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diff --git a/15088-h/15088-h.htm b/15088-h/15088-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..811b743 --- /dev/null +++ b/15088-h/15088-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4906 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= + "text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Proserpina + </title> + + <style type="text/css"> + +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + hr.short {text-align: center; width: 20%;} + body { margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + table { border-collapse: collapse; border: none } + td { padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; border: none } + td.tbar { border-left : thin solid black; vertical-align: top; } + td.mbar { border-left : thin solid black; vertical-align: middle; } + table.allb { border : thin solid black; border-collapse: collapse } + td.allb { border : thin solid black; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; } + + .contents + {margin-left:30%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .contents .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .contents p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + .poem + {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + p.i4 {margin-left: 2em;} + p.i6 {margin-left: 3em;} + p.i8 {margin-left: 4em;} + p.z8 {margin-left: 4em; font-style: italic;} + p.i10 {margin-left: 5em;} + p.z10 {margin-left: 5em; font-style: italic;} + p.i12 {margin-left: 6em;} + p.i16 {margin-left: 8em;} + p.i20 {margin-left: 10em;} + + a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} + + .noflo + {margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .noflo .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .noflo p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .noflo p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + .noflo p.i16 {margin-left: 8em;} + + .author {text-align: right; margin-top: -1em; margin-right: 5%;} + .center {text-align: center; } + .right {text-align: right; } + .t {vertical-align: top; } + .m {vertical-align: middle; } + .b {font-weight: bold; } + .vol {/*font-weight: bold;*/ font-size: small;} + /* .grk {font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; } */ + .grk {font-style: normal; } + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 60%;} /* poetry number */ + blockquote {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: left;} /* sidenotes */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; + font-size: small; } /* footnote */ + + .figure, .figcenter, .figright, .figleft + {padding: 1em; margin: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em;} + .figure img, .figcenter img, .figright img, .figleft img + {border: none;} + .figure p, .figcenter p, .figright p, .figleft p + {margin: 0; text-indent: 1em;} + .figure p.in, .figcenter p.in, .figright p.in, .figleft p.in + {margin: 0; text-indent: 8em;} + .figcenter {margin: auto;} + .figright {float: right;} + .figleft {float: left;} + // --> + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Proserpina, Volume 2, by John Ruskin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Proserpina, Volume 2 + Studies Of Wayside Flowers + +Author: John Ruskin + +Release Date: February 17, 2005 [EBook #15088] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROSERPINA, VOLUME 2 *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Keith Edkins and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>PROSERPINA.</h1> + +<h2>STUDIES OF WAYSIDE FLOWERS,</h2> + +<p class="center">WHILE THE AIR WAS YET PURE</p> + +<h3><i>AMONG THE ALPS, AND IN THE SCOTLAND AND<br /> +ENGLAND WHICH MY FATHER KNEW</i>.</h3> + +<p class="center">BY</p> + +<h2>JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D.,</h2> + +<p class="center">HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRISTCHURCH, AND HONORARY FELLOW OF CORPUS<br /> +CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD.</p> + +<h3>VOL. II.</h3> + +<h3>1888.</h3> + + <br clear="all" /> +<hr /> + + <p><!-- Page 1 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_1"></a>[1]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<p class="center">VIOLA.</p> + + <p>1. Although I have not been able in the preceding volume to complete, + in any wise as I desired, the account of the several parts and actions of + plants in general, I will not delay any longer our entrance on the + examination of particular kinds, though here and there I must interrupt + such special study by recurring to general principles, or points of wider + interest. But the scope of such larger inquiry will be best seen, and the + use of it best felt, by entering now on specific study.</p> + + <p>I begin with the Violet, because the arrangement of the group to which + it belongs—Cytherides—is more arbitrary than that of the + rest, and calls for some immediate explanation.</p> + + <p>2. I fear that my readers may expect me to write something very pretty + for them about violets: but my time for writing prettily is long past; + and it requires some watching over myself, I find, to keep me even <!-- + Page 2 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2"></a>[2]</span> from + writing querulously. For while, the older I grow, very thankfully I + recognize more and more the number of pleasures granted to human eyes in + this fair world, I recognize also an increasing sensitiveness in my + temper to anything that interferes with them; and a grievous readiness to + find fault—always of course submissively, but very + articulately—with whatever Nature seems to me not to have managed + to the best of her power;—as, for extreme instance, her late + arrangements of frost this spring, destroying all the beauty of the wood + sorrels; nor am I less inclined, looking to her as the greatest of + sculptors and painters, to ask, every time I see a narcissus, why it + should be wrapped up in brown paper; and every time I see a violet, what + it wants with a spur?</p> + + <p>3. What <i>any</i> flower wants with a spur, is indeed the simplest + and hitherto to me unanswerablest form of the question; nevertheless, + when blossoms grow in spires, and are crowded together, and have to grow + partly downwards, in order to win their share of light and breeze, one + can see some reason for the effort of the petals to expand upwards and + backwards also. But that a violet, who has her little stalk to herself, + and might grow straight up, if she pleased, should be pleased to do + nothing of the sort, but quite gratuitously bend her stalk down at the + top, and fasten herself to it by her waist, as it were,—this is so + much more like a girl of the period's fancy than a violet's, that I never + gather one separately but with renewed astonishment at it.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 3 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3"></a>[3]</span> + 4. One reason indeed there is, which I never thought of until this + moment! a piece of stupidity which I can only pardon myself in, because, + as it has chanced, I have studied violets most in gardens, not in their + wild haunts,—partly thinking their Athenian honour was as a garden + flower; and partly being always fed away from them, among the hills, by + flowers which I could see nowhere else. With all excuse I can furbish up, + however, it is shameful that the truth of the matter never struck me + before, or at least this bit of the truth—as follows.</p> + + <p>5. The Greeks, and Milton, alike speak of violets as growing in + meadows (or dales). But the Greeks did so because they could not fancy + any delight except in meadows; and Milton, because he wanted a rhyme to + nightingale—and, after all, was London bred. But Viola's beloved + knew where violets grew in Illyria,—and grow everywhere else also, + when they can,—on a <i>bank</i>, facing the south.</p> + + <p>Just as distinctly as the daisy and buttercup are <i>meadow</i> + flowers, the violet is a <i>bank</i> flower, and would fain grow always + on a steep slope, towards the sun. And it is so poised on its stem that + it shows, when growing on a slope, the full space and opening of its + flower,—not at all, in any strain of modesty, hiding <i>itself</i>, + though it may easily be, by grass or mossy stone, 'half + hidden,'—but, to the full, showing itself, and intending to be + lovely and luminous, as fragrant, to the uttermost of its soft power.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 4 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4"></a>[4]</span> + Nor merely in its oblique setting on the stalk, but in the reversion of + its two upper petals, the flower shows this purpose of being fully seen. + (For a flower that <i>does</i> hide itself, take a lily of the valley, or + the bell of a grape hyacinth, or a cyclamen.) But respecting this matter + of petal-reversion, we must now farther state two or three general + principles.</p> + +<a name="ChI_6"></a> + <p>6. A perfect or pure flower, as a rose, oxalis, or campanula, is + always composed of an unbroken whorl, or corolla, in the form of a disk, + cup, bell, or, if it draw together again at the lips, a narrow-necked + vase. This cup, bell, or vase, is divided into similar petals, (or + segments, which are petals carefully joined,) varying in number from + three to eight, and enclosed by a calyx whose sepals are symmetrical + also.</p> + + <p>An imperfect, or, as I am inclined rather to call it, an 'injured' + flower, is one in which some of the petals have inferior office and + position, and are either degraded, for the benefit of others, or expanded + and honoured at the cost of others.</p> + + <p>Of this process, the first and simplest condition is the reversal of + the upper petals and elongation of the lower ones, in blossoms set on the + side of a clustered stalk. When the change is simply and directly + dependent on their position in the cluster, as in Aurora Regina,<a + name="NtA_1"></a><a href="#Nt_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> modifying every bell + just in proportion as it declines from the perfected central one, some of + the loveliest groups of <!-- Page 5 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_5"></a>[5]</span> form are produced which can be seen in any + inferior organism: but when the irregularity becomes fixed, and the + flower is always to the same extent distorted, whatever its position in + the cluster, the plant is to be rightly thought of as reduced to a lower + rank in creation.</p> + + <p>7. It is to be observed, also, that these inferior forms of flower + have always the appearance of being produced by some kind of + mischief—blight, bite, or ill-breeding; they never suggest the idea + of improving themselves, now, into anything better; one is only afraid of + their tearing or puffing themselves into something worse. Nay, even the + quite natural and simple conditions of inferior vegetable do not in the + least suggest, to the unbitten or unblighted human intellect, the notion + of development into anything other than their like: one does not expect a + mushroom to translate itself into a pineapple, nor a betony to moralize + itself into a lily, nor a snapdragon to soften himself into a lilac.</p> + + <p>8. It is very possible, indeed, that the recent phrenzy for the + investigation of digestive and reproductive operations in plants may by + this time have furnished the microscopic malice of botanists with + providentially disgusting reasons, or demoniacally nasty necessities, for + every possible spur, spike, jag, sting, rent, blotch, flaw, freckle, + filth, or venom, which can be detected in the construction, or distilled + from the dissolution, of vegetable organism. But with these obscene + processes and prurient apparitions the gentle and happy scholar of <!-- + Page 6 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6"></a>[6]</span> flowers + has nothing whatever to do. I am amazed and saddened, more than I can + care to say, by finding how much that is abominable may be discovered by + an ill-taught curiosity, in the purest things that earth is allowed to + produce for us;—perhaps if we were less reprobate in our own ways, + the grass which is our type might conduct itself better, even though + <i>it</i> has no hope but of being cast into the oven; in the meantime, + healthy human eyes and thoughts are to be set on the lovely laws of its + growth and habitation, and not on the mean mysteries of its birth.</p> + + <p>9. I relieve, therefore, our presently inquiring souls from any + farther care as to the reason for a violet's spur,—or for the + extremely ugly arrangements of its stamens and style, invisible unless by + vexatious and vicious peeping. You are to think of a violet only in its + green leaves, and purple or golden petals;—you are to know the + varieties of form in both, proper to common species; and in what kind of + places they all most fondly live, and most deeply glow.</p> + + <p>"And the recreation of the minde which is taken heereby cannot be but + verie good and honest, for they admonish and stir up a man to that which + is comely and honest. For flowers, through their beautie, varietie of + colour, and exquisite forme, do bring to a liberall and gentle manly + minde the remembrance of honestie, comeliness, and all kinds of vertues. + For it would be an unseemely and filthie thing, as a certain wise man + saith, for <!-- Page 7 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_7"></a>[7]</span> him that doth looke upon and handle faire + and beautiful things, and who frequenteth and is conversant in faire and + beautiful places, to have his mind not faire, but filthie and + deformed."</p> + + <p>10. Thus Gerarde, in the close of his introductory notice of the + violet,—speaking of things, (honesty, comeliness, and the like,) + scarcely now recognized as desirable in the realm of England; but having + previously observed that violets are useful for the making of garlands + for the head, and posies to smell to;—in which last function I + observe they are still pleasing to the British public: and I found the + children here, only the other day, munching a confection of candied + violet leaves. What pleasure the flower can still give us, uncandied, and + unbound, but in its own place and life, I will try to trace through some + of its constant laws.</p> + + <p>11. And first, let us be clear that the native colour of the violet + <i>is</i> violet; and that the white and yellow kinds, though pretty in + their place and way, are not to be thought of in generally meditating the + flower's quality or power. A white violet is to black ones what a black + man is to white ones; and the yellow varieties are, I believe, properly + pansies, and belong also to wild districts for the most part; but the + true violet, which I have just now called 'black,' with Gerarde, "the + blacke or purple violet, hath a great prerogative above others," and all + the nobler species of the pansy itself are of full purple, inclining, + however, in the ordinary wild violet to <!-- Page 8 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8"></a>[8]</span> blue. In the 'Laws of + Fésole,' chap, vii., §§ 20, 21, I have made this dark pansy the + representative of purple pure; the viola odorata, of the link between + that full purple and blue; and the heath-blossom of the link between that + full purple and red. The reader will do well, as much as may be possible + to him, to associate his study of botany, as indeed all other studies of + visible things, with that of painting: but he must remember that he + cannot know what violet colour really is, unless he watch the flower in + its <i>early</i> growth. It becomes dim in age, and dark when it is + gathered—at least, when it is tied in bunches;—but I am under + the impression that the colour actually deadens also,—at all + events, no other single flower of the same quiet colour lights up the + ground near it as a violet will. The bright hounds-tongue looks merely + like a spot of bright paint; but a young violet glows like painted + glass.</p> + + <p>12. Which, when you have once well noticed, the two lines of Milton + and Shakspeare which seem opposed, will both become clear to you. The + said lines are dragged from hand to hand along their pages of pilfered + quotations by the hack botanists,—who probably never saw + <i>them</i>, nor anything else, <i>in</i> Shakspeare or Milton in their + lives,—till even in reading them where they rightly come, you can + scarcely recover their fresh meaning: but none of the botanists ever + think of asking why Perdita calls the violet 'dim,' and Milton + 'glowing.'</p> + + <p>Perdita, indeed, calls it dim, at that moment, in thinking <!-- Page 9 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9"></a>[9]</span> of her own love, + and the hidden passion of it, unspeakable; nor is Milton without some + purpose of using it as an emblem of love, mourning,—but, in both + cases, the subdued and quiet hue of the flower as an actual tint of + colour, and the strange force and life of it as a part of light, are felt + to their uttermost.</p> + + <p>And observe, also, that both, of the poets contrast the violet, in its + softness, with the intense marking of the pansy. Milton makes the + opposition directly—-</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p style="margin-left: 4em">"the pansy, freaked with jet,</p> + <p>The glowing violet."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>Shakspeare shows yet stronger sense of the difference, in the "purple + with Love's wound" of the pansy, while the violet is sweet with Love's + hidden life, and sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes.</p> + + <p>Whereupon, we may perhaps consider with ourselves a little, what the + difference <i>is</i> between a violet and a pansy?</p> + + <p>13. Is, I say, and was, and is to come,—in spite of florists, + who try to make pansies round, instead of pentagonal; and of the wise + classifying people, who say that violets and pansies are the same + thing—and that neither of them are of much interest! As, for + instance, Dr. Lindley in his 'Ladies' Botany.'</p> + + <p>"Violets—sweet Violets, and Pansies, or Heartsease, represent a + small family, with the structure of which you should be familiar; more, + however, for the sake of <!-- Page 10 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_10"></a>[10]</span> its singularity than for its extent or + importance, for the family is a very small one, and there are but few + species belonging to it in which much interest is taken. As the parts of + the Heartsease are larger than those of the Violet, let us select the + former in preference for the subject of our study." Whereupon we plunge + instantly into the usual account of things with 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 '<i>horn of the front</i>' petal he means the + '<i>spur of the bottom</i>' one, which indeed does stand in front of the + rest,—but if therefore <i>it</i> is to be called the <i>front</i> + 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 <i>that</i> 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 <i>gaudy</i>!!! + 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?</p> + + <p><!-- Page 11 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_11"></a>[11]</span> 14. I turn to another scientific + gentleman—<i>more</i> 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."</p> + + <p>I observe, however, that Mr. Grindon <i>has</i> 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."</p> + + <p>15. Next I try Loudon's Cyclopædia, 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.</p> + + <p>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:—</p> + + <p><!-- Page 12 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_12"></a>[12]</span> "Qu'est ce que c'est que la Pensée? Cette + jolie plante appartient aussi ou genre Viola, mais à un section de ce + genre. En effet, dans les Pensées, les pétales supérieurs et lateraux + sont dirigés en haut, l'inférieur seul est dirigé en bas: et de plus, le + stigmate est urcéole, globuleux."</p> + + <p>And farther, this general description of the whole violet tribe, which + I translate, that we may have its full value:—</p> + + <p>"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."</p> + + <p>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 <!-- Page + 13 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13"></a>[13]</span> 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.</p> + + <p>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 + allowed to grow wherever they like, and the rock strawberries, and + Francescas, which are coaxed to grow wherever there is a bit of rough + ground for them, a bunch or two of pale pansies, or violets, I don't know + well which, by the flower; but the entire company of them has a ragged, + jagged, unpurpose-like look; extremely,—I should + say,—demoralizing to all the little plants in their neighbourhood: + and on gathering a flower, I find it is a nasty big thing, all of a + feeble blue, and with two things like horns, or thorns, sticking out + where its ears would be, if the pansy's frequently monkey face were + underneath them. Which I find to be two of the leaves of its calyx 'out + of place,' and, at all events, for their part, therefore, weedy, and + insolent.</p> + + <p>19. I perceive, farther, that this disorderly flower is <!-- Page 14 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14"></a>[14]</span> lifted on a + lanky, awkward, springless, and yet stiff flower-stalk; which is not + round, as a flower-stalk ought to be, (vol. i., p. 155,) but obstinately + square, and fluted, with projecting edges, like a pillar run thin out of + an iron-foundry for a cheap railway station. I perceive also that it has + set on it, just before turning down to carry the flower, two little jaggy + and indefinable leaves,—their colour a little more violet than the + blossom.</p> + + <p>These, and such undeveloping leaves, wherever they occur, are called + 'bracts' by botanists, a good word, from the Latin 'bractea,' meaning a + piece of metal plate, so thin as to crackle. They seem always a little + stiff, like bad parchment,—born to come to nothing—a sort of + infinitesimal fairy-lawyer's deed. They ought to have been in my index at + p. 255, under the head of leaves, and are frequent in flower + structure,—never, as far as one can see, of the smallest use. They + are constant, however, in the flower-stalk of the whole violet tribe.</p> + + <p>20. I perceive, farther, that this lanky flower-stalk, bending a + little in a crabbed, broken way, like an obstinate person tired, pushes + itself up out of a still more stubborn, nondescript, hollow angular, + dogseared gas-pipe of a stalk, with a section something like this,</p> + + <div class="figleft" style="width:7%;"> + <a href="images/016a.png"><img width="100%" src="images/016a.png" + alt="stalk section" /></a> + </div> + <p>but no bigger than + <a href="images/016b.png"><img src="images/016b.png" + alt="stalk section actual size" width="15" height="10" border="0"/></a> + with a quantity of ill-made and ill-hemmed leaves on it, of no + describable leaf-cloth or texture,—not cressic, (though the thing + does <!-- Page 15 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_15"></a>[15]</span> altogether look a good deal like a quite + uneatable old watercress); not salvian, for there's no look of warmth or + comfort in them; not cauline, for there's no juice in them; not dryad, + for there's no strength in them, nor apparent use: they seem only there, + as far as I can make out, to spoil the flower, and take the good out of + my garden bed. Nobody in the world could draw them, they are so mixed up + together, and crumpled and hacked about, as if some ill-natured child had + snipped them with blunt scissors, and an ill-natured cow chewed them a + little afterwards and left them, proved for too tough or too bitter.</p> + + <p>21. Having now sufficiently observed, it seems to me, this incongruous + plant, I proceed to ask myself, over it, M. Figuier's question, + 'Qu'est-ce c'est qu'un Pensée?' Is this a violet—or a + pansy—or a bad imitation of both?</p> + + <p>Whereupon I try if it has any scent: and to my much surprise, find it + has a full and soft one—which I suppose is what my gardener keeps + it for! According to Dr. Lindley, then, it must be a violet! But + according to M. Figuier,—let me see, do its middle petals bend up, + or down?</p> + + <p>I think I'll go and ask the gardener what <i>he</i> calls it.</p> + + <p>22. My gardener, on appeal to him, tells me it is the 'Viola Cornuta,' + but that he does not know himself if it is violet or pansy. I take my + Loudon again, and find there were fifty-three species of violets, known + in his days, of which, as it chances, Cornuta is exactly the last.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 16 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_16"></a>[16]</span> 'Horned violet': I said the green things + were <i>like</i> horns!