. 
(MODESTY.) 
“The violet is for modesty.” 
Burns. 
V IOLETS, considered by some, including Scotia’s shepherd 
bard, typical of modesty , by others are deemed emble¬ 
matic of faithfulness; and the latter have the support of one 
of Shakspeare’s contemporary poets : 
“Violet is for faithfulness, 
Which in me shall abide ; 
Hoping likewise that from your heart 
You will not let it slide.” 
The rank which this timid little blossom holds in floral 
caligraphy is a very exalted one ; indeed, the rose excepted, 
there is not a flower that “ tolls its perfume on the passing air,” 
which is so generally admired and belauded. From Homer 
down to Tennyson, not a famous poet but has linked its 
sweetness with his own, and many are the lovely ideas its 
beauty and fragrance have suggested. 
“The violet was as proud a device of the Ionic Athenians,” 
says a well-known author, “ as the rose of England and the 
lily of France. In all seasons it was to be seen exposed for 
sale in the market-place at Athens, the citizens being success¬ 
ful in rearing it in their gardens even when the ground was 
covered with snow.” 
These Greeks, who peopled the petals of every blossom and 
the ripples of every rill with the graceful offspring of their 
fancy, designated this floweret Ion, which name some enter¬ 
prising etymologists believe to be a derivation of la, the 
daughter of Midas and the betrothed of Atys, whom, they say, 
to conceal her from Apollo, Diana transformed into a violet. 
Other mythological accounts state that Jupiter caused the first 
