POETRY OF FLOWERS. 177 
pet. It appertains to a very extensive family, 
and is found in many portions of the globe; it 
grows wild in Japan, Languedoc, Italy, and in 
our own country. A very pretty pale yellow va¬ 
riety may often be discovered nestling amid the 
wheat. 
“ There are pansies : that’s for thoughts,” 
says Shakspeare, and describes the pansy as 
originally milk-white, until it got struck by a 
shaft which that little unbreeched rogue Cupid 
had aimed at Diana, so that it is now “purple 
with love’s wound.” 
Mrs. Siddons is said to have been much ena- 
nored of this blossom, and to have used it for 
edgings to all the borders of her flower-beds. 
This floral pet, having received much atten¬ 
tion from the feminine world, has been very ap¬ 
propriately designated “ the ladies’ flower,” a 
name which is not the most fanciful that it has 
acquired, for, to quote once more our great dra¬ 
matist, maidens call it “love in idleness.” 
“ Three-pretty-faces-under-one-hood” is an¬ 
other of its pretty titles. 
A few years since the heart’s-ease rvas a hum¬ 
ble little flower quite unknown to floral fame: 
in the year 1812, however, lady Mary Bennett 
entertained a penchant for the flower, and had 
a small garden planted entirely with it. Desi¬ 
rous of pleasing hex’, the gardener selected the „ 
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