—but what is one to say of, or to do to, + scientific people, who first call the spur of the violet's petal, horn, + and then its calyx points, horns, and never define a 'horn' all the + while!</p> + + <p>Viola Cornuta, however, let it be; for the name does mean + <i>some</i>thing, and is not false Latin. But whether violet or pansy, I + must look farther to find out.</p> + + <p>23. I take the Flora Danica, in which I at least am sure of finding + whatever is done at all, done as well as honesty and care can; and look + what species of violets it gives.</p> + + <p>Nine, in the first ten volumes of it; four in their modern sequel + (that I know of,—I have had no time to examine the last issues). + Namely, in alphabetical order, with their present Latin, or tentative + Latin, names; and in plain English, the senses intended by the hapless + scientific people, in such their tentative Latin:—</p> + + +<table border="1" width="75%" title="Violet species in Flora Danica"> +<tr><td class="t" width="6%"> + <p>(1)</p> +</td> +<td class="t" width="26%"> + <p>Viola Arvensis.</p> +</td> +<td class="t" width="50%"> + <p>Field (Violet)</p> +</td> +<td class="t" width="20%"> + <p>No. 1748</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(2)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Biflora.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Two-flowered</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>46</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(3)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Canina.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Dog</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>1453</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(3b)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Canina.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Var. Multicaulus (many-stemmed), a very singular sort of + violet—if it were so! Its real difference from our dog-violet is in + being pale blue, and having a golden centre</p> + <p><!-- Page 17 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_17"></a>[17]</span></p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>2646</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(4)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Hirta.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Hairy</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>618</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(5)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Mirabilis.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Marvellous</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>1045</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(6)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Montana.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Mountain</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>1329</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(7)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Odorata.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Odorous</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>309</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(8)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Palustris.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Marshy</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>83</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(9)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Tricolor.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Three-coloured</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>623</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(9B)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Tricolor.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Var. Arenaria, Sandy Three-coloured</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>2647</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(10)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Elatior.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Taller</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>68</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(11)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Epipsila.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>(Heaven knows what: it is Greek, not Latin, and looks as if it meant + something between a bishop and a short letter e)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>2405</p> +</td></tr></table> + + <p>I next run down this list, noting what names we can keep, and what we + can't; and what aren't worth keeping, if we could: passing over the + varieties, however, for the present, wholly.</p> + + <p>(1) Arvensis. Field-violet. Good.</p> + + <p>(2) Biflora. A good epithet, but in false Latin. It is to be our Viola + aurea, golden pansy.</p> + + <p>(3) Canina. Dog. Not pretty, but intelligible, and by common use now + classical. Must stay.</p> + + <p>(4) Hirta. Late Latin slang for hirsuta, and always used of nasty + places or nasty people; it shall not stay. The species shall be our Viola + Seclusa,—Monk's violet—meaning the kind of monk who leads a + rough life like Elijah's, or the Baptist's, <!-- Page 18 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18"></a>[18]</span> or Esau's—in + another kind. This violet is one of the loveliest that grows.</p> + + <p>(5) Mirabilis. Stays so; marvellous enough, truly: not more so than + all violets; but I am very glad to hear of scientific people capable of + admiring anything.</p> + + <p>(6) Montana. Stays so.</p> + + <p>(7) Odorata. Not distinctive;—nearly classical, however. It is + to be our Viola Regina, else I should not have altered it.</p> + + <p>(8) Palustris. Stays so.</p> + + <p>(9) Tricolor. True, but intolerable. The flower is the queen of the + true pansies: to be our Viola Psyche.</p> + + <p>(10) Elatior. Only a variety of our already accepted Cornuta.</p> + + <p>(11) The last is, I believe, also only a variety of Palustris. Its + leaves, I am informed in the text, are either + "pubescent-reticulate-venose-subreniform," or + "lato-cordate-repando-crenate;" and its stipules are + "ovate-acuminate-fimbrio-denticulate." I do not wish to pursue the + inquiry farther.</p> + + <p>24. These ten species will include, noting here and there a local + variety, all the forms which are familiar to us in Northern Europe, + except only two;—these, as it singularly chances, being the Viola + Alpium, noblest of all the wild pansies in the world, so far as I have + seen or heard of them,—of which, consequently, I find no picture, + <!-- Page 19 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19"></a>[19]</span> + nor notice, in any botanical work whatsoever; and the other, the + rock-violet of our own Yorkshire hills.</p> + + <p>We have therefore, ourselves, finally then, twelve following species + to study. I give them now all in their accepted names and proper + order,—the reasons for occasional difference between the Latin and + English name will be presently given.</p> + + +<table border="1" width="87%" title="Accepted species of violets"> +<tr><td class="t" width="5%"> + <p>(1)</p> +</td> +<td class="t" width="22%"> + <p>Viola Regina.</p> +</td> +<td class="t" width="71%"> + <p>Queen violet.</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(2)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Psyche.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Ophelia's pansy.</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(3)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Alpium.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Freneli's pansy.</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(4)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Aurea.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Golden violet.</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(5)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Montana.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Mountain Violet.</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(6)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Mirabilis.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Marvellous violet.</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(7)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Arvensis.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Field violet.</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(8)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Palustris.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Marsh violet.</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(9)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Seclusa.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Monk's violet.</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(10)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Canina.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Dog violet.</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(11)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Cornuta.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Cow violet.</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>(12)</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p> " Rupestris.</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>Crag violet.</p> +</td></tr></table> + + <p>25. We will try, presently, what is to be found out of useful, or + pretty, concerning all these twelve violets; but must first find out how + we are to know which are violets indeed, and which, pansies.</p> + + <p>Yesterday, after finishing my list, I went out again to examine Viola + Cornuta a little closer, and pulled up a full grip of it by the roots, + and put it in water in a wash-hand basin, which it filled like a truss of + green hay.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 20 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_20"></a>[20]</span> Pulling out two or three separate plants, + I find each to consist mainly of a jointed stalk of a kind I have not yet + described,—roughly, some two feet long altogether; (accurately, one + 1 ft. 10½ in.; another, 1 ft. 10 in.; another, 1 ft. 9 in.—but all + these measures taken without straightening, and therefore about an inch + short of the truth), and divided into seven or eight lengths by clumsy + joints where the mangled leafage is knotted on it; but broken a little + out of the way at each joint, like a rheumatic elbow that won't come + straight, or bend farther; and—which is the most curious point of + all in it—it is thickest in the middle, like a viper, and gets + quite thin to the root and thin towards the flower; also the lengths + between the joints are longest in the middle: here I give them in inches, + from the root upwards, in a stalk taken at random.</p> + + +<table border="1" width="38%" title="Lengths between joints of Viola Cornuta"> +<tr><td class="t" width="61%"> + <p>1st (nearest root)</p> +</td> +<td class="t" width="38%"> + <p>0¾</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>2nd</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>0¾</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>3rd</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>1½</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>4th</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>1¾</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>5th</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>3</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>6th</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>4</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>7th</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>3¼</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>8th</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>3</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>9th</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>2¼</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p>10th</p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>1½</p> +</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="t"> + <p> </p> +</td> +<td class="t"> + <p>1 ft. 9¾ in.</p> +</td></tr></table> + + <p>But the thickness of the joints and length of terminal flower stalk + bring the total to two feet and about an inch <!-- Page 21 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21"></a>[21]</span> over. I dare not pull + it straight, or should break it, but it overlaps my two-foot rule + considerably, and there are two inches besides of root, which are merely + underground stem, very thin and wretched, as the rest of it is merely + root above ground, very thick and bloated. (I begin actually to be a + little awed at it, as I should be by a green snake—only the snake + would be prettier.) The flowers also, I perceive, have not their two + horns regularly set <i>in</i>, but the five spiky calyx-ends stick out + between the petals—sometimes three, sometimes four, it may be all + five up and down—and produce variously fanged or forked effects, + feebly ophidian or diabolic. On the whole, a plant entirely mismanaging + itself,—reprehensible and awkward, with taints of worse than + awkwardness; and clearly, no true 'species,' but only a link.<a + name="NtA_2"></a><a href="#Nt_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> And it really is, as + you will find presently, a link in two directions; it is half violet, + half pansy, a 'cur' among the Dogs, and a thoughtless thing among the + thoughtful. And being so, it is also a link between the entire violet + tribe and the Runners—pease, strawberries, and the like, whose + glory is in their speed; but a violet has no business whatever to run + anywhere, being appointed to stay where it was born, in extremely + contented (if not secluded) places. "Half-hidden from the eye?"—no; + but desiring attention, or extension, or corpulence, or connection with + anybody else's family, still less.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 22 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_22"></a>[22]</span></p> + + <div class="figleft" style="width:10%;"> + <a href="images/024.png"><img width="100%" src="images/024.png" + alt="FIG. II. - Violets" /></a> + FIG. II. + </div> + <p>26. And if, at the time you read this, you can run out and gather a + <i>true</i> violet, and its leaf, you will find that the flower grows + from the very ground, out of a cluster of heart-shaped leaves, becoming + here a little rounder, there a little sharper, but on the whole + heart-shaped, and that is the proper and essential form of the violet + leaf. You will find also that the flower has five petals; and being held + down by the bent stalk, two of them bend back and up, as if resisting it; + two expand at the sides; and one, the principal, grows downwards, with + its attached spur behind. So that the front view of the flower must be + <i>some</i> modification of this typical arrangement, Fig. M, (for middle + form). Now the statement above quoted from Figuier, § 16, means, if he + had been able to express himself, that the two lateral petals in the + violet are directed downwards, Fig. II. A, and in the pansy upwards, Fig. + II. C. And that, in the main, is true, and to be fixed well and clearly + in your mind. But in the real orders, one flower passes into the other + through all kinds of intermediate positions of petal, and the plurality + of species are of the middle type. Fig. II. B.<a name="NtA_3"></a><a + href="#Nt_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a></p> + + <p>27. Next, if you will gather a real pansy <i>leaf</i>, you will find + it—not heart-shape in the least, but sharp oval <!-- Page 23 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23"></a>[23]</span> or + spear-shape, with two deep cloven lateral flakes at its springing from + the stalk, which, in ordinary aspect, give the plant the haggled and + draggled look I have been vilifying it for. These, and such as these, + "leaflets at the base of other leaves" (Balfour's Glossary), are called + by botanists 'stipules.' I have not allowed the word yet, and am doubtful + of allowing it, because it entirely confuses the student's sense of the + Latin 'stipula' (see above, vol. i., chap. viii., § 27) doubly and trebly + important in its connection with 'stipulor,' not noticed in that + paragraph, but readable in your large Johnson; we shall have more to say + of it when we come to 'straw' itself.</p> + + <p>28. In the meantime, one <i>may</i> think of these things as + stipulations for leaves, not fulfilled, or 'stumps' or 'sumphs' of + leaves! But I think I can do better for them. We have already got the + idea of <i>crested</i> leaves, (see vol. i., plate); now, on each side of + a knight's crest, from earliest Etruscan times down to those of the + Scalas, the fashion of armour held, among the nations who wished to make + themselves terrible in aspect, of putting cut plates or 'bracts' of + metal, like dragons' wings, on each side of the crest. I believe the + custom never became Norman or English; it is essentially Greek, Etruscan, + or Italian,—the Norman and Dane always wearing a practical cone + (see the coins of Canute), and the Frank or English knights the severely + plain beavered helmet; the Black Prince's at Canterbury, and Henry V.'s + at <!-- Page 24 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_24"></a>[24]</span> Westminster, are kept hitherto by the + great fates for us to see. But the Southern knights constantly wore these + lateral dragon's wings; and if I can find their special name, it may + perhaps be substituted with advantage for 'stipule'; but I have not wit + enough by me just now to invent a term.</p> + + <p>29. Whatever we call them, the things themselves are, throughout all + the species of violets, developed in the running and weedy varieties, and + much subdued in the beautiful ones; and generally the pansies have them, + large, with spear-shaped central leaves; and the violets small, with + heart-shaped leaves, for more effective decoration of the ground. I now + note the characters of each species in their above given order.</p> + + <p>30. I. VIOLA REGINA. Queen Violet. Sweet Violet. 'Viola Odorata,' L., + Flora Danica, and Sowerby. The latter draws it with golden centre and + white base of lower petal; the Flora Danica, all purple. It is sometimes + altogether white. It is seen most perfectly for setting off its colour, + in group with primrose,—and most luxuriantly, so far as I know, in + hollows of the Savoy limestones, associated with the pervenche, which + embroiders and illumines them all over. I believe it is the earliest of + its race, sometimes called 'Martia,' March violet. In Greece and South + Italy even a flower of the winter.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"The Spring is come, the violet's <i>gone</i>,</p> + <p>The first-born child of the early sun.</p> +<!-- Page 25 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25"></a>[25]</span> + <p>With us, she is but a winter's flower;</p> + <p>The snow on the hills cannot blast her bower,</p> + <p>And she lifts up her dewy eye of blue</p> + <p>To the youngest sky of the selfsame hue.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>And when the Spring comes, with her host</p> + <p>Of flowers, that flower beloved the most</p> + <p>Shrinks from the crowd that may confuse</p> + <p>Her heavenly odour, and virgin hues.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Pluck the others, but still remember</p> + <p>Their herald out of dim December,—</p> + <p><i>The morning star</i> of all the flowers,</p> + <p>The pledge of daylight's lengthened hours,</p> + <p>Nor, midst the roses, e'er forget</p> + <p>The virgin, virgin violet."<a name="NtA_4"></a><a href="#Nt_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a></p> + </div> + </div> + <p>3. It is the queen, not only of the violet tribe, but of all + low-growing flowers, in sweetness of scent—variously applicable and + serviceable in domestic economy:—the scent of the lily of the + valley seems less capable of preservation or use.</p> + + <p>But, respecting these perpetual beneficences and benignities of the + sacred, as opposed to the malignant, herbs, whose poisonous power is for + the most part restrained <!-- Page 26 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_26"></a>[26]</span> in them, during their life, to their + juices or dust, and not allowed sensibly to pollute the air, I should + like the scholar to re-read pp. 251, 252 of vol. i., and then to consider + with himself what a grotesquely warped and gnarled thing the modern + scientific mind is, which fiercely busies itself in venomous chemistries + that blast every leaf from the forests ten miles round; and yet cannot + tell us, nor even think of telling us, nor does even one of its pupils + think of asking it all the while, how a violet throws off her + perfume!—far less, whether it might not be more wholesome to + 'treat' the air which men are to breathe in masses, by administration of + vale-lilies and violets, instead of charcoal and sulphur!</p> + + <p>The closing sentence of the first volume just now referred + to—p.254—should also be re-read; it was the sum of a chapter + I had in hand at that time on the Substances and Essences of + Plants—which never got finished;—and in trying to put it into + small space, it has become obscure: the terms "logically inexplicable" + meaning that no words or process of comparison will define scents, nor do + any traceable modes of sequence or relation connect them; each is an + independent power, and gives a separate impression to the senses. Above + all, there is no logic of pleasure, nor any assignable reason for the + difference, between loathsome and delightful scent, which makes the + fungus foul and the vervain sacred: but one practical conclusion I (who + am in all final ways the most prosaic and practical of human <!-- Page 27 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27"></a>[27]</span> creatures) do + very solemnly beg my readers to meditate; namely, that although not + recognized by actual offensiveness of scent, there is no space of + neglected land which is not in some way modifying the atmosphere of + <i>all the world</i>,—it may be, beneficently, as heath and + pine,—it may be, malignantly, as Pontine marsh or Brazilian jungle; + but, in one way or another, for good and evil constantly, by day and + night, the various powers of life and death in the plants of the desert + are poured into the air, as vials of continual angels: and that no words, + no thoughts can measure, nor imagination follow, the possible change for + good which energetic and tender care of the wild herbs of the field and + trees of the wood might bring, in time, to the bodily pleasure and mental + power of Man.</p> + + <p>32. II. VIOLA PSYCHE. Ophelia's Pansy.</p> + + <p>The wild heart's-ease of Europe; its proper colour an exquisitely + clear purple in the upper petals, gradated into deep blue in the lower + ones; the centre, gold. Not larger than a violet, but perfectly formed, + and firmly set in all its petals. Able to live in the driest ground; + beautiful in the coast sand-hills of Cumberland, following the wild + geranium and burnet rose: and distinguished thus by its power of life, in + waste and dry places, from the violet, which needs kindly earth and + shelter.</p> + + <p>Quite one of the most lovely things that Heaven has made, and only + degraded and distorted by any human <!-- Page 28 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28"></a>[28]</span> interference; the + swollen varieties of it produced by cultivation being all gross in + outline and coarse in colour by comparison.</p> + + <p>It is badly drawn even in the 'Flora Danica,' No. 623, considered + there apparently as a species escaped from gardens; the description of it + being as follows:—</p> + + <p>"Viola tricolor hortensis repens, flore purpureo et cœruleo, + C.B.P., 199." (I don't know what C.B.P. means.) "Passim, juxta + villas."</p> + + <p>"Viola tricolor, caule triquetro diffuso, foliis oblongis incisis, + stipulis pinnatifidis," Linn. Systema Naturæ, 185.</p> + + <p>33. "Near the country farms"—does the Danish botanist + mean?—the more luxuriant weedy character probably acquired by it + only in such neighbourhood; and, I suppose, various confusion and + degeneration possible to it beyond other plants when once it leaves its + wild home. It is given by Sibthorpe from the Trojan Olympus, with an + exquisitely delicate leaf; the flower described as "triste et pallide + violaceus," but coloured in his plate full purple; and as he does not say + whether he went up Olympus to gather it himself, or only saw it brought + down by the assistant whose lovely drawings are yet at Oxford, I take + leave to doubt his epithets. That this should be the only Violet + described in a 'Flora Græca' extending to ten folio volumes, is a fact in + modern scientific history which I must leave the Professor of Botany and + the Dean of Christ Church to explain.