Proserpina, Volume 2 | Page 4

horns and tails. "The stamens are five in number--two of them, which are in front of the others, are hidden within the horn of the front petal," etc., etc., etc. (Note in passing, by the '_horn of the front_' petal he means the '_spur of the bottom_' one, which indeed does stand in front of the rest,--but if therefore it is to be called the front petal--which is the back one?) You may find in the next paragraph description of a "singular conformation," and the interesting conclusion that "no one has yet discovered for what purpose this singular conformation was provided." But you will not, in the entire article, find the least attempt to tell you the difference between a violet and a pansy!--except in one statement--and that false! "The sweet violet will have no rival among flowers, if we merely seek for delicate fragrance; but her sister, the heartsease, who is destitute of all sweetness, far surpasses her in rich dresses and _gaudy_!!! colours." The heartsease is not without sweetness. There are sweet pansies scented, and dog pansies unscented--as there are sweet violets scented, and dog violets unscented. What is the real difference?
14. I turn to another scientific gentleman--more scientific in form indeed, Mr. Grindon,--and find, for another interesting phenomenon in the violet, that it sometimes produces flowers without any petals! and in the pansy, that "the flowers turn towards the sun, and when many are open at once, present a droll appearance, looking like a number of faces all on the 'qui vive.'" But nothing of the difference between them, except something about 'stipules,' of which "it is important to observe that the leaves should be taken from the middle of the stem--those above and below being variable."
I observe, however, that Mr. Grindon has arranged his violets under the letter A, and his pansies under the letter B, and that something may be really made out of him, with an hour or two's work. I am content, however, at present, with his simplifying assurance that of violet and pansy together, "six species grow wild in Britain--or, as some believe, only four--while the analysts run the number up to fifteen."
15. Next I try Loudon's Cyclop?dia, which, through all its 700 pages, is equally silent on the business; and next, Mr. Baxter's 'British Flowering Plants,' in the index of which I find neither Pansy nor Heartsease, and only the 'Calathian' Violet, (where on earth is Calathia?) which proves, on turning it up, to be a Gentian.
16. At last, I take my Figuier, (but what should I do if I only knew English?) and find this much of clue to the matter:--
"Qu'est ce que c'est que la Pens��e? Cette jolie plante appartient aussi ou genre Viola, mais �� un section de ce genre. En effet, dans les Pens��es, les p��tales sup��rieurs et lateraux sont dirig��s en haut, l'inf��rieur seul est dirig�� en bas: et de plus, le stigmate est urc��ole, globuleux."
And farther, this general description of the whole violet tribe, which I translate, that we may have its full value:--
"The violet is a plant without a stem (tige),--(see vol. i., p. 154,)--whose height does not surpass one or two decimetres. Its leaves, radical, or carried on stolons, (vol. i., p. 158,) are sharp, or oval, crenulate, or heart-shape. Its stipules are oval-acuminate, or lanceolate. Its flowers, of sweet scent, of a dark violet or a reddish blue, are carried each on a slender peduncle, which bends down at the summit. Such is, for the botanist, the Violet, of which the poets would give assuredly another description."
17. Perhaps; or even the painters! or even an ordinary unbotanical human creature! I must set about my business, at any rate, in my own way, now, as I best can, looking first at things themselves, and then putting this and that together, out of these botanical persons, which they can't put together out of themselves. And first, I go down into my kitchen garden, where the path to the lake has a border of pansies on both sides all the way down, with clusters of narcissus behind them. And pulling up a handful of pansies by the roots, I find them "without stems," indeed, if a stem means a wooden thing; but I should say, for a low-growing flower, quiet lankily and disagreeably stalky! And, thinking over what I remember about wild pansies, I find an impression on my mind of their being rather more stalky, always, than is quite graceful; and, for all their fine flowers, having rather a weedy and littery look, and getting into places where they have no business. See, again, vol. i., chap. vi., �� 5.
18. And now, going up into my flower and fruit garden, I find (June 2nd, 1881, half-past six, morning.) among the wild saxifrages, which are