end, place two or three in each hole, so as to cover the sand entirely, keeping the flowers about half an inch above the sand, which should be pressed tight to the stalks. In this manner they may be preserved fresh for several days, and yield their delightful fragrance for the enjoyment of those who are not able to seek them in the fields, where Blows not a blossom on the breast of Spring, Breathes not a gale along the bending mead, But fragrance, health, and melody succeed. LANGHORNE. The Sweet Violet was held in considerable estimation by the ancients for its medicinal properties; and the petals of this flower are still used in medicine, principally as a cooling, emollient, and gentle cathartic. For this purpose they are made into a syrup by the following simple process to one pound of fresh-gathered Sweet Violets, carefully picked, add two pints and a half of boiling water; infuse them a whole day in a glass, or glazed china vessel; then pour off the fluid, and strain it through muslin, avoiding all pressure; after which add double its weight of the finest sugar, and make it into a syrup, without letting it boil. This, with a small quantity of almond oil, is an excellent laxative medicine for young children, and is esteemed good for irritating coughs and sore throats. The seeds of the Violet are said to be strongly diuretic, and useful in gravel complaints. The Sweet Violet is highly valuable in chemistry to detect an acid or an alkali; and this test is so delicate, that the smallest quantity of free acid or alkali in any mixture is immediately detected by the syrup of Violets, as acids turn the blue colour of it to a red, and alkalies to a green: for this purpose Violets are cultivated in large quantities at Stratford-upon-Avon. PANSY, OR HEART'S EASE. Viola tricolor. And thou, so rich in gentle names, appealing Hopes which ought not, like things of time, to cloy, Ye valleys low, Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes, BARTON. That on the green turf suck the honey'd showers And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. THE tints of this variable flower are scarce less numerous than the names that have been bestowed on it. That of Pansy is a corruption of the French name pensée, thought. In Shakspeare's Tragedy of Hamlet, Ophelia says― and there are Pansies, that's for thoughts. In the floral language, as adopted by the French, this favourite flower means, " think of me," pensez à moi. The hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians abound in floral symbols, and from hence we may surmise that the Greeks became accustomed to this figurative language. Their poetical fables are full of the metamorphoses of their deities into plants; indeed there was no flower to which their imaginations had not affixed some meaning: even to this day a young Arcadian is seldom seen without his turban full of flowers, presented to him by the beauty he admires, by the silent language of which his hopes are kept alive; and it forms one of the great amusements of the Greek girls to drop these symbols of their esteem, or scorn, upon the various passengers who pass their latticed windows. Shakspeare notices the Heart's-ease by the name of Love in Idleness, in his celebrated compliment to Queen Elizabeth, which he makes Oberon deliver in the Midsummer Night's Dream :— That very time I saw Flying betwixt the cold earth and the moon, VOL. I. E Cupid all arm'd:-a certain aim he took And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow, In maiden meditation, fancy free. Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell : It fell upon a little western flower,— Before, milk-white,-now purple with love's wound, And maidens call it Love-in-idleness. Spenser calls it the "pretty pawncy," and Mr. Leigh Hunt admits it into his verse under the name of Heart's-ease : the garden's gem Heart's-ease, like a gallant bold, In his cloth of purple and gold. In addition to these names, it bears those of Herb Trinity, Three faces under a hood, Flame Flower, Jump up and kiss me, Flower of Jove, Pink of my John, and others equally whimsical and unappropriate. Nature sports as much with the colours of this little flower as she does with the features of the human countenance; and you may almost as well seek a perfect likeness in two faces, as hunt for Pansies of the same tint. Whilst looking on a bank of these favourite flowers, we may safely say with Cowley Can all your tap'stries, or your pictures, show The most brilliant purples of the artist appear dull when compared to that of the Pansy, our richest satins and velvets coarse and unsightly by a comparison of texture; and as to delicacy of shading, it is scarcely surpassed by the bow of Iris itself. When seen individually, the flower must be noticed with admiration, yet it is not calculated to make a figure in the garden unless planted in large clumps; but when a considerable plot of rising ground is covered with these flowers, the appearance cannot be equalled by the finest artificers in purple and gold. The seeds may be sown at almost any season of the year. Those sown late in the autumn blossom early, whilst those sown in the spring flower during the summer. It is a flower that bears transplanting; and if the branches are cut off when the beauty of the blossom is past, they will send out fresh branches, and continue to flower throughout the year; but when suffered to ripen the seed, the plant generally dies. We have frequently kept the plants alive for several years by this treatment; and transplanting rather adds to the beauty of the flower than otherwise. The Pansy will grow in almost any soil and situation, but the self-sown plants degenerate very rapidly, producing only small dingy flowers. The perfume of the Pansy is too weak to be |