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 29 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_29"></a>[29]</span> 34. The English varieties seem often to be + yellow in the lower petals, (see Sowerby's plate, 1287 of the old + edition), crossed, I imagine, with Viola Aurea, (but see under Viola + Rupestris, No. 12); the names, also, varying between tricolor and + bicolor—with no note anywhere of the three colours, or two colours, + intended!</p> + + <p>The old English names are many.—'Love in idleness,'—making + Lysander, as Titania, much wandering in mind, and for a time mere 'Kits + run the street' (or run the wood?)—"Call me to you" (Gerarde, ch. + 299, Sowerby, No. 178), with 'Herb Trinity,' from its three colours, + blue, purple, and gold, variously blended in different countries? 'Three + faces under a hood' describes the English variety only. Said to be the + ancestress of all the florists' pansies, but this I much doubt, the next + following species being far nearer the forms most chiefly sought for.</p> + + <p>35. III. VIOLA ALPINA. 'Freneli's Pansy'—my own name for it, + from Gotthelf's Freneli, in 'Ulric the Farmer'; the entirely pure and + noble type of the Bernese maid, wife, and mother.</p> + + <p>The pansy of the Wengern Alp in specialty, and of the higher, but + still rich, Alpine pastures. Full dark-purple; at least an inch across + the expanded petals; I believe, the 'Mater Violarum' of Gerarde; and true + black violet of Virgil, remaining in Italian 'Viola Mammola' (Gerarde, + ch. 298).</p> + + <p>36. IV. VIOLA AUREA. Golden Violet. Biflora usually; <!-- Page 30 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30"></a>[30]</span> but its + brilliant yellow is a much more definite characteristic; and needs + insisting on, because there is a 'Viola lutea' which is not yellow at + all; named so by the garden florists. My Viola aurea is the Rock-violet + of the Alps; one of the bravest, brightest, and dearest of little + flowers. The following notes upon it, with its summer companions, a + little corrected from my diary of 1877, will enough characterize it.</p> + + <p>"<i>June 7th.</i>—The cultivated meadows now grow only + dandelions—in frightful quantity too; but, for wild ones, primula, + bell gentian, golden pansy, and anemone,—Primula farinosa in mass, + the pansy pointing and vivifying in a petulant sweet way, and the bell + gentian here and there deepening all,—as if indeed the sound of a + deep bell among lighter music.</p> + + <p>"Counted in order, I find the effectively constant flowers are + eight;<a name="NtA_5"></a><a href="#Nt_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> namely,</p> + + <p>"1. The golden anemone, with richly cut large leaf; primrose colour, + and in masses like primrose, studded through them with bell gentian, and + dark purple orchis.</p> + + <p>"2. The dark purple orchis, with bell gentian in equal quantity, say + six of each in square yard, broken by sparklings of the white orchis and + the white grass-flower; the richest piece of colour I ever saw, touched + with gold by the geum.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 31 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_31"></a>[31]</span> "3 and 4. These will be white orchis and + the grass flower.<a name="NtA_6"></a><a + href="#Nt_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a></p> + + <p>"5. Geum—everywhere, in deep, but pure, gold, like pieces of + Greek mosaic.</p> + + <p>"6. Soldanella, in the lower meadows, delicate, but not here in + masses.</p> + + <p>"7. Primula Alpina, divine in the rock clefts, and on the ledges + changing the grey to purple,—set in the dripping caves with</p> + + <p>"8. Viola (pertinax—pert); I want a Latin word for various + studies—failures all—to express its saucy little stuck-up + way, and exquisitely trim peltate leaf. I never saw such a lovely + perspective line as the pure front leaf profile. Impossible also to get + the least of the spirit of its lovely dark brown fibre markings. + Intensely golden these dark fibres, just browning the petal a little + between them."</p> + + <p>And again in the defile of Gondo, I find "Viola (saxatilis?) name yet + wanted;—in the most delicate studding of its round leaves, like a + small fern more than violet, and bright sparkle of small flowers in the + dark dripping hollows. Assuredly delights in shade and distilling + moisture of rocks."</p> + + <p><!-- Page 32 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_32"></a>[32]</span> I found afterwards a much larger yellow + pansy on the Yorkshire high limestones; with vigorously black crowfoot + marking on the lateral petals.</p> + + <p>37. V. VIOLA MONTANA. Mountain Violet.</p> + + <p>Flora Danica, 1329. Linnæus, No. 13, "Caulibus erectis, foliis + cordato-lanceolatis, floribus serioribus apetalis," <i>i.e.</i>, on erect + stems, with leaves long heart-shape, and its later flowers without + petals—not a word said of its earlier flowers which have got those + unimportant appendages! In the plate of the Flora it is a very perfect + transitional form between violet and pansy, with beautifully firm and + well-curved leaves, but the colour of blossom very pale. "In subalpinis + Norvegiæ passim," all that we are told of it, means I suppose, in the + lower Alpine pastures of Norway; in the Flora Suecica, p. 306, habitat in + Lapponica, juxta Alpes.</p> + + <p>38. VI. VIOLA MIRABILIS. Flora Danica, 1045. A small and exquisitely + formed flower in the balanced cinquefoil intermediate between violet and + pansy, but with large and superbly curved and pointed leaves. It is a + mountain violet, but belonging rather to the mountain woods than meadows. + "In sylvaticis in Toten, Norvegiæ."</p> + + <p>Loudon, 3056, "Broad-leaved: Germany."</p> + + <p>Linnæus, Flora Suecica, 789, says that the flowers of it which have + perfect corolla and full scent often bear no seed, but that the later + 'cauline' blossoms, without petals, are fertile. "Caulini vero apetali + fertiles sunt, et seriores. Habitat passim Upsaliæ."</p> + + <p><!-- Page 33 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_33"></a>[33]</span> I find this, and a plurality of other + species, indicated by Linnæus as having triangular stalks, "caule + triquetro," meaning, I suppose, the kind sketched in Figure 1 above.</p> + + <p>39. VII. VIOLA ARVENSIS. Field Violet. Flora Danica, 1748. A coarse + running weed; nearly like Viola Cornuta, but feebly lilac and yellow in + colour. In dry fields, and with corn.</p> + + <p>Flora Suecica, 791; under titles of Viola 'tricolor' and 'bicolor + arvensis,' and Herba Trinitatis. Habitat ubique in <i>sterilibus</i> + arvis: "Planta vix datur in qua evidentius perspicitur generationis opus, + quam in hujus cavo apertoque stigmate."</p> + + <p>It is quite undeterminable, among present botanical instructors, how + far this plant is only a rampant and over-indulged condition of the true + pansy (Viola Psyche); but my own scholars are to remember that the true + pansy is full purple and blue with golden centre; and that the disorderly + field varieties of it, if indeed not scientifically distinguishable, are + entirely separate from the wild flower by their scattered form and faded + or altered colour. I follow the Flora Danica in giving them as a distinct + species.</p> + + <p>40. VIII. VIOLA PALUSTRIS. Marsh Violet. Flora Danica, 83. As there + drawn, the most finished and delicate in form of all the violet tribe; + warm white, streaked with red; and as pure in outline as an oxalis, both + in flower and leaf: it is like a violet imitating oxalis and + anagallis.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 34 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_34"></a>[34]</span> In the Flora Suecica, the petal-markings + are said to be black; in 'Viola lactea' a connected species, (Sowerby, + 45,) purple. Sowerby's plate of it under the name 'palustris' is pale + purple veined with darker; and the spur is said to be 'honey-bearing,' + which is the first mention I find of honey in the violet. The habitat + given, sandy and turfy heaths. It is said to grow plentifully near + Croydon.</p> + + <p>Probably, therefore, a violet belonging to the chalk, on which nearly + all herbs that grow wild—from the grass to the bluebell—are + singularly sweet and pure. I hope some of my botanical scholars will take + up this question of the effect of different rocks on vegetation, not so + much in bearing different species of plants, as different characters of + each species.<a name="NtA_7"></a><a href="#Nt_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a></p> + + <p>41. IX. VIOLA SECLUSA. Monk's Violet. "Hirta," Flora Danica, 618, "In + fruticetis raro." A true wood violet, full but dim in purple. Sowerby, + 894, makes it paler. The leaves very pure and severe in the Danish + one;—longer in the English. "Clothed on both sides with short, + dense, hoary hairs."</p> + + <p>Also belongs to chalk or limestone only (Sowerby).</p> + + <p>X. VIOLA CANINA. Dog Violet. I have taken it for analysis in my two + plates, because its grace of form is too much despised, and we owe much + more of the beauty <!-- Page 35 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_35"></a>[35]</span> of spring to it, in English mountain + ground, than to the Regina.</p> + + <p>XI. VIOLA CORNUTA. Cow Violet. Enough described already.</p> + + <p>XII. VIOLA RUPESTRIS. Crag Violet. On the high limestone moors of + Yorkshire, perhaps only an English form of Viola Aurea, but so much + larger, and so different in habit—growing on dry breezy downs, + instead of in dripping caves—that I allow it, for the present, + separate name and number.<a name="NtA_8"></a><a + href="#Nt_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a></p> + + <p>42. 'For the present,' I say all this work in 'Proserpina' being + merely tentative, much to be modified by future students, and therefore + quite different from that of 'Deucalion,' which is authoritative as far + as it reaches, and will stand out like a quartz dyke, as the sandy + speculations of modern gossiping geologists get washed away.</p> + + <p>But in the meantime, I must again solemnly warn my girl-readers + against all study of floral genesis and digestion. How far flowers + invite, or require, flies to interfere in their family + affairs—which of them are carnivorous—and what forms of + pestilence or infection are most favourable to some vegetable and animal + growths,—let them leave the people to settle who like, as Toinette + says <!-- Page 36 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_36"></a>[36]</span> of the Doctor in the 'Malade + Imaginaire'—"y mettre le nez." I observe a paper in the last + 'Contemporary Review,' announcing for a discovery patent to all mankind + that the colours of flowers were made "to attract insects"!<a + name="NtA_9"></a><a href="#Nt_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a> They will next hear + that the rose was made for the canker, and the body of man for the + worm.</p> + + <p>43. What the colours of flowers, or of birds, or of precious stones, + or of the sea and air, and the blue mountains, and the evening and the + morning, and the clouds of Heaven, were given for—they only know + who can see them and can feel, and who pray that the sight and the love + of them may be prolonged, where cheeks will not fade, nor sunsets + die.</p> + + <p>44. And now, to close, let me give you some fuller account of the + reasons for the naming of the order to which the violet belongs, + 'Cytherides.'</p> + + <p>You see that the Uranides, are, as far as I could so gather them, of + the pure blue of the sky; but the Cytherides of altered blue;—the + first, Viola, typically purple; the second, Veronica, pale blue with a + peculiar light; the third, Giulietta, deep blue, passing strangely into a + subdued green before and after the full life of the flower.</p> + + <p>All these three flowers have great strangenesses in them, and + weaknesses; the Veronica most wonderful in <!-- Page 37 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37"></a>[37]</span> its connection with the + poisonous tribe of the foxgloves; the Giulietta, alone among flowers in + the action of the shielding leaves; and the Viola, grotesque and + inexplicable in its hidden structure, but the most sacred of all flowers + to earthly and daily Love, both in its scent and glow.</p> + + <p>Now, therefore, let us look completely for the meaning of the two + leading lines,—</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,</p> + <p>Or Cytherea's breath."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>45. Since, in my present writings, I hope to bring into one focus the + pieces of study fragmentarily given during past life, I may refer my + readers to the first chapter of the 'Queen of the Air' for the + explanation of the way in which all great myths are founded, partly on + physical, partly on moral fact,—so that it is not possible for + persons who neither know the aspect of nature, nor the constitution of + the human soul, to understand a word of them. Naming the Greek gods, + therefore, you have first to think of the physical power they represent. + When Horace calls Vulcan 'Avidus,' he thinks of him as the power of Fire; + when he speaks of Jupiter's red right hand, he thinks of him as the power + of rain with lightning; and when Homer speaks of Juno's dark eyes, you + have to remember that she is the softer form of the rain power, and to + think of the fringes of the rain-cloud across the light of the horizon. + Gradually the idea becomes personal <!-- Page 38 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38"></a>[38]</span> and human in the + "Dove's eyes within thy locks,"<a name="NtA_10"></a><a + href="#Nt_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> and "Dove's eyes by the river of + waters" of the Song of Solomon.</p> + + <p>46. "Or Cytherea's breath,"—the two thoughts of softest glance, + and softest kiss, being thus together associated with the flower: but + note especially that the Island of Cythera was dedicated to Venus because + it was the chief, if not the only Greek island, in which the purple + fishery of Tyre was established; and in our own minds should be marked + not only as the most southern fragment of true Greece, but the virtual + continuation of the chain of mountains which separate the Spartan from + the Argive territories, and are the natural home of the brightest Spartan + and Argive beauty which is symbolized in Helen.</p> + + <p>47. And, lastly, in accepting for the order this name of Cytherides, + you are to remember the names of Viola and Giulietta, its two limiting + families, as those of Shakspeare's two most loving maids—the two + who love simply, and to the death: as distinguished from the greater + natures in whom earthly Love has its due part, and no more; and farther + still from the greatest, in whom the earthly love is quiescent, or + subdued, beneath the thoughts of duty and immortality.</p> + + <p>It may be well quickly to mark for you the levels of <!-- Page 39 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39"></a>[39]</span> loving temper + in Shakspeare's maids and wives, from the greatest to the least.</p> + + <p>48. 1. Isabel. All earthly love, and the possibilities of it, held in + absolute subjection to the laws of God, and the judgments of His will. + She is Shakspeare's only 'Saint.' Queen Catherine, whom you might next + think of, is only an ordinary woman of trained religious + temper:—her maid of honour gives Wolsey a more Christian + epitaph.</p> + + <p>2. Cordelia. The earthly love consisting in diffused compassion of the + universal spirit; not in any conquering, personally fixed, feeling.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p style="margin-left: 8em">"Mine enemy's dog,</p> + <p>Though he had bit me, should have stood that night</p> + <p>Against my fire."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>These lines are spoken in her hour of openest direct expression; and + are <i>all</i> Cordelia.</p> + + <p>Shakspeare clearly does not mean her to have been supremely beautiful + in person; it is only her true lover who calls her 'fair' and + 'fairest'—and even that, I believe, partly in courtesy, after + having the instant before offered her to his subordinate duke; and it is + only <i>his</i> scorn of her which makes France fully care for her.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Gods, Gods, 'tis strange that from their cold neglect</p> + <p>My love should kindle to inflamed respect!"</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>Had she been entirely beautiful, he would have honoured her as a lover + should, even before he saw her despised; <!-- Page 40 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40"></a>[40]</span> nor would she ever have + been so despised—or by her father, misunderstood. Shakspeare + himself does not pretend to know where her girl-heart was,—but I + should like to hear how a great actress would say the "Peace be with + Burgundy!"</p> + + <p>3. Portia. The maidenly passion now becoming great, and chiefly divine + in its humility, is still held absolutely subordinate to duty; no thought + of disobedience to her dead father's intention is entertained for an + instant, though the temptation is marked as passing, for that instant, + before her crystal strength. Instantly, in her own peace, she thinks + chiefly of her lover's;—she is a perfect Christian wife in a + moment, coming to her husband with the gift of perfect Peace,—</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Never shall you lie by Portia's side</p> + <p>With an unquiet soul."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>She is highest in intellect of all Shakspeare's women, and this is the + root of her modesty; her 'unlettered girl' is like Newton's simile of the + child on the sea-shore. Her perfect wit and stern judgment are never + disturbed for an instant by her happiness: and the final key to her + character is given in her silent and slow return from Venice, where she + stops at every wayside shrine to pray.</p> + + <p>4. Hermione. Fortitude and Justice personified, with unwearying + affection. She is Penelope, tried by her husband's fault as well as + error.</p> + + <p>5. Virgilia. Perfect type of wife and mother, but <!-- Page 41 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41"></a>[41]</span> without + definiteness of character, nor quite strength of intellect enough + entirely to hold her husband's heart. Else, she had saved him: he would + have left Rome in his wrath—but not her. Therefore, it is his + mother only who bends him: but she cannot save.</p> + + <p>6. Imogen. The ideal of grace and gentleness; but weak; enduring too + mildly, and forgiving too easily. But the piece is rather a pantomime + than play, and it is impossible to judge of the feelings of St. Columba, + when she must leave the stage in half a minute after mistaking the + headless clown for headless Arlecchino.</p> + + <p>7. Desdemona, Ophelia, Rosalind. They are under different conditions + from all the rest, in having entirely heroic and faultless persons to + love. I can't class them, therefore,—fate is too strong, and leaves + them no free will.</p> + + <p>8. Perdita, Miranda. Rather mythic visions of maiden beauty than mere + girls.</p> + + <p>9. Viola and Juliet. Love the ruling power in the entire character: + wholly virginal and pure, but quite earthly, and recognizing no other + life than his own. Viola is, however, far the noblest. Juliet will die + unless Romeo loves <i>her</i>: "If he be wed, the grave is like to be my + wedding bed;" but Viola is ready to die for the happiness of the man who + does <i>not</i> love her; faithfully doing his messages to her rival, + whom she examines strictly for his sake. It is not in envy that she says, + "Excellently done,—if God did all." The key to her character is + given in <!-- Page 42 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_42"></a>[42]</span> the least selfish of all lover's songs, + the one to which the Duke bids her listen:</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Mark it, Cesario,—it is old and plain,</p> + <p>The spinsters and the knitters in the sun,</p> + <p>And the free maids, that <i>weave their thread with bones</i>,</p> + <p>Do use to chaunt it."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>(They, the unconscious Fates, weaving the fair vanity of life with + death); and the burden of it is—</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"My part of Death, no one so true</p> + <p>Did share it."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>Therefore she says, in the great first scene, "Was not <i>this</i> + love indeed?" and in the less heeded closing one, her heart then happy + with the knitters in the <i>sun</i>,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"And all those sayings will I over-swear,</p> + <p>And all those swearings keep as true in soul</p> + <p>As doth that orbed continent the Fire</p> + <p>That severs day from night."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>Or, at least, did once sever day from night,—and perhaps does + still in Illyria. Old England must seek new images for her loves from gas + and electric sparks,—not to say furnace fire.</p> + + <p>I am obliged, by press of other work, to set down these notes in cruel + shortness: and many a reader may be disposed to question utterly the + standard by which the measurement is made. It will not be found, on + reference <!-- Page 43 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_43"></a>[43]</span> to my other books, that they encourage + young ladies to go into convents; or undervalue the dignity of wives and + mothers. But, as surely as the sun <i>does</i> sever day from night, it + will be found always that the noblest and loveliest women are dutiful and + religious by continual nature; and their passions are trained to obey + them; like their dogs. Homer, indeed, loves Helen with all his heart, and + restores her, after all her naughtiness, to the queenship of her + household; but he never thinks of her as Penelope's equal, or + Iphigenia's. Practically, in daily life, one often sees married women as + good as saints; but rarely, I think, unless they have a good deal to bear + from their husbands. Sometimes also, no doubt, the husbands have some + trouble in managing St. Cecilia or St. Elizabeth; of which questions I + shall be obliged to speak more seriously in another place: content, at + present, if English maids know better, by Proserpina's help, what + Shakspeare meant by the dim, and Milton by the glowing, violet.</p> + + <br clear="all" /> +<hr /> + + <p><!-- Page 44 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_44"></a>[44]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<p class="center">PINGUICULA.</p> + +<p class="center">(Written in early June, 1881.)</p> + + <p>1. On the rocks of my little stream, where it runs, or leaps, through + the moorland, the common Pinguicula is now in its perfectest beauty; and + it is one of the offshoots of the violet tribe which I have to place in + the minor collateral groups of Viola very soon, and must not put off + looking at it till next year.</p> + + <p>There are three varieties given in Sowerby: 1. Vulgaris, 2. + Greater-flowered, and 3. Lusitanica, white, for the most part, pink, or + 'carnea,' sometimes: but the proper colour of the family is violet, and + the perfect form of the plant is the 'vulgar' one. The larger-flowered + variety is feebler in colour, and ruder in form: the white Spanish one, + however, is very lovely, as far as I can judge from Sowerby's (<i>old</i> + Sowerby's) pretty drawing.</p> + + <p>The 'frequent' one (I shall usually thus translate 'vulgaris'), is not + by any means so 'frequent' as the Queen violet, being a true + wild-country, and mostly Alpine, plant; and there is also a real + 'Pinguicula Alpina,' <!-- Page 45 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_45"></a>[45]</span> which we have not in England, who might be + the Regina, if the group were large enough to be reigned over: but it is + better not to affect Royalty among these confused, intermediate, or + dependent families.</p> + + <p>2. In all the varieties of Pinguicula, each blossom has one stalk + only, growing from the <i>ground</i> and you may pull all the leaves away + from the base of it, and keep the flower only, with its bunch of short + fibrous roots, half an inch long; looking as if bitten at the ends. Two + flowers, characteristically,—three and four very + often,—spring from the same root, in places where it grows + luxuriantly; and luxuriant growth means that clusters of some twenty or + thirty stars may be seen on the surface of a square yard of boggy ground, + quite to its mind; but its real glory is in harder life, in the crannies + of well-wetted rock.