120 THE COTTAGE 
thoughtsa derivation Shakespeare admits when he 
makes Ophelia say— 
“And there is Pansies, that’s for thoughts.” 
Even the grammar here is not objectionable, for theie 
is no doubt that Panseys, or Thoughts, was the name 
applied to the flower. 
Live-in-idleness is not the name it usually received, 
j even in Gerarde's time, for Shakespeare, bis contern- 
j porary, writes thus of it:— 
“ Mark’d X where the bolt of Cupid fell: 
It fell upon a little western flower,— 
Before, milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,— 
I And maidens call it Love-in-idleness. 
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid, 
Will make a man or woman madly dote 
Upon the next live creature that it sees.” 
I A superstition that gives a clue to this name, populai 
| even now in some parts of England. 
CulUne-to-you was a name inviting a gathering, and 
| well suited for a love gift when modesty forbade a bolder 
( invitation. 
“ No word spake she; and yet the flower 
She threw, was ‘ Cull-me-to-your-bower.’ ” 
Three-faces-in-a-hood alludes to the form of the flower, 
the under petals, over-hung by the two larger upper ones, 
bearing some resemblance to what the name describes. 
But some carried the resemblance even further, and one 
old herbalist writes indignantly—“ This is that herb 
which such physicians as are licensed to blaspheme by 
authority, without danger of having their tongues burned 
through with an hot iron, called an herb of the Trinity.” 
Whichever name be selected for this our favourite 
flower, we recommend it especially to our readers. The 
beauty and long succession of its blooms, the endless 
variety of these, the fragrance of some, and the cheap¬ 
ness of all, recommend it strongly for more general cul¬ 
tivation, and with an assurance that it will give heart's- 
ease to the grower. 
It is but recently admitted among Florists’ Flowers; 
GARDENEE. [May 30. 
and we think that Hogg, in 1833, was the first who 
wrote upon it as belonging to the class; and he begins 
by saying, “Several florists have lately turned their 
attention to the culture of Heartease.” Many have 
written since upon the characteristics which belong to it 
when really a superior flower, but Mr. Glenny has 
gathered together all the good suggestions of his pre¬ 
decessors, adding others of his own, and we reprint them 
with such alterations as we consider desirable, 
1. Each bloom should be nearly perfectly circular, 
flat, and very smooth at the edge; every notch, or un¬ 
evenness, being a blemish. 
2. The petals should be thick, and of a rich velvety 
texture. 
3. Whatever may be the colours, the principal, or 
ground colour of the three lower petals, should be alike : 
whether it be white, yellow, straw colour, plain, fringed, 
or blotched, there should not in these three petals be a 
shade difference in the principal colour; and the white, 
yellow, or straw colour should be pure. 
4. Whatever may be the character of the marks or 
darker pencillings on the ground colour, they should be 
bright, dense, distinct, and retain their character, with¬ 
out running or flushing, that is, mixing with the ground 
colour. 
5. The two upper petals should be perfectly uniform, 
whether dark or light, or fringed, or blotched. The two 
petals immediately under them should be alike; and the 
lower petal, as before obsei'ved, must have the same 
ground colour and character as the two above it; and 
the pencilling or marking of the eye in the three lower 
petals must not break through to the edges. 
0. If flowers are equal in other respects, the larger, if 
not the coarser, is the better; but no flower should be 
shown that is under one inch and a half across. 
7. Ragged or notched edges, crumpled petals, inden¬ 
tures on the petal, indistinct markings or pencillings, 
and flushed or run-colours, are great blemishes; hut 
if a bloom has one ground colour to the lower petal and 
another colour to the side ones, or if it has two shades 
of ground colour at all, it is not a show flower. The 
yellow within the eye is not considered ground colour.— 
Qlennys Properties of Flowers. 
THE ERUIT-GARDEN. 
Peaks. —Believing, as we do, that two-thirds of the 
readers of this work esteem good pears in the winter 
dessert, it will become a duty to recur somewhat ire- 
ciuentlv to their culture ; for of all our fruits the pear 
seems best fitted to adapt itself to the controlling power 
of man. This arises in a great degree from its natural 
longevity and hardihood. 
In former days the culture of this fruit was veiy 1111 - 
perfectly understood, all being comprised in a prim sys¬ 
tem of winter pruning, which sought more to enslave 
nature than to assist her. Such an effort ended as might 
have been anticipated by a mind unfettered by the cus 
toms of a bygone age. The trees proved uncontrollable 
in spite of the neat spurring system of those redoubtable 
sons of the soil, with their cut-and-dry recipes. 
In due time it occurred to the minds of many that the 
action of the root was a point tor consideration, and that 