</p> + + <p>3. What I have called 'stars' are irregular clusters of approximately, + or tentatively, five aloeine ground leaves, of very pale + green,—they may be six or seven, or more, but always run into a + rudely pentagonal arrangement, essentially first trine, with two + succeeding above. Taken as a whole the <i>plant</i> is really a main link + between violets and Droseras; but the <i>flower</i> has much more violet + than Drosera in the make of it,—spurred, and <i>five-petaled</i>,<a + name="NtA_11"></a><a href="#Nt_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> and held down by + the top of its bending stalk <!-- Page 46 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_46"></a>[46]</span> as a violet is; only its upper two petals + are not reverted—the calyx, of a dark soppy green, holding them + down, with its three front sepals set exactly like a strong trident, its + two backward sepals clasping the spur. There <!-- Page 47 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47"></a>[47]</span> are often six sepals, + four to the front, but the normal number is five. Tearing away the calyx, + I find the flower to have been held by it as a lion might hold his prey + by the loins if he missed its throat; the blue petals being really + campanulate, and the flower best described as a dark bluebell, seized and + crushed almost flat by its own calyx in a rage. Pulling away now also the + upper petals, I find that what are in the violet the lateral and + well-ordered fringes, are here thrown mainly on the lower (largest) petal + near its origin, and opposite the point of the seizure by the calyx, + spreading from this centre over the surface of the lower petals, partly + like an irregular shower of fine Venetian glass broken, partly like the + wild-flung Medusa like embroidery of the white Lucia.<a + name="NtA_12"></a><a href="#Nt_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a></p> + + <p>4. The calyx is of a dark <i>soppy</i> green, I said; like that of + sugary preserved citron; the root leaves are of green just as soppy, but + pale and yellowish, as if they were half decayed; the edges curled up + and, as it were, water-shrivelled, as one's fingers shrivel if kept too + long in water. And the whole plant looks as if it had been a violet + unjustly banished to a bog, and obliged to live there—not for its + own sins, but for some Emperor Pansy's, far away in the garden,—in + a partly boggish, <!-- Page 48 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_48"></a>[48]</span> partly hoggish manner, drenched and + desolate; and with something of demoniac temper got into its calyx, so + that it quarrels with, and bites the corolla;—something of + gluttonous and greasy habit got into its leaves; a discomfortable + sensuality, even in its desolation. Perhaps a penguin-ish life would be + truer of it than a piggish, the <i>nest</i> of it being indeed on the + rock, or morassy rock-investiture, like a sea-bird's on her rock + ledge.</p> + + <p>5. I have hunted through seven treatises on Botany, namely, Loudon's + Encyclopædia, Balfour, Grindon, Oliver, Baxter of Oxford, Lindley + ('Ladies' Botany'), and Figuer, without being able to find the meaning of + 'Lentibulariaceæ,' to which tribe the Pinguicula is said by them all + (except Figuier) to belong. It may perhaps be in Sowerby:<a + name="NtA_13"></a><a href="#Nt_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a> but these + above-named treatises are precisely of the kind with which the ordinary + scholar must be content: and in all of them he has to learn this long, + worse than useless, word, under which he is betrayed into classing + together two orders naturally quite distinct, the Butterworts and the + Bladderworts.</p> + + <p>Whatever the name may mean—it is bad Latin. There is such a word + as Lenticularis—there is no Lentibularis; and it must positively + trouble us no longer.<a name="NtA_14"></a><a + href="#Nt_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a></p> + + <p><!-- Page 49 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_49"></a>[49]</span> The Butterworts are a perfectly distinct + group—whether small or large, always recognizable at a glance. + Their proper Latin name will be Pinguicula, (plural + Pinguiculæ,)—their English, Bog-Violet, or, more familiarly, + Butterwort; and their French, as at present, <i>Grassette</i>.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 50 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_50"></a>[50]</span> The families to be remembered will be only + five, namely,</p> + + <p>1. Pinguicula Major, the largest of the group. As bog plants, Ireland + may rightly claim the noblest of them, which certainly grow there + luxuriantly, and not (I believe) with us. Their colour is, however, more + broken and less characteristic than that of the following species.</p> + + <p>2. Pinguicula Violacea: Violet-coloured Butterwort, (instead of + 'vulgaris,') the common English and Swiss kind above noticed.</p> + + <p>3. Pinguicula Alpina: Alpine Butterwort, white and much smaller than + either of the first two families; the <!-- Page 51 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51"></a>[51]</span> spur especially small, + according to D. 453. Much rarer, as well as smaller, than the other + varieties in Southern Europe. "In Britain, known only upon the moors of + Rosehaugh, Ross-shire, where the progress of cultivation seems likely + soon to efface it." (Grindon.)</p> + + <p>4. Pinguicula Pallida: Pale Butterwort. From Sowerby's drawing, (135, + vol. iii,) it would appear to be the most delicate and lovely of all the + group. The leaves, "like those of other species, but rather more delicate + and pellucid, reticulated with red veins, and much involute in the + margin. Tube of the corolla, yellow, streaked with red, (the streaks like + those of a pansy); the petals, pale violet. It much resembles Villosa, + (our Minima, No. 5,) in many particulars, the stem being hairy, and in + the lower part the hairs tipped with a viscid fluid, like a sundew. But + the Villosa has a slender sharp spur; and in this the spur is blunt and + thick at the end." (Since the hairy stem is not peculiar to Villosa, I + take for her, instead, the epithet Minima, which is really + definitive.)</p> + + <p>The pale one is commonly called 'Lusitanica,' but I find no direct + notice of its Portuguese habitation. Sowerby's plant came from Blandford, + Dorsetshire; and Grindon says it is frequent in Ireland, abundant in + Arran, and extends on the western side of the British island from + Cornwall to Cape Wrath. My epithet, Pallida, is secure, and simple, + wherever the plant is found.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 52 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_52"></a>[52]</span></p> + + <div class="figleft" style="width:10%;"> + <a href="images/054.png"><img width="100%" src="images/054.png" + alt="FIG. III. - Least Butterwort." /></a> + FIG. III. + </div> + <p>5. Pinguicula Minima: Least Butterwort; in D. 1021 called Villosa, the + <i>scape</i> of it being hairy. I have not yet got rid of this absurd + word 'scape,' meaning, in botanist's Latin, the flower-stalk of a flower + growing out of a cluster of leaves on the ground. It is a bad corruption + of 'sceptre,' and especially false and absurd, because a true sceptre is + necessarily branched.<a name="NtA_15"></a><a + href="#Nt_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> In 'Proserpina,' when it is spoken of + distinctively, it is called 'virgula' (see vol. i., pp. 146, 147, 151, + 152). The hairs on the virgula are in this instance so minute, that even + with a lens I cannot see them in the Danish plate: of which Fig. 3 is a + rough translation into woodcut, to show the grace and mien of the little + thing. The trine leaf cluster is characteristic, and the folding up of + the leaf edges. The flower, in the Danish plate, full purple. Abundant in + east of <i>Finmark</i> (Finland?), but <i>always growing in marsh + moss</i>, (Sphagnum palustre).</p> + + <p>6. I call it 'Minima' only, as the least of the five here named; + without putting forward any claim for it to be the smallest pinguicula + that ever was or will be. In such sense only, the epithets minima or + maxima are to be understood when used in 'Proserpina': and so also, <!-- + Page 53 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53"></a>[53]</span> every + statement and every principle is only to be understood as true or + tenable, respecting the plants which the writer has seen, and which he is + sure that the reader can easily see: liable to modification to any extent + by wider experience; but better first learned securely within a narrow + fence, and afterwards trained or fructified, along more complex + trellises.</p> + + <p>7. And indeed my readers—at least, my newly found + readers—must note always that the only power which I claim for any + of my books, is that of being right and true as far as they reach. None + of them pretend to be Kosmoses;—none to be systems of Positivism or + Negativism, on which the earth is in future to swing instead of on its + old worn-out poles;—none of them to be works of genius;—none + of them to be, more than all true work <i>must</i> be, pious;—and + none to be, beyond the power of common people's eyes,<a + name="NtA_16"></a><a href="#Nt_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a> ears, and noses, + 'æsthetic.' They tell you that the world is <i>so</i> big, and can't be + made bigger—that you yourself are also so big, and can't be made + bigger, however you puff or bloat yourself; but that, on modern mental + nourishment, you may very easily be made smaller. They tell you that two + and two are four, that ginger is hot in the mouth, that roses are red, + and smuts black. Not themselves assuming to be <!-- Page 54 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54"></a>[54]</span> pious, they yet assure + you that there is such a thing as piety in the world, and that it is + wiser than impiety; and not themselves pretending to be works of genius, + they yet assure you that there is such a thing as genius in the world, + and that it is meant for the light and delight of the world.</p> + + <p>8. Into these repetitions of remarks on my work, often made before, I + have been led by an unlucky author who has just sent me his book, + advising me that it is "neither critical nor sentimental" (he had better + have said in plain English "without either judgment or feeling"), and in + which nearly the first sentence I read is—"Solomon with all his + acuteness was not wise enough to ... etc., etc., etc." ('give the Jews + the British constitution,' I believe the man means.) He is not a whit + more conceited than Mr. Herbert Spencer, or Mr. Goldwin Smith, or + Professor Tyndall,—or any lively London apprentice out on a Sunday; + but this general superciliousness with respect to Solomon, his Proverbs, + and his politics, characteristic of the modern Cockney, Yankee, and + Anglicised Scot, is a difficult thing to deal with for us of the old + school, who were well whipped when we were young; and have been in the + habit of occasionally ascertaining our own levels as we grew older, and + of recognizing that, here and there, somebody stood higher, and struck + harder.</p> + + <p>9. A difficult thing to deal with, I feel more and more, hourly, even + to the point of almost ceasing to <!-- Page 55 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55"></a>[55]</span> write; not only every + feeling I have, but, of late, even <i>every word I use</i>, being alike + inconceivable to the insolence, and unintelligible amidst the slang, of + the modern London writers. Only in the last magazine I took up, I found + an article by Mr. Goldwin Smith on the Jews (of which the gist—as + far as it had any—was that we had better give up reading the + Bible), and in the text of which I found the word 'tribal' repeated about + ten times in every page. Now, if 'tribe' makes 'tribal,' tube must make + tubal, cube, cubal, and gibe, gibal; and I suppose we shall next hear of + tubal music, cubal minerals, and gibal conversation! And observe how all + this bad English leads instantly to blunder in thought, prolonged + indefinitely. The Jewish Tribes are not separate races, but the + descendants of brothers. The Roman Tribes, political divisions; + essentially Trine: and the whole force of the word Tribune vanishes, as + soon as the ear is wrung into acceptance of his lazy innovation by the + modern writer. Similarly, in the last elements of mineralogy I took up, + the first order of crystals was called 'tesseral'; the writer being much + too fine to call them 'four-al,' and too much bent on distinguishing + himself from all previous writers to call them cubic.</p> + + <p>10. What simple schoolchildren, and sensible schoolmasters, are to do + in this atmosphere of Egyptian marsh, which rains fools upon them like + frogs, I can no more with any hope or patience conceive;—but this + finally I repeat, concerning my own books, that they are written <!-- + Page 56 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56"></a>[56]</span> in + honest English, of good Johnsonian lineage, touched here and there with + colour of a little finer or Elizabethan quality: and that the things they + tell you are comprehensible by any moderately industrious and intelligent + person; and <i>accurate</i>, to a degree which the accepted methods of + modern science cannot, in my own particular fields, approach.</p> + + <p>11. Of which accuracy, the reader may observe for immediate instance, + my extrication for him, from among the uvularias, of these five species + of the Butterwort; which, being all that need be distinctly named and + remembered, <i>do</i> need to be first carefully distinguished, and then + remembered in their companionship. So alike are they, that Gerarde makes + no distinction among them; but masses them under the general type of the + frequent English one, described as the second kind of his promiscuous + group of 'Sanicle,' "which Clusius calleth Pinguicula; not before his + time remembered, hath sundry small thick leaves, fat and full of juice, + being broad towards the root and sharp towards the point, of a faint + green colour, and bitter in taste; out of the middest whereof sprouteth + or shooteth up a naked slender stalke nine inches long, every stalke + bearing one flower and no more, sometimes white, and sometimes of a + bluish purple colour, fashioned like unto the common Monkshoods" (he + means Larkspurs) "called Consolida Regalis, having the like spur or + Lark's heel attached thereto." Then after describing a third kind of + Sanicle—(Cortusa Mathioli, a large-leaved <!-- Page 57 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57"></a>[57]</span> Alpine Primula,) he + goes on: "These plants are strangers in England; their natural country is + the alpish mountains of Helvetia. They grow in my garden, where they + flourish exceedingly, except Butterwoort, which groweth in our English + <i>squally</i> wet grounds,"—('Squally,' I believe, here, from + squalidus, though Johnson does not give this sense; but one of his + quotations from Ben Jonson touches it nearly: "Take heed that their new + flowers and sweetness do not as much corrupt as the others' dryness and + squalor,"—and note farther that the word 'squal,' in the sense of + gust, is not pure English, but the Arabic 'Chuaul' with an s + prefixed:—the English word, a form of 'squeal,' meaning a child's + cry, from Gothic 'Squæla' and Icelandic 'squilla,' would scarcely have + been made an adjective by Gerarde),—"and will not yield to any + culturing or transplanting: it groweth especially in a field called + Cragge Close, and at Crosbie Ravenswaithe, in Westmerland; + (West-<i>mere</i>-land you observe, not mor) upon Ingleborough Fells, + twelve miles from Lancaster, and by Harwoode in the same county near to + Blackburn: ten miles from Preston, in Anderness, upon the bogs and marish + ground, and in the boggie meadows about Bishop's-Hatfield, and also in + the fens in the way to Wittles Meare" (Roger Wildrake's Squattlesea + Mere?) "from Fendon, in Huntingdonshire." Where doubtless Cromwell + ploughed it up, in his young days, pitilessly; and in nowise pausing, as + Burns beside his fallen daisy.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 58 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_58"></a>[58]</span> 12. Finally, however, I believe we may + accept its English name of 'Butterwort' as true Yorkshire, the more + enigmatic form of 'Pigwilly' preserving the tradition of the flowers once + abounding, with softened Latin name, in Pigwilly bottom, close to Force + bridge, by Kendal. Gerarde draws the English variety as "Pinguicula sive + Sanicula Eboracensis,—Butterwoort, or Yorkshire Sanicle;" and he + adds: "The husbandmen's wives of Yorkshire do use to anoint the dugs of + their kine with the fat and oilous juice of the herb Butterwort when they + be bitten of any venomous worm, or chapped, rifted and hurt by any other + means."</p> + + <p>13. In Lapland it is put to much more certain use; "it is called + Tätgrass, and the leaves are used by the inhabitants to make their 'tät + miolk,' a preparation of milk in common use among them. Some fresh leaves + are laid upon a filter, and milk, yet warm from the reindeer, is poured + over them. After passing quickly through the filter, this is allowed to + rest for one or two days until it becomes ascescent,<a + name="NtA_17"></a><a href="#Nt_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a> when it is found + not to have separated from the whey, and yet to have attained much + greater tenacity and consistence than it would have done otherwise. The + Laplanders and Swedes are said to be extremely fond of this milk, which + when once made, it is not necessary to renew the use of the leaves, for + we are told that a spoonful of it will turn another quantity of <!-- Page + 59 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59"></a>[59]</span> warm milk, + and make it like the first."<a name="NtA_18"></a><a + href="#Nt_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a> (Baxter, vol. iii., No. 209.)</p> + + <p>14. In the same page, I find quoted Dr. Johnston's observation that + "when specimens of this plant were somewhat rudely pulled up, the + flower-stalk, previously erect, almost immediately began to bend itself + backwards, and formed a more or less perfect segment of a circle; and so + also, if a specimen is placed in the Botanic box, you will in a short + time find that the leaves have curled themselves backwards, and now + conceal the root by their revolution."</p> + + <p>I have no doubt that this elastic and wiry action is partly connected + with the plant's more or less predatory or fly-trap character, in which + these curiously degraded plants are associated with Drosera. I separate + them therefore entirely from the Bladderworts, and hold them to be a link + between the Violets and the Droseraceæ, <!-- Page 60 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60"></a>[60]</span> placing them, however, + with the Cytherides, as a sub-family, for their beautiful colour, and + because they are indeed a grace and delight in ground which, but for + them, would be painfully and rudely desolate.</p> + + <br clear="all" /> +<hr /> + + <p><!-- Page 61 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_61"></a>[61]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<p class="center">VERONICA.</p> + + <p>1. "The Corolla of the Foxglove," says Dr. Lindley, beginning his + account of the tribe at page 195 of the first volume of his 'Ladies' + Botany,' "is a large inflated body(!), with its throat spotted with rich + purple, and its border divided obliquely into five very short lobes, of + which the two upper are the smaller; its four stamens are of unequal + length, and its style is divided into two lobes at the upper end. A + number of long hairs cover the ovary, which contains two cells and a + great quantity of ovules.</p> + + <p>"This" (<i>sc.</i> information) "will show you what is the usual + character of the Foxglove tribe; and you will find that all the other + genera referred to it in books agree with it essentially, although they + differ in subordinate points. It is chiefly (A) in the form of the + corolla, (B) in the number of the stamens, (C) in the consistence of the + rind of the fruit, (D) in its form, (E) in the number of the seeds it + contains, and (F) in the manner in which the sepals are combined, that + these differences consist."</p> + + <p>2. The enumerative letters are of my insertion—otherwise the + above sentence is, word for word, Dr. Lindley's,—and it seems to me + an interesting and memorable one <!-- Page 62 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_62"></a>[62]</span> in the history of modern Botanical + science. For it appears from the tenor of it, that in a scientific + botanist's mind, six particulars, at least, in the character of a plant, + are merely 'subordinate points,'—namely,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>1. (F) The combination of its calyx,</p> + <p>2. (A) The shape of its corolla,</p> + <p>3. (B) The number of its stamens,</p> + <p>4. (D) The form of its fruit,</p> + <p>5. (C) The consistence of its shell,—and</p> + <p>6. (E) The number of seeds in it.</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>Abstracting, then, from the primary description, all the six + inessential points, I find the three essential ones left are, that the + style is divided into two lobes at the upper end, that a number of + glandular hairs cover the ovary, and that this latter contains two + cells.</p> + + <p>3. None of which particulars concern any reasonable mortal, looking at + a Foxglove, in the smallest degree. Whether hairs which he can't see are + glandular or bristly,—whether the green knobs, which are left when + the purple bells are gone, are divided into two lobes or two + hundred,—and whether the style is split, like a snake's tongue, + into two lobes, or like a rogue's, into any number—are merely + matters of vulgar curiosity, which he needs a microscope to discover, and + will lose a day of his life in discovering. But if any pretty young + Proserpina, escaped from the Plutonic durance of London, and carried by + the tubular process, which replaces Charon's boat, over <!-- Page 63 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63"></a>[63]</span> the Lune at + Lancaster, cares to come and walk on the Coniston hills in a summer + morning, when the eyebright is out on the high fields, she may gather, + with a little help from Brantwood garden, a bouquet of the entire + Foxglove tribe in flower, as it is at present defined, and may see what + they are like, altogether.</p> + + <p>4. She shall gather: first, the Euphrasy, which makes the turf on the + brow of the hill glitter as if with new-fallen manna; then, from one of + the blue clusters on the top of the garden wall, the common bright blue + Speedwell; and, from the garden bed beneath, a dark blue spire of + Veronica spicata; then, at the nearest opening into the wood, a little + foxglove in its first delight of shaking out its bells; then—what + next does the Doctor say?—a snapdragon? we must go back into the + garden for that—here is a goodly crimson one, but what the little + speedwell will think of him for a relative <i>I</i> can't think!—a + mullein?—that we must do without for the moment; a monkey + flower?—that we will do without, altogether; a lady's + slipper?—say rather a goblin's with the gout! but, such as the + flower-cobbler has made it, here is one of the kind that people praise, + out of the greenhouse,—and yet a figwort we must have, too; which I + see on referring to Loudon, may be balm-leaved, hemp-leaved, + tansy-leaved, nettle-leaved, wing-leaved, heart-leaved, ear-leaved, + spear-leaved, or lyre-leaved. I think I can find a balm-leaved one, + though I don't know what to make of it when I've got it, but it's called + a <!-- Page 64 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64"></a>[64]</span> + 'Scorodonia' in Sowerby, and something very ugly besides;—I'll put + a bit of Teucrium Scorodonia in, to finish: and now—how will my + young Proserpina arrange her bouquet, and rank the family relations to + their contentment?</p> + + <p>5. She has only one kind of flowers—in her hand, as botanical + classification stands at present; and whether the system be more + rational, or in any human sense more scientific, which puts calceolaria + and speedwell together,—and foxglove and euphrasy; and runs them on + one side into the mints, and on the other into the + nightshades;—naming them, meanwhile, some from diseases, some from + vermin, some from blockheads, and the rest anyhow:—or the method I + am pleading for, which teaches us, watchful of their seasonable return + and chosen abiding places, to associate in our memory the flowers which + truly resemble, or fondly companion, or, in time kept by the signs of + Heaven, succeed, each other; and to name them in some historical + connection with the loveliest fancies and most helpful faiths of the + ancestral world—Proserpina be judge; with every maid that sets + flowers on brow or breast—from Thule to Sicily.</p> + + <p>6. We will unbind our bouquet, then, and putting all the rest of its + flowers aside, examine the range and nature of the little blue cluster + only.</p> + + <p>And first—we have to note of it, that the plan of the blossom in + all the kinds is the same; an irregular quatre-foil: and irregular + quatrefoils are of extreme rarity in <!-- Page 65 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65"></a>[65]</span> flower form. I don't + myself know <i>one</i>, except the Veronica. The cruciform + vegetables—the heaths, the olives, the lilacs, the little + Tormentillas, and the poppies, are all perfectly symmetrical. Two of the + petals, indeed, as a rule, are different from the other two, except in + the heaths; and thus a distinctly crosslet form obtained, but always an + equally balanced one: while in the Veronica, as in the Violet, the + blossom always refers itself to a supposed place on the stalk with + respect to the ground; and the upper petal is always the largest.</p> + + <p>The supposed place is often very suppositious indeed—for + clusters of the common veronicas, if luxuriant, throw their blossoms + about anywhere. But the idea of an upper and lower petal is always kept + in the flower's little mind.</p> + + <p>7. In the second place, it is a quite open and flat + quatrefoil—so separating itself from the belled quadrature of the + heath, and the tubed and primrose-like quadrature of the cruciferæ; and, + both as a quatrefoil, and as an open one, it is separated from the + foxgloves and snapdragons, which are neither quatrefoils, nor open; but + are cinqfoils shut up!</p> + + <p>8. In the third place, open and flat though the flower be, it is + monopetalous; all the four arms of the cross strictly becoming one in the + centre; so that, though the blue foils <i>look</i> no less sharply + separate than those of a buttercup or a cistus; and are so delicate that + one expects them to fall from their stalk if we breathe too <!-- Page 66 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66"></a>[66]</span> near,—do + but lay hold of one,—and, at the touch, the entire blossom is + lifted from its stalk, and may be laid, in perfect shape, on our paper + before us, as easily as if it had been a nicely made-up blue bonnet, + lifted off its stand by the milliner.</p> + + <p>I pause here, to consider a little; because I find myself mixing up + two characteristics which have nothing necessary in their + relation;—namely, the unity of the blossom, and its coming easily + off the stalk. The separate petals of the cistus and cherry fall as + easily as the foxglove drops its bells;—on the other hand, there + are monopetalous things that don't drop, but hold on like the + convoluta,<a name="NtA_19"></a><a href="#Nt_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a> and + make the rest of the tree sad for their dying. I do not see my way to any + systematic noting of decadent or persistent corolla; but, in passing, we + may thank the veronica for never allowing us to see how it fades,<a + name="NtA_20"></a><a href="#Nt_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> and being always + cheerful and lovely, while it is with us.</p> + +<a name="ChIII_9"></a> + <p>9. And for a farther specialty, I think we should take note of the + purity and simplicity of its <i>floral</i> blue, not <!-- Page 67 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67"></a>[67]</span> sprinkling + itself with unwholesome sugar like a larkspur, nor varying into coppery + or turquoise-like hue as the forget-me-not; but keeping itself as modest + as a blue print, pale, in the most frequent kinds; but pure exceedingly; + and rejoicing in fellowship with the grey of its native rocks. The palest + of all I think it will be well to remember as Veronica Clara, the "Poor + Clare" of Veronicas. I find this note on it in my diary,—</p> + + <p>'The flower of an exquisite grey-white, like lichen, or shaded + hoar-frost, or dead silver; making the long-weathered stones it grew upon + perfect with a finished modesty of paleness, as if the flower + <i>could</i> be blue, and would not, for their sake. Laying its fine + small leaves along in embroidery, like Anagallis + tenella,—indescribable in the tender feebleness of + it—afterwards as it grew, dropping the little blossoms from the + base of the spire, before the buds at the top had blown. Gathered, it was + happy beside me, with a little water under a stone, and put out one pale + blossom after another, day by day.'</p> + + <p>10. Lastly, and for a high worthiness, in my estimate, note that it is + <i>wild</i>, of the wildest, and proud in pure descent of race; + submitting itself to no follies of the cur-breeding florist. Its species, + though many resembling each other, are severally constant in aspect, and + easily recognizable; and I have never seen it provoked to glare into any + gigantic impudence at a flower show. Fortunately, perhaps, it is + scentless, and so despised.</p> + +<a name="ChIII_11"></a> + <p>11. Before I attempt arranging its families, we must <!-- Page 68 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68"></a>[68]</span> note that + while the corolla itself is one of the most constant in form, and so + distinct from all other blossoms that it may be always known at a glance; + the leaves and habit of growth vary so greatly in families of different + climates, and those born for special situations, moist or dry, and the + like, that it is quite impossible to characterize Veronic, or Veronique, + vegetation in general terms. One can say, comfortably, of a strawberry, + that it is a creeper, without expecting at the next moment to see a + steeple of strawberry blossoms rise to contradict us;—we can + venture to say of a foxglove that it grows in a spire, without any danger + of finding, farther on, a carpet of prostrate and entangling digitalis; + and we may pronounce of a buttercup that it grows mostly in meadows, + without fear of finding ourselves, at the edge of the next thicket, under + the shadow of a buttercup-bush growing into valuable timber. But the + Veronica reclines with the lowly,<a name="NtA_21"></a><a + href="#Nt_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> upon occasion, and aspires, with the + proud; is here the pleased companion of the ground-ivies, and there the + unrebuked rival of the larkspurs: on the rocks of Coniston it effaces + itself almost into the film of a lichen; it pierces the snows of Iceland + with the gentian: and in the Falkland Islands is a white-blossomed + evergreen, of which botanists are in dispute whether it be Veronica or + Olive.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 69 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_69"></a>[69]</span> 12. Of these many and various forms, I + find the manners and customs alike inconstant; and this of especially + singular in them—that the Alpine and northern species bloom hardily + in contest with the retiring snows, while with us they wait till the + spring is past, and offer themselves to us only in consolation for the + vanished violet and primrose. As we farther examine the ways of plants, I + suppose we shall find some that determine upon a fixed season, and will + bloom methodically in June or July, whether in Abyssinia or Greenland; + and others, like the violet and crocus, which are flowers of the spring, + at whatever time of the favouring or frowning year the spring returns to + their country. I suppose also that botanists and gardeners know all these + matters thoroughly: but they don't put them into their books, and the + clear notions of them only come to me now, as I think and watch.</p> + + <p>13. Broadly, however, the families of the Veronica fall into three + main divisions,—those which have round leaves lobed at the edge, + like ground ivy; those which have small thyme-like leaves; and those + which have long leaves like a foxglove's, only smaller—never more + than two or two and a half inches long. I therefore take them in these + connections, though without any bar between the groups; only separating + the Regina from the other thyme-leaved ones, to give her due precedence; + and the rest will then arrange themselves into twenty families, easily + distinguishable and memorable.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 70 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_70"></a>[70]</span></p> + + <div class="figright" style="width:30%;"> + <a href="images/072.png"><img width="100%" src="images/072.png" + alt="FIG. IV. - Veronica Regina" /></a> + FIG. IV. + </div> + <p>I have chosen for Veronica Regina, the brave Icelandic one, which + pierces the snow in first spring, with lovely small shoots of perfectly + set leaves, no larger than a grain of wheat; the flowers in a lifted + cluster of five or six together, not crowded, yet not loose; large, for + veronica—about the size of a silver penny, or say half an inch + across—deep blue, with ruby centre.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 71 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_71"></a>[71]</span> My woodcut, Fig. 4, is outlined<a + name="NtA_22"></a><a href="#Nt_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> from the beautiful + engraving D. 342,<a name="NtA_23"></a><a + href="#Nt_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a>—there called 'fruticulosa,' from + the number of the young shoots.</p> + + <p>14. Beneath the Regina, come the twenty easily distinguished families, + namely:—</p> + + <p>1. Chamædrys. 'Ground-oak.' I cannot tell why so called—its + small and rounded leaves having nothing like oak leaves about them, + except the serration, which is common to half, at least, of all leaves + that grow. But <!-- Page 72 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_72"></a>[72]</span> the idea is all over Europe, apparently. + Fr. 'petit chêne:' German and English 'Germander,' a merely corrupt form + of Chamædrys.</p> + + <p>The representative English veronica "Germander Speedwell"—very + prettily drawn in S. 986; too tall and weed-like in D. 448.</p> + + <p>2. Hederifolia. Ivy-leaved: but more properly, cymbalaria-leaved. It + is the English field representative, though blue-flowered, of the + Byzantine white veronica, V. Cymbalaria, very beautifully drawn in G. 9. + Hederifolia well in D. 428.</p> + + <p>3. Agrestis. Fr. 'Rustique.' We ought however clearly to understand + whether 'agrestis,' used by English botanists, is meant to imply a + literally field flower, or only a 'rustic' one, which might as properly + grow in a wood. I shall always myself use 'agrestis' in the literal + sense, and 'rustica' for 'rustique.' I see no reason, in the present + case, for separating the Polite from the Rustic flower: the agrestis, D. + 449 and S. 971, seems to me not more meekly recumbent, nor more frankly + cultureless, than the so-called Polita, S. 972: there seems also no + French acknowledgment of its politeness, and the Greek family, G. 8, seem + the rudest and wildest of all.</p> + + <p>Quite a <i>field</i> flower it is, I believe, lying always low on the + ground; recumbent, but not creeping. Note this difference: no fastening + roots are thrown out by the reposing stems of this Veronica; a creeping + or accurately 'rampant' plant roots itself in advancing. Conf. Nos. 5, + 6.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 73 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_73"></a>[73]</span> 4. Arvensis. We have yet to note a still + finer distinction in epithet. 'Agrestis' will properly mean a flower of + the open ground—yet not caring whether the piece of earth be + cultivated or not, so long as it is under clear sky. But when + <i>agri</i>-culture has turned the unfruitful acres into 'arva + beata,'—if then the plant thrust itself between the furrows of the + plough, it is properly called 'Arvensis.'</p> + + <p>I don't quite see my way to the same distinction in + English,—perhaps I may get into the habit, as time goes on, of + calling the Arvenses consistently furrow-flowers, and the Agrestes + field-flowers. Furrow-veronica is a tiresomely long name, but must do for + the present, as the best interpretation of its Latin character, + "vulgatissima in cultis et arvis." D. 515. The blossom itself is + exquisitely delicate; and we may be thankful, both here and in Denmark, + for such a lovely 'vulgate.'</p> + + <p>5. Montana. D. 1201. The first really creeping plant we have had to + notice. It throws out roots from the recumbent stems. Otherwise like + agrestis, it has leaves like ground-ivy. Called a wood species in the + text of D.</p> + + <p>6. Persica. An eastern form, but now perfectly naturalized + here—D. 1982; S. 973. The flowers very large, and extremely + beautiful, but only one springing from each leaf-axil.</p> + + <p>Leaves and stem like Montana; and also creeping with new-roots at + intervals.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 74 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_74"></a>[74]</span> 7. Triphylla, (not + triphyll<i>os</i>,—see Flora Suecica, 22). Meaning trifid-leaved; + but the leaf is really divided into five lobes, not three—see S. + 974, and G. 10. The palmate form of the leaf seems a mere caprice, and + indicates no transitional form in the plant: it may be accepted as only a + momentary compliment of mimicry to the geraniums. The Siberian variety, + 'multifida,' C. 1679, divides itself almost as the submerged leaves of + the water-ranunculus.</p> + + <p>The triphylla itself is widely diffused, growing alike on the sandy + fields of Kent, and of Troy. In D. 627 is given an extremely delicate and + minute northern type, the flowers springing as in Persica, one from each + leaf-axil, and at distant intervals.</p> + + <p>8. Officinalis. D. 248, S. 294. Fr. 'Veronique officinale'; (Germ. + Gebrauchlicher Ehrenpreis,) our commonest English and Welsh speedwell; + richest in cluster and frankest in roadside growth, whether on bank or + rock; but assuredly liking <i>either</i> a bank <i>or</i> a rock, and the + top of a wall better than the shelter of one. Uncountable 'myriads,' I am + tempted to write, but, cautiously and literally, 'hundreds' of + blossoms—if one <i>could</i> count,—ranging certainly towards + the thousand in some groups, all bright at once, make our Westmoreland + lanes look as if they were decked for weddings, in early summer. In the + Danish Flora it is drawn small and poor; its southern type being the true + one: but it is difficult to explain the difference between the look of a + flower which really <i>suffers</i>, as in this instance, by a colder <!-- + Page 75 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75"></a>[75]</span> + climate, and becomes mean and weak, as well as dwarfed; and one which is + braced and brightened by the cold, though diminished, as if under the + charge and charm of an affectionate fairy, and becomes a joyfully + patriotic inheritor of wilder scenes and skies. Medicinal, to soul and + body alike, this gracious and domestic flower; though astringent and + bitter in the juice. It is the Welsh deeply honoured + 'Fluellen.'—See final note on the myth of Veronica, see <a + href="#ChIII_18">§ 18</a>.</p> + + <p>9. Thymifolia. Thyme-leaved, G. 6. Of course the longest possible + word—serpyllifolia—is used in S. 978. It is a high mountain + plant, growing on the top of Crete as the snow retires; and the Veronica + minor of Gerarde; "the roote is small and threddie, taking hold of the + <i>upper surface</i> of the earth, where it spreadeth." So also it is + drawn as a creeper in F. 492, where the flower appears to be oppressed + and concealed by the leafage.</p> + + <p>10. Minuta, called 'hirsuta' in S. 985: an ugly characteristic to name + the lovely little thing by. The distinct blue lines in the petals might + perhaps justify 'picta' or 'lineata,' rather than an epithet of size; but + I suppose it is Gerarde's Minima, and so leave it, more safely named as + 'minute' than 'least.' For I think the next variety may dispute the + leastness.</p> + + <div class="figleft" style="width:20%;"> + <a href="images/078.png"><img width="100%" src="images/078.png" + alt="FIG. V. - Veronica Verna." /></a> + FIG. V. + </div> + <p>11. Verna. D. 252. Mountains, in dry places in early spring. Upright, + and confused in the leafage, which is sharp-pointed and close set, much + hiding the blossom, but of extreme elegance, fit for a sacred foreground; + <!-- Page 76 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76"></a>[76]</span> + as any gentle student will feel, who copies this outline from the Flora + Danica, Fig. 5.</p> + + <p>12. Peregrina. Another extremely small variety, nearly pink in colour, + passing into bluish lilac and white. American; but called, I do not see + why, 'Veronique <i>voyageuse</i>,' by the French, and Fremder Ehrenpreis + in Germany. Given as a frequent English weed in S. 927.</p> + + <p>13. Alpina. Veronique des Alpes. Gebirgs Ehrenpreis. Still minute; its + scarcely distinct flowers forming a close head among the leaves; + round-petalled in D. 16, but sharp, as usual, in S. 980. On the Norway + Alps in grassy places; and in Scotland by the side of mountain rills; but + rare. On Ben Nevis and Lachin y Gair (S.)</p> + + <p>14. Scutellata. From the shield-like shape of its seed-vessels. + Veronique à Ecusson; Schildfruchtiger Ehrenpreis. But the seed-vessels + are more heart shape than shield. Marsh Speedwell. S. 988, D. + 209,—in the one pink, in the other blue; but again in D. 1561, + pink.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 77 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_77"></a>[77]</span> "In flooded meadows, common." (D.) A + spoiled and scattered form; the seeds too conspicuous, but the flowers + very delicate, hence 'Gratiola minima' in Gesner. The confused + ramification of the clusters worth noting, in relation to the equally + straggling fibres of root.</p> + + <p>15. Spicata. S. 982: very prettily done, representing the inside of + the flower as deep blue, the outside pale. The top of the spire, all + calices, the calyx being indeed, through all the veronicas, an important + and persistent member.</p> + + <p>The tendency to arrange itself in spikes is to be noted as a + degradation of the veronic character; connecting it on one side with the + snapdragons, on the other with the ophryds. In Veronica Ophrydea, (C. + 2210,) this resemblance to the contorted tribe is carried so far that + "the corolla of the veronica becomes irregular, the tube gibbous, the + faux (throat) hairy, and three of the laciniæ (lobes of petals) variously + twisted." The spire of blossom, violet-coloured, is then close set, and + exactly resembles an ophryd, except in being sharper at the top. The + engraved outline of the blossom is good, and very curious.</p> + + <p>16. Gentianoides. This is the most directly and curiously imitative + among the—shall we call them—'histrionic' types of Veronica. + It grows exactly like a clustered upright gentian; has the same kind of + leaves at its root, and springs with the same bright vitality among the + retiring snows of the Bithynian Olympus. (G. 5.) If, however, the + Caucasian flower, C. 1002, be the same, <!-- Page 78 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78"></a>[78]</span> it has lost its perfect + grace in luxuriance, growing as large as an asphodel, and with + root-leaves half a foot long.</p> + + <p>The petals are much veined; and this, of all veronicas, has the lower + petal smallest in proportion to the three above,—"triplò aut + quadruplò minori." (G.)</p> + + <p>17. Stagnarum. Marsh-Veronica. The last four families we have been + examining vary from the typical Veronicas not only in their lance-shaped + clusters, but in their lengthened, and often every way much enlarged + leaves also: and the two which we now will take in association, 17 and + 18, carry the change in aspect farthest of any, being both of them true + water-plants, with strong stems and thick leaves. The present name of my + Veronica Stagnarum is however V. anagallis, a mere insult to the little + water primula, which one plant of the Veronica would make fifty of. This + is a rank water-weed, having confused bunches of blossom and seed, like + unripe currants, dangling from the leaf-axils. So that where the little + triphylla, (No. 7, above,) has only one blossom, daintily set, and well + seen, this has a litter of twenty-five or thirty on a long stalk, of + which only three or four are well out as flowers, and the rest are mere + knobs of bud or seed. The stalk is thick (half an inch round at the + bottom), the leaves long and misshapen. "Frequens in fossis," D. 203. + French, Mouron d'Eau, but I don't know the root or exact meaning of + Mouron.</p> + + <p>An ugly Australian species, 'labiata,' C. 1660, has leaves two inches + long, of the shape of an aloe's, and <!-- Page 79 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79"></a>[79]</span> partly aloeine in + texture, "sawed with unequal, fleshy, pointed teeth."</p> + + <p>18. Fontium. Brook-Veronica. Brook-<i>Lime</i>, the Anglo-Saxon 'lime' + from Latin limus, meaning the soft mud of streams. German 'Bach-bunge' + (Brook-purse?) ridiculously changed by the botanists into 'Beccabunga,' + for a Latin name! Very beautiful in its crowded green leaves as a + stream-companion; rich and bright more than watercress. See notice of it + at Matlock, in 'Modern Painters,' vol. v.</p> + + <p>19. Clara. Veronique des rochers. Saxatilis, I suppose, in Sowerby, + but am not sure of having identified that with my own favourite, for + which I therefore keep the name 'Clara,' (see above, <a href="#ChIII_9">§ + 9</a>); and the other rock variety, if indeed another, mast be + remembered, together with it.</p> + + <p>20. Glauca. G. 7. And this, at all events, with the Clara, is to be + remembered as closing the series of twenty families, acknowledged by + Proserpina. It is a beautiful low-growing ivy-leaved type, with flowers + of subdued lilac blue. On Mount Hymettus: no other locality given in the + Flora Græca.</p> + + <p>15. I am sorry, and shall always be so, when the varieties of any + flower which I have to commend to the student's memory, exceed ten or + twelve in number; but I am content to gratify his pride with lengthier + task, if indeed he will resign himself to the imperative close of the + more inclusive catalogue, and be content to know <!-- Page 80 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80"></a>[80]</span> the twelve, or sixteen, + or twenty, acknowledged families, thoroughly; and only in their + illustration to think of rarer forms. The object of 'Proserpina' is to + make him happily cognizant of the common aspect of Greek and English + flowers; under the term 'English,' comprehending the Saxon, Celtic, + Norman, and Danish Floras. Of the evergreen shrub alluded to in <a + href="#ChIII_11">§ 11</a> above, the Veronica Decussata of the Pacific, + which is "a bushy evergreen, with beautifully set cross-leaves, and white + blossoms scented like olea fragrans," I should like him only to read with + much surprise, and some incredulity, in Pinkerton's or other entertaining + travellers' voyages.</p> + + <p>16. And of the families given, he is to note for the common simple + characteristic, that they are quatrefoils referred to a more or less + elevated position on a central stem, and having, in that relation, the + lowermost petal diminished, contrary to the almost universal habit of + other flowers to develope in such a position the lower petal chiefly, + that it may have its full share of light. You will find nothing but + blunder and embarrassment result from any endeavour to enter into further + particulars, such as "the relation of the dissepiment with respect to the + valves of the capsule," etc., etc., since "in the various species of + Veronica almost every kind of dehiscence may be observed" (C. under V. + perfoliata, 1936, an Australian species). Sibthorpe gives the entire + definition of Veronica with only one epithet added to mine, "Corolla + quadrifida, <i>rotata</i>, laciniâ infimâ angustiore," <!-- Page 81 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81"></a>[81]</span> but I do not + know what 'rotata' here means, as there is no appearance of revolved + action in the petals, so far as I can see.</p> + + <p>17. Of the mythic or poetic significance of the veronica, there is + less to be said than of its natural beauty. I have not been able to + discover with what feeling, or at what time, its sacred name was + originally given; and the legend of S. Veronica herself is, in the + substance of it, irrational, and therefore incredible. The meaning of the + term 'rational,' as applied to a legend or miracle, is, that there has + been an intelligible need for the permission of the miracle at the time + when it is recorded; and that the nature and manner of the act itself + should be comprehensible in the scope. There was thus quite simple need + for Christ to feed the multitudes, and to appear to S. Paul; but no need, + so far as human intelligence can reach, for the reflection of His + features upon a piece of linen which could be seen by not one in a + million of the disciples to whom He might more easily, at any time, + manifest Himself personally and perfectly. Nor, I believe, has the story + of S. Veronica ever been asserted to be other than symbolic by the + sincere teachers of the Church; and, even so far as in that merely + explanatory function, it became the seal of an extreme sorrow, it is not + easy to understand how the pensive fable was associated with a flower so + familiar, so bright, and so popularly of good omen, as the Speedwell.</p> + +<a name="ChIII_18"></a> + <p>18. Yet, the fact being actually so, and this consecration <!-- Page + 82 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82"></a>[82]</span> of the + veronica being certainly far more ancient and earnest than the faintly + romantic and extremely absurd legend of the forget-me-not; the speedwell + has assuredly the higher claim to be given and accepted as a token of + pure and faithful love, and to be trusted as a sweet sign that the + innocence of affection is indeed more frequent, and the appointed destiny + of its faith more fortunate, than our inattentive hearts have hitherto + discerned.</p> + + <p>19. And this the more, because the recognized virtues and uses of the + plant are real and manifold; and the ideas of a peculiar honourableness + and worth of life connected with it by the German popular name + 'Honour-prize'; while to the heart of the British race, the same thought + is brought home by Shakespeare's adoption of the flower's Welsh name, for + the faithfullest common soldier of his ideal king. As a lover's pledge, + therefore, it does not merely mean memory;—for, indeed, why should + love be thought of as such at all, if it need to promise not to + forget?—but the blossom is significant also of the lover's best + virtues, patience in suffering, purity in thought, gaiety in courage, and + serenity in truth: and therefore I make it, worthily, the clasping and + central flower of the Cytherides.</p> + + <br clear="all" /> +<hr /> + + <p><!-- Page 83 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_83"></a>[83]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<p class="center">GIULIETTA.</p> + + <p>1. Supposing that, in early life, one had the power of living to one's + fancy,—and why should we not, if the said fancy were restrained by + the knowledge of the two great laws concerning our nature, that happiness + is increased, not by the enlargement of the possessions, but of the + heart; and days lengthened, not by the crowding of emotions, but the + economy of them?—if thus taught, we had, I repeat, the ordering of + our house and estate in our own hands, I believe no manner of temperance + in pleasure would be better rewarded than that of making our gardens gay + only with common flowers; and leaving those which needed care for their + transplanted life to be found in their native places when we travelled. + So long as I had crocus and daisy in the spring, roses in the summer, and + hollyhocks and pinks in the autumn, I used to be myself independent of + farther horticulture,—and it is only now that I am old, and since + pleasant travelling has become impossible to me, that I am thankful to + have the white narcissus in my borders, instead of waiting to walk + through the fragrance of the meadows of Clarens; and pleased to see the + milkwort blue on my scythe-mown <!-- Page 84 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_84"></a>[84]</span> banks, since I cannot gather it any more + on the rocks of the Vosges, or in the divine glens of Jura.</p> + + <p>2. Among the losses, all the more fatal in being unfelt, brought upon + us by the fury and vulgarity of modern life, I count for one of the + saddest, the loss of the wish to gather a flower in travelling. The other + day,—whether indeed a sign of some dawning of doubt and remorse in + the public mind, as to the perfect jubilee of railroad journey, or merely + a piece of the common daily flattery on which the power of the British + press first depends, I cannot judge;—but, for one or other of such + motives, I saw lately in some illustrated paper, a pictorial comparison + of old-fashioned and modern travel, representing, as the type of things + passed away, the outside passengers of the mail shrinking into huddled + and silent distress from the swirl of a winter snowstorm; and for type of + the present Elysian dispensation, the inside of a first-class saloon + carriage, with a beautiful young lady in the last pattern of Parisian + travelling dress, conversing, Daily news in hand, with a young + officer—her fortunate vis-à-vis—on the subject of our + military successes in Afghanistan and Zululand.<a name="NtA_24"></a><a + href="#Nt_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a></p> + + <p>3. I will not, in presenting—it must not be called the other + side, but the supplementary, and wilfully omitted, facts, of this + ideal,—oppose, as I fairly might, the discomforts <!-- Page 85 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85"></a>[85]</span> of a modern + cheap excursion train, to the chariot-and-four, with outriders and + courier, of ancient noblesse. I will compare only the actual facts, in + the former and in latter years, of my own journey from Paris to Geneva. + As matters are now arranged, I find myself, at half past eight in the + evening, waiting in a confused crowd with which I am presently to contend + for a seat, in the dim light and cigar-stench of the great station of the + Lyons line. Making slow way through the hostilities of the platform, in + partly real, partly weak politeness, as may be, I find the corner seats + of course already full of prohibitory cloaks and umbrellas; but manage to + get a middle back one; the net overhead is already surcharged with a + bulging extra portmanteau, so that I squeeze my desk as well as I can + between my legs, and arrange what wraps I have about my knees and + shoulders. Follow a couple of hours of simple patience, with nothing to + entertain one's thoughts but the steady roar of the line under the + wheels, the blinking and dripping of the oil lantern, and the more or + less ungainly wretchedness, and variously sullen compromises and + encroachments of posture, among the five other passengers preparing + themselves for sleep: the last arrangement for the night being to shut up + both windows, in order to effect, with our six breaths, a salutary + modification of the night air.</p> + + <p>4. The banging and bumping of the carriages over the turn-tables wakes + me up as I am beginning to doze, at Fontainebleau, and again at Sens; and + the trilling and <!-- Page 86 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_86"></a>[86]</span> thrilling of the little telegraph bell + establishes itself in my ears, and stays there, trilling me at last into + a shivering, suspicious sort of sleep, which, with a few vaguely fretful + shrugs and fidgets, carries me as far as Tonnerre, where the 'quinze + minutes d'arret' revolutionize everything; and I get a turn or two on the + platform, and perhaps a glimpse of the stars, with promise of a clear + morning; and so generally keep awake past Mont Bard, remembering the + happy walks one used to have on the terrace under Buffon's tower, and + thence watching, if perchance, from the mouth of the high tunnel, any + film of moonlight may show the far undulating masses of the hills of + Citeaux. But most likely one knows the place where the great old view + used to be only by the sensible quickening of the pace as the train turns + down the incline, and crashes through the trenched cliffs into the + confusion and high clattering vault of the station at Dijon.</p> + + <p>5. And as my journey is almost always in the springtime, the twisted + spire of the cathedral usually shows itself against the first grey of + dawn, as we run out again southwards: and resolving to watch the sunrise, + I fall more complacently asleep,—and the sun is really up by the + time one has to change carriages, and get morning coffee at Macon. And + from Amberieux, through the Jura valley, one is more or less feverishly + happy and thankful, not so much for being in sight of Mont Blanc again, + as in having got through the nasty and gloomy night journey; and then the + sight of the Rhone and <!-- Page 87 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_87"></a>[87]</span> the Salève seems only like a dream, + presently to end in nothingness; till, covered with dust, and feeling as + if one never should be fit for anything any more, one staggers down the + hill to the Hotel des Bergues, and sees the dirtied Rhone, with its new + iron bridge, and the smoke of a new factory exactly dividing the line of + the aiguilles of Chamouni.</p> + + <p>6. That is the journey as it is now,—and as, for me, it must be; + except on foot, since there is now no other way of making it. But this + <i>was</i> the way we used to manage it in old days:—</p> + + <p>Very early in Continental transits we had found out that the family + travelling carriage, taking much time and ingenuity to load, needing at + the least three, usually four—horses, and on Alpine passes six, not + only jolted and lagged painfully on bad roads, but was liable in every + way to more awkward discomfitures than lighter vehicles; getting itself + jammed in archways, wrenched with damage out of ruts, and involved in + volleys of justifiable reprobation among market stalls. So when we knew + better, my father and mother always had their own old-fashioned light + two-horse carriage to themselves, and I had one made with any quantity of + front and side pockets for books and picked up stones; and hung very low, + with a fixed side-step, which I could get off or on with the horses at + the trot; and at any rise or fall of the road, relieve them, and get my + own walk, without troubling the driver to think of me.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 88 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_88"></a>[88]</span> 7. Thus, leaving Paris in the bright + spring morning, when the Seine glittered gaily at Charenton, and the + arbres de Judée were mere pyramids of purple bloom round + Villeneuve-St.-Georges, one had an afternoon walk among the rocks of + Fontainebleau, and next day we got early into Sens, for new lessons in + its cathedral aisles, and the first saunter among the budding vines of + the coteaux. I finished my plate of the Tower of Giotto, for the 'Seven + Lamps,' in the old inn at Sens, which Dickens has described in his wholly + matchless way in the last chapter of 'Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings'. The next + day brought us to the oolite limestones at Mont Bard, and we always spent + the Sunday at the Bell in Dijon. Monday, the drive of drives, through the + village of Genlis, the fortress of Auxonne, and up the hill to the + vine-surrounded town of Dole; whence, behold at last the limitless ranges + of Jura, south and north, beyond the woody plain, and above them the + 'Derniers Kochers' and the white square-set summit, worshipped ever anew. + Then at Poligny, the same afternoon, we gathered the first milkwort for + that year; and on Tuesday, at St. Laurent, the wild lily of the valley; + and on Wednesday, at Morez, gentians.</p> + + <p>And on Thursday, the <i>eighth or ninth</i> day from Paris, days all + spent patiently and well, one saw from the gained height of Jura, the + great Alps unfold themselves in their chains and wreaths of incredible + crest and cloud.</p> + + <p>8. Unhappily, during all the earliest and usefullest <!-- Page 89 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89"></a>[89]</span> years of such + travelling, I had no thought of ever taking up botany as a study; feeling + well that even geology, which was antecedent to painting with me, could + not be followed out in connection with art but under strict limits, and + with sore shortcomings. It has only been the later discovery of the + uselessness of old scientific botany, and the abominableness of new, as + an element of education for youth;—and my certainty that a true + knowledge of their native Flora was meant by Heaven to be one of the + first heart-possessions of every happy boy and girl in flower-bearing + lands, that have compelled me to gather into system my fading memories, + and wandering thoughts.<a name="NtA_25"></a><a + href="#Nt_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> And of course in the diaries written at + places of which I now want chiefly the details of the Flora, I find none; + and in this instance of the milkwort, whose name I was first told by the + Chamouni guide, Joseph Couttet, then walking with me on the unperilous + turf of the first rise of the Vosges, west of Strasburg, and rebuking me + indignantly for my complaint that, being then thirty-seven years old, and + not yet able to draw the great plain and distant spire, it was of no use + trying in the poor remainder of life to do anything serious,—then, + and there, I say, for the first time examining the strange little flower, + and always associating it, since, with the limestone crags of Alsace and + Burgundy, I <!-- Page 90 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_90"></a>[90]</span> don't find a single note of its + preferences or antipathies in other districts, and cannot say a word + about the soil it chooses, or the height it ventures, or the + familiarities to which it condescends, on the Alps or Apennines.</p> + + <p>9. But one thing I have ascertained of it, lately at Brantwood, that + it is capricious and fastidious beyond any other little blossom I know + of. In laying out the rock garden, most of the terrace sides were trusted + to remnants of the natural slope, propped by fragments of stone, among + which nearly every other wild flower that likes sun and air, is glad + sometimes to root itself. But at the top of all, one terrace was brought + to mathematically true level of surface, and slope of side, and turfed + with delicately chosen and adjusted sods, meant to be kept duly trim by + the scythe. And <i>only</i> on this terrace does the Giulietta choose to + show herself,—and even there, not in any consistent places, but + gleaming out here in one year, there in another, like little bits of + unexpected sky through cloud; and entirely refusing to allow either bank + or terrace to be mown the least trim during <i>her</i> time of disport + there. So spared and indulged, there are no more wayward things in all + the woods or wilds; no more delicate and perfect things to be brought up + by watch through day and night, than her recumbent clusters, trickling, + sometimes almost gushing through the grass, and meeting in tiny pools of + flawless blue.</p> + + <p>10. I will not attempt at present to arrange the varieties of the + Giulietta, for I find that all the larger and <!-- Page 91 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91"></a>[91]</span> presumably + characteristic forms belong to the Cape; and only since Mr. Froude came + back from his African explorings have I been able to get any clear idea + of the brilliancy and associated infinitude of the Cape flowers. If I + could but write down the substance of what he has told me, in the course + of a chat or two, which have been among the best privileges of my recent + stay in London, (prolonged as it has been by recurrence of illness,) it + would be a better summary of what should be generally known in the + natural history of southern plants than I could glean from fifty volumes + of horticultural botany. In the meantime, everything being again thrown + out of gear by the aforesaid illness, I must let this piece of + 'Proserpina' break off, as most of my work does—and as perhaps all + of it may soon do—leaving only suggestion for the happier research + of the students who trust me thus far.</p> + +<a name="ChIV_11"></a> + <p>11. Some essential points respecting the flower I shall note, however, + before ending. There is one large and frequent species of it of which the + flowers are delicately yellow, touched with tawny red, forming one of the + chief elements of wild foreground vegetation in the healthy districts of + hard Alpine limestone.<a name="NtA_26"></a><a + href="#Nt_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a> This is, I believe, <!-- Page 92 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92"></a>[92]</span> the only + European type of the large Cape varieties, in all of which, judging from + such plates as have been accessible to me, the crests or fringes of the + lower petal are less conspicuous than in the smaller species; and the + flower almost takes the aspect of a broom-blossom or pease-blossom. In + the smaller European varieties, the white fringes of the lower petal are + the most important and characteristic part of the flower, and they are, + among European wild flowers, absolutely without any likeness of + associated structure. The fringes or crests which, towards the origin of + petals, so often give a frosted or gemmed appearance to the centres of + flowers, are here thrown to the extremity of the petal, and suggest an + almost coralline structure of blossom, which in no other instance + whatever has been imitated, still less carried out into its conceivable + varieties of form. How many such varieties might have been produced if + these fringes of the Giulietta, or those already alluded to of Lucia + nivea, had been repeated and enlarged; as the type, once adopted for + complex bloom in the thistle-head, is multiplied in the innumerable + gradations of thistle, teasel, hawkweed, and aster! We might have had + flowers edged with lace finer than was ever woven by mortal fingers, or + tasselled <!-- Page 93 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_93"></a>[93]</span> and braided with fretwork of silver, never + tarnished—or hoarfrost that grew brighter in the sun. But it was + not to be, and after a few hints of what might be done in this kind, the + Fate, or Folly, or, on recent theories, the extreme fitness—and + consequent survival, of the Thistles and Dandelions, entirely drives the + fringed Lucias and blue-flushing milkworts out of common human + neighbourhood, to live recluse lives with the memories of the abbots of + Cluny, and pastors of Piedmont.</p> + + <p>12. I have called the Giulietta 'blue-<i>flushing</i>' because it is + one of the group of exquisite flowers which at the time of their own + blossoming, breathe their colour into the surrounding leaves and + supporting stem. Very notably the Grape hyacinth and Jura hyacinth, and + some of the Vestals, empurpling all their green leaves even to the + ground: a quite distinct nature in the flower, observe, this possession + of a power to kindle the leaf and stem with its own passion, from that of + the heaths, roses, or lilies, where the determined bracts or calicos + assert themselves in opposition to the blossom, as little pine-leaves, or + mosses, or brown paper packages, and the like.</p> + + <p>13. The Giulietta, however, is again entirely separate from the other + leaf-flushing blossoms, in that, after the two green leaves next the + flower have glowed with its blue, while it lived, they do not fade or + waste with it, but return to their own former green simplicity, and close + over it to protect the seed. I only know this to be the case with the + Giulietta Regina; but suppose it to be <!-- Page 94 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94"></a>[94]</span> (with variety of course + in the colours) a condition in other species,—though of course + nothing is ever said of it in the botanical accounts of them. I gather, + however, from Curtis's careful drawings that the prevailing colour of the + Cape species is purple, thus justifying still further my placing them + among the Cytherides; and I am content to take the descriptive epithets + at present given them, for the following five of this southern group, + hoping that they may be explained for me afterwards by helpful + friends.</p> + + <p>14. Bracteolata, C. 345. Oppositifolia, C. 492. Speciosa, C. 1790. + These three all purple, and scarcely distinguishable from sweet + pease-blossom, only smaller.</p> + + <p>Stipulacea, C. 1715. Small, and very beautiful, lilac and purple, with + a leaf and mode of growth like rosemary. The "Foxtail" milkwort, whose + name I don't accept, C. 1006, is intermediate between this and the next + species.</p> + + <p>15. Mixta, C. 1714. I don't see what mingling is meant, except that it + is just like Erica tetralix in the leaf, only, apparently, having little + four-petalled pinks for blossoms. This appearance is thus botanically + explained. I do not myself understand the description, but copy it, + thinking it may be of use to somebody. "The apex of the carina is + expanded into a two-lobed plain petal, the lobes of which are emarginate. + This appendix <!-- Page 95 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_95"></a>[95]</span> is of a bright rose colour, and forms the + principal part of the flower." The describer relaxes, or relapses, into + common language so far as to add that 'this appendix' "dispersed among + the green foliage in every part of the shrub, gives it a pretty lively + appearance."</p> + + <p>Perhaps this may also be worth extracting.</p> + + <p>"Carina, deeply channeled, <i>of a saturated purple</i> within, sides + folded together, so as to include and firmly embrace the style and + stamens, which, when arrived at maturity, upon being moved, escape + elastically from their confinement, and strike against the two erect + petals or alæ—by which the pollen is dispersed.</p> + + <p>"Stem shrubby, with long flexile branches." (Length or height not + told. I imagine like an ordinary heath's.)</p> + + <p>The term 'carina,' occurring twice in the above description, is + peculiar to the structure of the pease and milk-worts; we will examine it + afterwards. The European varieties of the milkwort, except the + chamæbuxus, are all minute,—and, their ordinary epithets being at + least inoffensive, I give them for reference till we find prettier ones; + altering only the Calcarea, because we could not have a 'Chalk Juliet,' + and two varieties of the Regina, changed for reason good—her name, + according to the last modern refinements of grace and ease in + pronunciation, being Eu-vularis, var. genuina! My readers may more + happily remember her and her sister as follows:— <!-- Page 96 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96"></a>[96]</span></p> + + <p>16. (I.) Giulietta Regina. Pure blue. The same in colour, form, and + size, throughout Europe.</p> + + <p>(II.) Giulietta Soror-Reginæ. Pale, reddish-blue or white in the + flower, and smaller in the leaf, otherwise like the Regina.</p> + + <p>(III.) Giulietta Depressa. The smallest of those I can find drawings + of. Flowers, blue; lilac in the fringe, and no bigger than pins' heads; + the leaves quite gem-like in minuteness and order.</p> + + <p>(IV.) Giulietta Cisterciana. Its present name, 'Calcarea,' is meant, + in botanic Latin, to express its growth on limestone or chalk mountains. + But we might as well call the South Down sheep, Calcareous mutton. My + epithet will rightly associate it with the Burgundian hills round Cluny + and Citeaux. Its ground leaves are much larger than those of the + Depressa; the flower a little larger, but very pale.</p> + + <p>(V.) Giulietta Austriaca. Pink, and very lovely, with bold cluster of + ground leaves, but itself minute—almost dwarf. Called 'small bitter + milkwort' by S. How far distinct from the next following one, Norwegian, + is not told.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 97 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_97"></a>[97]</span> The above five kinds are given by Sowerby + as British, but I have never found the Austriaca myself.</p> + + <p>(VI.) Giulietta Amara. Norwegian. Very quaint in blossom outline, like + a little blue rabbit with long ears. D. 1169.</p> + + <p>17. Nobody tells me why either this last or No. 5 have been called + bitter; and Gerarde's five kinds are distinguished only by + colour—blue, red, white, purple, and "the dark, of an overworn + ill-favoured colour, which maketh it to differ from all others of his + kind." I find no account of this ill-favoured one elsewhere. The white is + my Soror Reginæ; the red must be the Austriaca; but the purple and + overworn ones are perhaps now overworn indeed. All of them must have been + more common in Gerarde's time than now, for he goes on to say "Milk-woort + is called <i>Ambarualis flos</i>. so called because it doth specially + flourish in the Crosse or Gang-weeke, or Rogation-weeke, of which + flowers, the maidens which use in the countries to walk the procession do + make themselves garlands and nosegaies, in English we may call it Crosse + flower, Gang flower, Rogation flower, and Milk-woort."</p> + + <p>18. Above, at page 197, vol. i., in first arranging the Cytherides, I + too hastily concluded that the ascription to this plant of helpfulness to + nursing mothers was 'more than ordinarily false'; thinking that its + rarity could never have allowed it to be fairly tried. If indeed true, or + in any degree true, the flower has the best right of all <!-- Page 98 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98"></a>[98]</span> to be classed + with the Cytherides, and we might have as much of it for beauty and for + service as we choose, if we only took half the pains to garnish our + summer gardens with living and life-giving blossom, that we do to garnish + our winter gluttonies with dying and useless ones.</p> + + <p>19. I have said nothing of root, or fruit, or seed, having never had + the hardness of heart to pull up a milkwort cluster—nor the chance + of watching one in seed:—The pretty thing vanishes as it comes, + like the blue sky of April, and leaves no sign of itself—that + <i>I</i> ever found. The botanists tell me that its fruit "dehisces + loculicidally," which I suppose is botanic for "splits like boxes," (but + boxes shouldn't split, and didn't, as we used to make and handle them + before railways). Out of the split boxes fall seeds—too few; and, + as aforesaid, the plant never seems to grow again in the same spot. I + should thankfully receive any notes from friends happy enough to live + near milkwort banks, on the manner of its nativity.</p> + + <p>20. Meanwhile, the Thistle, and the Nettle, and the Dock, and the + Dandelion are cared for in their generations by the finest arts + of—Providence, shall we say? or of the spirits appointed to punish + our own want of Providence? May I ask the reader to look back to the + seventh chapter of the first volume, for it contains suggestions of + thoughts which came to me at a time of very earnest and faithful inquiry, + set down, I now see too shortly, under the press of reading they + involved, but intelligible enough if they are read as slowly as they were + <!-- Page 99 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99"></a>[99]</span> + written, and especially note the paragraph of summary of p. 121 on the + power of the Earth Mother, as Mother, and as <i>judge;</i> watching and + rewarding the conditions which induce adversity and prosperity in the + kingdoms of men: comparing with it carefully the close of the fourth + chapter, p. 85,<a name="NtA_27"></a><a href="#Nt_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a> + which contains, for the now recklessly multiplying classes of artists and + colonists, truths essential to their skill, and inexorable upon their + labour.</p> + + <p>21. The pen-drawing facsimiled by Mr. Allen with more than his usual + care in the frontispiece to this number of 'Proserpina,' was one of many + executed during the investigation of the schools of Gothic (German, and + later French), which founded their minor ornamentation on the serration + of the thistle leaf, as the Greeks on that of the Acanthus, but with a + consequent, and often morbid, love of thorny points, and insistance upon + jagged or knotted intricacies of stubborn vegetation, which is connected + in a deeply mysterious way with the gloomier forms of Catholic + asceticism.<a name="NtA_28"></a><a href="#Nt_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a></p> + + <p><!-- Page 100 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_100"></a>[100]</span> 22. But also, in beginning 'Proserpina,' + I intended to give many illustrations of the light and shade of + foreground leaves belonging to the nobler groups of thistles, because I + thought they had been neglected by ordinary botanical draughtsmen; not + knowing at that time either the original drawings at Oxford for the + 'Flora Græca,' or the nobly engraved plates executed in the close of the + last century for the 'Flora Danica' and 'Flora Londinensis.' The latter + is in the most difficult portraiture of the larger plants, even the more + wonderful of the two; and had I seen the miracles of skill, patience, and + faithful study which are collected in the first and second volumes, + published in 1777 and 1798, I believe my own work would never have been + undertaken.<a name="NtA_29"></a><a href="#Nt_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a> Such + as it is, however, I may still, health being granted me, persevere in it; + for my own leaf and branch studies express conditions of shade which even + these most exquisite botanical plates ignore; and exemplify uses of the + pen and pencil which cannot be learned from the inimitable fineness of + line engraving. The frontispiece to this number, for instance, (a seeding + head of the commonest field-thistle of our London suburbs,) copied with a + steel pen on smooth grey paper, and the drawing softly touched with <!-- + Page 101 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101"></a>[101]</span> + white on the nearer thorns, may well surpass the effect of the plate.</p> + + <p>23. In the following number of 'Proserpina' I have been tempted to + follow, with more minute notice than usual, the 'conditions of adversity' + which, as they fret the thistle tribe into jagged malice, have humbled + the beauty of the great domestic group of the Vestals into confused + likenesses of the Dragonweed and Nettle: but I feel every hour more and + more the necessity of separating the treatment of subjects in + 'Proserpina' from the microscopic curiosities of recent botanic + illustration, nor shall this work close, if my strength hold, without + fulfilling in some sort, the effort begun long ago in 'Modern Painters,' + to interpret the grace of the larger blossoming trees, and the mysteries + of leafy form which clothe the Swiss precipice with gentleness, and + colour with softest azure the rich horizons of England and Italy.</p> + + <br clear="all" /> +<hr /> + + <p><!-- Page 102 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_102"></a>[102]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<p class="center">BRUNELLA.</p> + + <p>1. It ought to have been added to the statements of general law in + irregular flowers, in Chapter I. of this volume, <a href="#ChI_6"> § + 6</a>, that if the petals, while brought into relations of inequality, + still retain their perfect petal form,—and whether broad or narrow, + extended or reduced, remain clearly <i>leaves</i>, as in the pansy, pea, + or azalea, and assume no grotesque or obscure outline,—the flower, + though injured, is not to be thought of as corrupted or misled. But if + any of the petals lose their definite character as such, and become + swollen, solidified, stiffened, or strained into any other form or + function than that of petals, the flower is to be looked upon as affected + by some kind of constant evil influence; and, so far as we conceive of + any spiritual power being concerned in the protection or affliction of + the inferior orders of creatures, it will be felt to bear the aspect of + possession by, or pollution by, a more or less degraded Spirit.<a + name="NtA_30"></a><a href="#Nt_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a></p> + + <p>2. I have already enough spoken of the special manifestation <!-- Page + 103 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103"></a>[103]</span> of this + character in the orders Contorta and Satyrium, vol. i., p. 91, and the + reader will find the parallel aspects of the Draconidæ dwelt upon at + length in the 86th and 87th paragraphs of the 'Queen of the Air,' where + also their relation to the labiate group is touched upon. But I am far + more embarrassed by the symbolism of that group which I called + 'Vestales,' from their especially domestic character and their + serviceable purity; but which may be, with more convenience perhaps, + simply recognizable as 'Menthæ.'</p> + + <p>3. These are, to our northern countries, what the spice-bearing trees + are in the tropics;—our thyme, lavender, mint, marjoram, and their + like, separating themselves not less in the health giving or + strengthening character of their scent from the flowers more or less + enervating in perfume, as the rose, orange, and violet,—than in + their humble colours and forms from the grace and splendour of those + higher tribes; thus allowing themselves to be summed under the general + word 'balm' more truly than the balsams from which the word is derived. + Giving the most pure and healing powers to the air around them; with a + comfort of warmth also, being mostly in dry places, and forming sweet + carpets and close turf; but only to be rightly enjoyed in the open air, + or indoors when dried; not tempting any one to luxury, nor expressive of + any kind of exultation. Brides do not deck themselves with thyme, nor do + we wreathe triumphal arches with mint.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 104 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_104"></a>[104]</span> 4. It is most notable, also, farther, + that none of these flowers have any extreme beauty in colour. The blue + sage is the only one of vivid hue at all; and we never think of it as for + a moment comparable to the violet or bluebell: thyme is unnoticed beside + heath, and many of the other purple varieties of the group are almost + dark and sad coloured among the flowers of summer; while, so far from + gaining beauty on closer looking, there is scarcely a blossom of them + which is not more or less grotesque, even to ugliness, in outline; and so + hooded or lappeted as to look at first like some imperfect form of + snapdragon for the most part spotted also, wrinkled as if by old age or + decay, cleft or torn, as if by violence, and springing out of calices + which, in their clustering spines, embody the general roughness of the + plant.</p> + + <p>5. I take at once for example, lest the reader should think me unkind + or intemperate in my description, a flower very dear and precious to me; + and at this time my chief comfort in field walks. For, now, the reign of + all the sweet reginas of the spring is over—the reign of the silvia + and anemone, of viola and veronica; and at last, and this year abdicated + under tyrannous storm,<a name="NtA_31"></a><a + href="#Nt_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> the reign of the rose. And the last + foxglove-bells are nearly fallen; and over all my fields and by the + brooksides are coming up the burdock, and the coarse and vainly white + aster, and the black knapweeds; and there is only one <!-- Page 105 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105"></a>[105]</span> flower left + to be loved among the grass,—the soft, warm-scented Brunelle.</p> + + <p>6. <i>P</i>runell, <i>or</i> Brunell—Gerarde calls it; and + Brunella, rightly and authoritatively, Tournefort; Prunella, carelessly, + Linnæus, and idly following him, the moderns, casting out all the meaning + and help of its name—of which presently. Selfe-heale, Gerarde and + Gray call it, in English—meaning that who has this plant needs no + physician.</p> + + <p>7. As I look at it, close beside me, it seems as if it would reprove + me for what I have just said of the poverty of colour in its tribe; for + the most glowing of violets could not be lovelier than each fine purple + gleam of its hooded blossoms. But their flush is broken and oppressed by + the dark calices out of which they spring, and their utmost power in the + field is only of a saddened amethystine lustre, subdued with furry brown. + And what is worst in the victory of the darker colour is the disorder of + the scattered blossoms;—of all flowers I know, this is the + strangest, in the way that here and there, only in their cluster, its + bells rise or remain, and it always looks as if half of them had been + shaken off, and the top of the cluster broken short away altogether.</p> + + <p>8. We must never lose hold of the principle that every flower is meant + to be seen by human creatures with human eyes, as by spiders with spider + eyes. But as the painter may sometimes play the spider, and weave a mesh + to entrap the heart, so the beholder may play the <!-- Page 106 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106"></a>[106]</span> spider, when there + are meshes to be disentangled that have entrapped his mind. I take my + lens, therefore—to the little wonder of a brown wasps' nest with + blue-winged wasps in it,—and perceive therewith the following + particulars.</p> + + <p>9. First, that the blue of the petals is indeed pure and lovely, and a + little crystalline in texture; but that the form and setting of them is + grotesque beyond all wonder; the two uppermost joined being like an old + fashioned and enormous hood or bonnet, and the lower one projecting far + out in the shape of a cup or cauldron, torn deep at the edges into a kind + of fringe.</p> + + <p>Looking more closely still, I perceive there is a cluster of stiff + white hairs, almost bristles, on the top of the hood; for no imaginable + purpose of use or decoration—any more than a hearth-brush put for a + helmet-crest,—and that, as we put the flower full in front, the + lower petal begins to look like some threatening viperine or shark-like + jaw, edged with ghastly teeth,—and yet more, that the hollow within + begins to suggest a resemblance to an open throat in which there are two + projections where the lower petal joins the lateral ones, almost exactly + like swollen glands.</p> + + <p>I believe it was this resemblance, inevitable to any careful and close + observer, which first suggested the use of the plant in throat diseases + to physicians; guided, as in those first days of pharmacy, chiefly by + imagination. Then the German name for one of the most fatal of <!-- Page + 107 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107"></a>[107]</span> throat + affections, Braune, extended itself into the first name of the plant, + Brunelle.</p> + + <p>10. The truth of all popular traditions as to the healing power of + herbs will be tried impartially as soon as men again desire to lead + healthy lives; but I shall not in 'Proserpina' retain any of the names of + their gathered and dead or distilled substance, but name them always from + the characters of their life. I retain, however, for this plant its name + Brunella, Fr. Brunelle, because we may ourselves understand it as a + derivation from Brune; and I bring it here before the reader's attention + as giving him a perfectly instructive general type of the kind of + degradation which takes place in the forms of flowers under more or less + malefic influence, causing distortion and disguise of their floral + structure. Thus it is not the normal character of a flower petal to have + a cluster of bristles growing out of the middle of it, nor to be jagged + at the edge into the likeness of a fanged fish's jaw, nor to be swollen + or pouted into the likeness of a diseased gland in an animal's throat. A + really uncorrupted flower suggests none but delightful images, and is + like nothing but itself.</p> + + <p>11. I find that in the year 1719, Tournefort defined, with exactitude + which has rendered the definition authoritative for all time, the tribe + to which this Brownie flower belongs, constituting them his fourth class, + and describing them in terms even more depreciatingly imaginative than + any I have ventured to use myself. I translate the passage (vol. i., p. + 177):—</p> + + <p><!-- Page 108 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_108"></a>[108]</span> 12. "The name of Labiate flower is given + to a single-petaled flower which, beneath, is attenuated into a tube, and + above is expanded into a lip, which is either single or double. It is + proper to a labiate flower,—first, that it has a one-leaved calyx + (ut calycem habeat <i>unifolium</i>), for the most part tubulated, or + reminding one of a paper hood (cucullum papyraceum); and, secondly, that + its pistil ripens into a fruit consisting of four seeds, which ripen in + the calyx itself, as if in their own seed-vessel, by which a labiate + flower is distinguished from a personate one, whose pistil becomes a + capsule far divided from the calyx (à calyce longò divisam). And a + labiate flower differs from rotate, or bell-shaped flowers, which have + four seeds, in that the lips of a labiate flower have a gape like the + face of a goblin, or ludicrous mask, emulous of animal form."</p> + + <p>13. This class is then divided into four sections.</p> + + <blockquote> + <p>In the first, the upper lip is helmeted, or hooked—"galeatum + est, vel falcatum."<br /> In the second, the upper lip is excavated like + a spoon—"cochlearis instar est excavatum."<br /> In the third the + upper lip is erect.<br /> And in the fourth there is no upper lip at + all.</p> + + </blockquote> + <p>The reader will, I hope, forgive me for at once rejecting a + classification of lipped plants into three classes that have lips, and + one that has none, and in which the lips of those that have got any, are + like helmets and spoons.</p> + + <p>Linnaeus, in 1758, grouped the family into two divisions, <!-- Page + 109 --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109"></a>[109]</span> by the + form of the calyx, (five-fold or two-fold), and then went into the + wildest confusion in distinction of species,—sometimes by the form + of corolla, sometimes by that of calyx, sometimes by that of the + filaments, sometimes by that of the stigma, and sometimes by that of the + seed. As, for instance, thyme is to be identified by the calyx having + hairs in its throat, dead nettle by having bristles in its mouth, lion's + tail by having bones in its anthers (antheræ punctis osseis adspersæ), + and teucrium by having its upper lip cut in two!</p> + + <p>14. St. Hilaire, in 1805, divides again into four sections, but as + three of these depend on form of corolla, and the fourth on abortion of + stamens, the reader may conclude practically, that logical division of + the family is impossible, and that all he can do, or that there is the + smallest occasion for his doing, is first to understand the typical + structure thoroughly, and then to know a certain number of forms + accurately, grouping the others round them at convenient distances; and, + finally, to attach to their known forms such simple names as may be + utterable by children, and memorable by old people, with more ease and + benefit than the 'Galeopsis Eu-te-trahit,' 'Lamium Galeobdalon,' or + 'Scutellaria Galericulata,'and the like, of modern botany. But to do this + rightly, I must review and amplify some of my former classification, + which it will be advisable to do in a separate chapter.</p> + + <br clear="all" /> +<hr /> + + <p><!-- Page 110 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_110"></a>[110]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<p class="center">MONACHA.</p> + +<a name="ChVI_1"></a> + <p>1. It is not a little vexing to me, in looking over the very little I + have got done of my planned Systema Proserpinæ, to discover a grave + mistake in the specifications of Veronica. It is Veronica chamædrys, not + officinalis, which is our proper English Speedwell, and Welsh Fluellen; + and all the eighth paragraph, p. <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, properly + applies to that. Veronica officinalis is an extremely small flower rising + on vertical stems out of recumbent leaves; and the drawing of it in the + Flora Danica, which I mistook for a stunted northern state, is quite true + of the English species,<a name="NtA_32"></a><a + href="#Nt_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> except that it does not express the + recumbent action of the leaves. The proper representation of + ground-leafage has never yet been attempted in any botanical work + whatever, and as, in recumbent plants, their grouping and action can only + be seen from above, the plates of them should always have a dark and + rugged background, not only to indicate the position of the eye, but to + relieve the forms of the <!-- Page 111 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_111"></a>[111]</span> leaves as they were intended to be + shown. I will try to give some examples in the course of this year.</p> + + <p>2. I find also, sorrowfully, that the references are wrong in three, + if not more, places in that chapter. S. 971 and 972 should be transposed + in p. <a href="#Page_72">72</a>. S. 294 in p. <a href="#Page_74">74</a> + should be 984. D. 407 should be inserted after Peregrina, in p. <a + href="#Page_76">76</a>; and 203, in fourth line from bottom of p. <a + href="#Page_78">78</a>, should be 903. I wish it were likely that these + errors had been corrected by my readers,—the rarity of the Flora + Danica making at present my references virtually useless: but I hope in + time that our public institutes will possess themselves of copies: still + more do I hope that some book of the kind will be undertaken by English + artists and engravers, which shall be worthy of our own country.</p> + + <p>3. Farther, I get into confusion by not always remembering my own + nomenclature, and have allowed 'Gentianoides' to remain, for No. 16, + though I banish Gentian. It will be far better to call this eastern + mountain species 'Olympica': according to Sibthorpe's localization, "in + summâ parte, nive solutâ, montis Olympi Bithyni," and the rather that + Curtis's plate above referred to shows it in luxuriance to be liker an + asphodel than a gentian.</p> + + <p>4. I have also perhaps done wrong in considering Veronica polita and + agrestis as only varieties, in No. 3. No author tells me why the first is + called polite, but its blue seems more intense than that of agrestis; and + as it <!-- Page 112 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_112"></a>[112]</span> is above described with attention, vol. + i., p. 75, as an example of precision in flower-form, we may as well + retain it in our list here. It will be therefore our twenty-first + variety,—it is Loudon's fifty-ninth and last. He translates + 'polita' simply 'polished,' which is nonsense. I can think of nothing to + call it but 'dainty,' and will leave it at present unchristened.</p> + +<a name="ChVI_5"></a> + <p>5. Lastly. I can't think why I omitted V. Humifusa, S. 979, which + seems to be quite one of the most beautiful of the family—a + mountain flower also, and one which I ought to find here; but hitherto I + know only among the mantlings of the ground, V. thymifolia and + officinalis. All these, however, agree in the extreme prettiness and + grace of their crowded leafage,—the officinalis, of which the + leaves are shown much too coarsely serrated in S. 984, forming carpets of + finished embroidery which I have never yet rightly examined, because I + mistook them for St. John's wort. They are of a beautiful pointed oval + form, serrated so finely that they seem smooth in distant effect, and + covered with equally invisible hairs, which seem to collect towards the + edge in the variety Hirsuta, S. 985.</p> + + <p>For the present, I should like the reader to group the three flowers, + S. 979, 984, 985, under the general name of Humifusa, and to distinguish + them by a third epithet, which I allow myself when in difficulties, + thus:</p> + + <blockquote> + <p>V. Humifusa, cærulea, the beautiful blue one, which resembles + Spicata.<br /> <!-- Page 113 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_113"></a>[113]</span> V. Humifusa, officinalis, and,<br /> V. + Humifusa, hirsuta: the last seems to me extremely interesting, and I hope + to find it and study it carefully.</p> + + </blockquote> + <p>By this arrangement we shall have only twenty-one species to remember: + the one which chiefly decorates the ground again dividing into the above + three.</p> + + <p>6. These matters being set right, I pass to the business in hand, + which is to define as far as possible the subtle relations between the + Veronicas and Draconidæ, and again between these and the tribe at present + called labiate. In my classification above, vol. i, p. 200, the Draconidæ + include the Nightshades; but this was an oversight. Atropa belongs + properly to the following class, Moiridæ; and my Draconids are intended + to include only the two great families of Personate and Ringent flowers, + which in some degree resemble the head of an animal: the representative + one being what we call 'snapdragon,' but the French, careless of its + snapping power, 'calf's muzzle'—"Muflier, muflande, or muffle de + Veau."—Rousseau, 'Lettres,' p. 19.</p> + + <p>7. As I examine his careful and sensible plates of it, I chance also + on a bit of his text, which, extremely wise and generally useful, I + translate forthwith:—</p> + + <p>"I understand, my dear, that one is vexed to take so much trouble + without learning the names of the plants one examines; but I confess to + you in good faith that it never entered into my plan to spare you this + little <!-- Page 114 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_114"></a>[114]</span> chagrin. One pretends that Botany is + nothing but a science of words, which only exercises the memory, and only + teaches how to give plants names. For me, I know <i>no</i> rational study + which is only a science of words: and to which of the two, I pray you, + shall I grant the name of botanist,—to him who knows how to spit + out a name or a phrase at the sight of a plant, without knowing anything + of its structure, or to him who, knowing that structure very well, is + ignorant nevertheless of the very arbitrary name that one gives to the + plant in such and such a country? If we only gave to your children an + amusing occupation, we should miss the best half of our purpose, which + is, in amusing them, to exercise their intelligence and accustom them to + attention. Before teaching them to name what they see, let us begin by + teaching them to see it. <i>That</i> science, forgotten in all + educations, ought to form the most important part of theirs. I can never + repeat it often enough—teach them never to be satisfied with words, + ('se payer de mots') and to hold themselves as knowing nothing of what + has reached no farther than their memories."</p> + + <p>8. Rousseau chooses, to represent his 'Personees,' La Mufflaude, la + Linaire, l'Euphraise, la Pediculaire, la Crête-de-coq, l'Orobanche, la + Cimbalaire, la Velvote, la Digitale, giving plates of snapdragon, + foxglove, and Madonna-herb, (the Cimbalaire), and therefore including my + entire class of Draconidæ, whether open or close throated. But I propose + myself to separate from them <!-- Page 115 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_115"></a>[115]</span> the flower which, for the present, I + have called Monacha, but may perhaps find hereafter a better name; this + one, which is the best Latin I can find for a nun of the desert, being + given to it because all the resemblance either to calf or dragon has + ceased in its rosy petals, and they resemble—the lower ones those + of the mountain thyme, and the upper one a softly crimson cowl or + hood.</p> + + <p>9. This beautiful mountain flower, at present, by the good grace of + botanists, known as Pedicularis, from a disease which it is supposed to + give to sheep, is distinguished from all other Draconidæ by its + beautifully divided leaves: while the flower itself, like, as aforesaid, + thyme in the three lower petals, rises in the upper one quite upright, + and terminates in the narrow and peculiar hood from which I have named it + 'Monacha.'</p> + + <p>10. Two deeper crimson spots with white centres animate the colour of + the lower petals in our mountain kind—-mountain or morass;—it + is vilely drawn in S. 997 under the name of Sylvatica, translated + 'Procumbent'! As it is neither a wood flower nor a procumbent one,<a + name="NtA_33"></a><a href="#Nt_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> and as its rosy + colour is rare among morass flowers, I shall call it simply Monacha + Rosea.</p> + + <p>I have not the smallest notion of the meaning of the <!-- Page 116 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116"></a>[116]</span> following + sentence in S.:—"Upper lip of corolla not rostrate, with the margin + on each side furnished with a triangular tooth immediately below the + apex, but without any tooth below the middle." Why, or when, a lip is + rostrate, or has any 'tooth below the middle,' I do not know; but the + upper <i>petal</i> of the corolla is here a very close gathered hood, + with the style emergent downwards, and the stamens all hidden and close + set within.</p> + + <p>In this action of the upper petal, and curve of the style, the flower + resembles the Labiates,<a name="NtA_34"></a><a + href="#Nt_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> and is the proper link between them and + the Draconidæ. The capsule is said by S. to be oval-ovoid. As eggs always + <i>are</i> oval, I don't feel farther informed by the epithet. The + capsule and seed both are of entirely indescribable shapes, with any + number of sides—very foxglove-like, and inordinately large. The + seeds of the entire family are 'ovoid-subtrigonous.'—S.</p> + + <p>11. I find only two species given as British by S., namely, Sylvatica + and Palustris; but I take first for the Regina, the beautiful Arctic + species D. 1105, Flora Suecica, 555. Rose-coloured in the stem, pale pink + in the flowers (corollæ pallide incarnatæ), the calices furry against the + cold, whence the present ugly name, Hirsuta. Only on the highest crests + of the Lapland Alps.</p> + + <p>(2) Rosea, D. 225, there called Sylvatica, as by S., presumably + because "in pascuis subhumidis non raræ." <!-- Page 117 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117"></a>[117]</span> Beautifully drawn, + but, as I have described it, vigorously erect, and with no decumbency + whatever in any part of it. Root branched, and enormous in proportion to + plant, and I fancy therefore must be good for something if one knew it. + But Gerarde, who calls the plant Red Rattle, (it having indeed much in + common with the Yellow Rattle), says, "It groweth in moist and moorish + meadows; the herbe is not only unprofitable, but likewise hurtful, and an + infirmity of the meadows."</p> + + <p>(3) Palustris, D. 2055, S. 996—scarcely any likeness between the + plates. "Everywhere in the meadows," according to D. I leave the English + name, Marsh Monacha, much doubting its being more marshy than others.</p> + + <p>12. I take next (4 and 5) two northern species, Lapponica, D. 2, and + Grönlandica, D. 1166; the first yellow, the second red, both beautiful. + The Lap one has its divided leaves almost united into one lovely + spear-shaped, single leaf. The Greenland one has its red hood much + prolonged in front.</p> + + <p>(6) Ramosa, also a Greenland species; yellow, very delicate and + beautiful. Three stems from one root, but may be more or fewer, I + suppose.</p> + + <p>13. (7) Norvegica, a beautifully clustered golden flower, with thick + stem. D. 30, the only locality given being the Dovrefeldt. "Alpina" and + "Flammea" are the synonyms, but I do not know it on the Alps, and it is + no more flame-coloured than a cowslip.</p> + + <p><!-- Page 118 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_118"></a>[118]</span> Both the Lapland and Norwegian flowers + are drawn with their stems wavy, though upright—a rare and pretty + habit of growth.</p> + + <p>14. (8) Suecica, D. 26, named awkwardly Sceptrum Carolinum, in honour + of Charles XII. It is the largest of all the species drawn in D., and + contrasts strikingly with (4) and (5) in the strict uprightness of its + stem. The corolla is closed at the extremity, which is red; the body of + the flower pale yellow. Grows in marshy and shady woods, near Upsal. + Linn., Flora Suecica, 553.</p> + + <p>The many-lobed but united leaves, at the root five or six inches long, + are irregularly beautiful.</p> + + <p>15. These eight species are all I can specify, having no pictures of + the others named by Loudon,—eleven, making nineteen altogether, and + I wish I could find a twentieth and draw them all, but the reader may be + well satisfied if he clearly know these eight. The group they form is an + entirely distinct one, exactly intermediate between the Vestals and + Draconids, and cannot be rightly attached to either; for it is Draconid + in structure and affinity—Vestal in form—and I don't see how + to get the connection of the three families rightly expressed without + taking the Draconidæ out of the groups belonging to the dark Kora, and + placing them next the Vestals, with the Monachæ between; for indeed + Linaria and several other Draconid forms are entirely innocent and + beautiful, and even the Foxglove never does any real <!-- Page 119 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119"></a>[119]</span> mischief + like hemlock, while decoratively it is one of the most precious of + mountain flowers. I find myself also embarrassed by my name of Vestals, + because of the masculine groups of Basil and Thymus, and I think it will + be better to call them simply Menthæ, and to place them with the other + cottage-garden plants not yet classed, taking the easily remembered names + Mentha, Monacha, Draconida. This will leave me a blank seventh place + among my twelve orders at p. 194, vol. i., which I think I shall fill by + taking cyclamen and anagillis out of the Primulaceæ, and making a + separate group of them. These retouchings and changes are inevitable in a + work confessedly tentative and suggestive only; but in whatever state of + imperfection I may be forced to leave 'Proserpina,' it will assuredly be + found, up to the point reached, a better foundation for the knowledge of + flowers in the minds of young people than any hitherto adopted system of + nomenclature.</p> + + <p>16. Taking then this re-arranged group, Mentha, Monacha, and + Draconida, as a sufficiently natural and convenient one, I will briefly + give the essentially botanical relations of the three families.</p> + + <p>Mentha and Monacha agree in being essentially hooded flowers, the + upper petal more or less taking the form of a cup, helmet or hood, which + conceals the tops of the stamens. Of the three lower petals, the lowest + is almost invariably the longest; it sometimes is itself divided again + into two, but may be best thought of as single, and <!-- Page 120 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120"></a>[120]</span> with the two + lateral ones, distinguished in the Menthæ as the apron and the side + pockets.</p> + + <p>Plate XII. represents the most characteristic types of the blossoms of + Menthæ, in the profile and front views, all a little magnified. The upper + two are white basil, purple spotted—growing here at Brantwood + always with two terminal flowers. The two middle figures are the + purple-spotted dead nettle, Lamium maculatum; and the two lower, thyme: + but I have not been able to draw these as I wanted, the perspectives of + the petals being too difficult, and inexplicable to the eye even in the + flowers themselves without continually putting them in changed + positions.</p> + + <p>17. The Menthæ are in their structure essentially quadrate plants; + their stems are square, their leaves opposite, their stamens either four + or two, their seeds two-carpeled. But their calices are five-sepaled, + falling into divisions of two and three; and the flowers, though + essentially four-petaled, may divide either the upper or lower petal, or + both, into two lobes, and so present a six-lobed outline. The entire + plants, but chiefly the leaves, are nearly always fragrant, and always + innocent. None of them sting, none prick, and none poison.</p> + + <p>18. The Draconids, easily recognizable by their aspect, are + botanically indefinable with any clearness or simplicity. The calyx may + be five- or four-sepaled; the corolla, five- or four-lobed; the stamens + may be two, four, four with a rudimentary fifth, or five with the two + <!-- Page 121 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_121"></a>[121]</span> anterior ones longer than the other + three! The capsule may open by two, three, or four valves,—or by + pores; the seeds, generally numerous, are sometimes solitary, and the + leaves may be alternate, opposite, or verticillate.</p> + + <p>19. Thus licentious in structure, they are also doubtful in + disposition. None that I know of are fragrant, few useful, many more or + less malignant, and some parasitic. The following piece of a friend's + letter almost makes me regret my rescue of them from the dark kingdom of + Kora:—</p> + + <blockquote> + <p>"... And I find that the Monacha Rosea (Red Rattle is its name, + besides the ugly one) is a perennial, and several of the other draconidæ, + foxglove, etc., are biennials, born this year, flowering and dying next + year, and the size of roots is generally proportioned to the life of + plants; except when artificial cultivation develops the root specially, + as in turnips, etc. Several of the Draconidæ are parasites, and suck the + roots of other plants, and have only just enough of their own to catch + with. The Yellow Rattle is one; it clings to the roots of the grasses and + clovers, and no cultivation will make it thrive without them. My + authority for this last fact is Grant Allen; but I have observed for + myself that the Yellow Rattle has very small <i>white</i> sucking roots, + and no earth sticking to them. The toothworts and broom rapes are + Draconidæ, I think, and wholly parasites. Can it be that the Red Rattle + is the one member of the family that has 'proper pride, and is self + supporting'? the others are mendicant orders. We had what we choose to + call the Dorcas flower show yesterday, and we gave, as usual, prizes for + wild flower bouquets. I tried to find out the local names of several + flowers, but they all seemed to be called 'I don't know, ma'am.' I would + not allow this name to suffice for the red poppy, and I said 'This red + flower <i>must</i> be called <i>something</i>—tell me what you call + it?' A few of the audience answered 'Blind Eyes.' <!-- Page 122 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122"></a>[122]</span> Is it because they + have to do with sleep that they are called Blind Eyes—or because + they are dazzling?"</p> + + </blockquote> + <p>20. I think, certainly, from the dazzling, which sometimes with the + poppy, scarlet geranium, and nasturtium, is more distinctly oppressive to + the eye than a real excess of light.</p> + + <p>I will certainly not include among my rescued Draconidæ, the parasitic + Lathræa and Orobanche; and cannot yet make certain of any minor + classification among those which I retain,—but, uniting Bartsia + with Euphrasia, I shall have, in the main, the three divisions Digitalis, + Linaria, Euphrasia, and probably separate the moneyworts as links with + Veronica, and Rhinanthus as links with Lathræa.</p> + + <p>And as I shall certainly be unable this summer, under the pressure of + resumed work at Oxford, to spend time in any new botanical + investigations, I will rather try to fulfil the promise given in the last + number, to collect what little I have been able hitherto to describe or + ascertain, respecting the higher modes of tree structure.</p> + + <br clear="all" /> +<hr /> + + <p><!-- Page 123 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_123"></a>[123]</span></p> + +<h3>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<p class="center">SCIENCE IN HER CELLS.</p> + + <blockquote> + <p>[The following chapter has been written six years. It was delayed in + order to complete the promised clearer analysis of stem-structure; which, + after a great deal of chopping, chipping, and peeling of my oaks and + birches, came to reverently hopeless pause. What is here done may yet + have some use in pointing out to younger students how they may simplify + their language, and direct their thoughts, so as to attain, in due time, + to reverent hope.]</p> + + </blockquote> + <p>1. The most generally useful book, to myself, hitherto, in such little + time as I have for reading about plants, has been Lindley's 'Ladies' + Botany'; but the most rich and true I have yet found in illustration, the + 'Histoire des Plantes,'<a name="NtA_35"></a><a + href="#Nt_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> by Louis Figuier. I should like those + of my readers who can afford it to buy both these books; the first named, + at any rate, as I shall always refer to it for structural drawings, and + on points of doubtful classification; while the second contains much + general knowledge, expressed with some really human intelligence and + feeling; besides some good and singularly <i>just</i> history of + botanical discovery and the men who guided it. The botanists, indeed, + tell me proudly, "Figuier is no authority." <!-- Page 124 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124"></a>[124]</span> But who wants + authority! Is there nothing known yet about plants, then, which can be + taught to a boy or girl, without referring them to an 'authority'?</p> + + <p>I, for my own part, care only to gather what Figuier can teach + concerning things visible, to any boy or girl, who live within reach of a + bramble hedge, or a hawthorn thicket, and can find authority enough for + what they are told, in the sticks of them.</p> + + <p>2. If only <i>he</i> would, or could, tell us clearly that much; but + like other doctors, though with better meaning than most, he has learned + mainly to look at things with a microscope,—rarely with his eyes. + And I am sorry to see, on re-reading this chapter of my own, which is + little more than an endeavour to analyze and arrange the statements + contained in his second, that I have done it more petulantly and unkindly + than I ought; but I can't do all the work over again, now,—more's + the pity. I have not looked at this chapter for a year, and shall be + sixty before I know where I am;—(I find myself, instead, now, + sixty-four!)</p> + + <p>3. But I stand at once partly corrected in this second chapter of + Figuier's, on the 'Tige,' French from the Latin 'Tignum,' which + 'authorities' say is again from the Sanscrit, and means 'the thing hewn + with an axe'; anyhow it is modern French for what we are to call the stem + (<a href="#ChVII_12">§ 12</a>, p. 136).</p> + + <p>"The tige," then, begins M. Louis, "is the axis of the ascending + system of a vegetable, and it is garnished at <!-- Page 125 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125"></a>[125]</span> intervals with vital + knots, (eyes,) from which spring leaves and buds, disposed in a perfectly + regular order. The root presents nothing of the kind. This character + permits us always to distinguish, in the vegetable axis, what belongs + really to the stem, and what to the root."</p> + + <p>4. Yes; and that is partly a new idea to me, for in this power of + <i>assigning their order</i> for the leaves, the stem seems to take a + royal or commandant character, and cannot be merely defined as the + connexion of the leaf with the roots.</p> + + <p>In <i>it</i> is put the spirit of determination. One cannot fancy the + little leaf, as it is born, determining the point it will be born at: the + governing stem must determine that for it. Also the disorderliness of the + root is to be noted for a condition of its degradation, no less than its + love, and need, of Darkness.</p> + + <p>Nor was I quite right (above, § 15, p. 139) in + calling the stem <i>itself</i> 'spiral': it is itself a straight-growing + rod, but one which, as it grows, lays the buds of future leaves round it + in a spiral order, like the bas-relief on Trajan's column.</p> + + <p>I go on with Figuier: the next passage is very valuable.</p> + + <p>5. "The tige is the part of plants which, directed into the air, + supports, and <i>gives growing power to</i>, the branches, the twigs, the + leaves, and the flowers. The form, strength, and direction of the tige + depend on the <!-- Page 126 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_126"></a>[126]</span> part that each plant has to play among + the vast vegetable population of our globe. Plants which need for their + life a pure and often-renewed air, are borne by a straight tige, robust + and tall. When they have need only of a moist air, more condensed, and + more rarely renewed, when they have to creep on the ground or glide in + thickets, the tiges are long, flexible, and dragging. If they are to + float in the air, sustaining themselves on more robust vegetables, they + are provided with flexible, slender, and supple tiges."</p> + + <p>6. Yes; but in that last sentence he loses hold of his main idea, and + to me the important one,—namely, the connexion of the form of stem + with the quality of the air it requires. And that idea itself is at + present vague, though most valuable, to me. A strawberry creeps, with a + flexible stem, but requires certainly no less pure air than a + wood-fungus, which stands up straight. And in our own hedges and woods, + are the wild rose and honeysuckle signs of unwholesome air?</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"And honeysuckle loved to crawl</p> + <p>Up the lone crags and ruined wall.</p> + <p>I deemed such nooks the sweetest shade</p> + <p>The sun in all his round surveyed."</p> + </div> + </div> + <p>It seems to me, in the nooks most haunted by honeysuckle in my own + wood, that the reason for its twining is a very feminine one,—that + it likes to twine; and that all these whys and wherefores resolve + themselves at last into—what <!-- Page 127 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127"></a>[127]</span> a modern philosopher, + of course, cannot understand—caprice.<a name="NtA_36"></a><a + href="#Nt_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a></p> + + <p>7. Farther on, Figuier, quoting St. Hilaire, tells us, of the creepers + in primitive forests,—"Some of them resemble waving ribands, others + coil themselves and describe vast spirals; they droop in festoons, they + wind hither and thither among the trees, they fling themselves from one + to another, and form masses of leaves and flowers in which the observer + is often at a loss to discover on which plant each several blossom + grows."</p> + + <p>For all this, the real reasons will be known only when human beings + become reasonable. For, except a curious naturalist or wistful + missionary, no Christian has trodden the labyrinths of delight and decay + among these garlands, but men who had no other thought than how to cheat + their savage people out of their gold, and give them gin and smallpox in + exchange. But, so soon as true servants of Heaven shall enter these + Edens, and the Spirit of God enter with them, another spirit will also be + breathed into the physical air; and the stinging insect, and venomous + snake, and poisonous tree, pass away before the power of the regenerate + human soul.</p> + + <p>8. At length, on the structure of the tige, Figuier begins his real + work, thus:—-</p> + + <p>"A glance of the eye, thrown on the section of a log of wood destined + for warming, permits us to recognize <!-- Page 128 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128"></a>[128]</span> that the tige of the + trees of our forests presents three essential parts, which are, in going + from within to without, the pith, the wood, and the bark. The pith, (in + French, marrow,) forms a sort of column in the centre of the woody axis. + In very thick and old stems its diameter appears very little; and it has + even for a long time been supposed that the marrow ends by disappearing + altogether from the stems of old trees. But it does nothing of the + sort;<a name="NtA_37"></a><a href="#Nt_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a> and it is + now ascertained, by exact measures, that its diameter remains sensibly + invariable<a name="NtA_38"></a><a href="#Nt_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> from + the moment when the young woody axis begins to consolidate itself, to the + epoch of its most complete development."</p> + + <p>So far, so good; but what does he mean by the complete development of + the young <i>woody</i> axis? When does the axis become 'wooden,' and how + far up the tree does he call it an axis? If the stem divides into three + branches, which is the axis? And is the pith in the trunk no thicker than + in each branch?</p> + + <p>9. He proceeds to tell us, "The marrow is formed by a reunion of + cells."—Yes, and so is Newgate, and so was the Bastille. But what + does it matter whether the marrow is made of a reunion of cells, or + cellars, or walls, or <!-- Page 129 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_129"></a>[129]</span> floors, or ceilings? I want to know + what's the use of it? why doesn't it grow bigger with the rest of the + tree? when <i>does</i> the tree 'consolidate itself'? when is it finally + consolidated? and how can there be always marrow in it when the weary + frame of its age remains a mere scarred tower of war with the elements, + full of dust and bats?</p> + + <div class="figright" style="width:30%;"> + <a href="images/131.png"><img width="100%" src="images/131.png" + alt="An aggregation of cells, which, first of spherical form, have become polyhedric by their increase and mutual compression." /></a> + FIG. 24. + </div> + <p>'He will tell you if only you go on patiently,' thinks the reader. He + will not! Once your modern botanist gets into cells, he stays in them. + Hear how he goes on!—"This cell is a sort of sack; this sack is + completely closed; sometimes it is empty, sometimes it"—is + full?—no, that would be unscientific simplicity: sometimes it + "conceals a matter in its interior." "The marrow of young trees, such as + it is represented in Figure 24 (Figuier, Figs. 38, 39, p. 42), is nothing + else"—(indeed!)—"than <!-- Page 130 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130"></a>[130]</span> an aggregation of + cells, which, first of spherical form, have become polyhedric by their + increase and mutual compression."</p> + + <p>10. Now these figures, 38 and 39, which profess to represent this + change, show us sixteen oval cells, such as at A, (Fig. 24) enlarged into + thirteen larger, and flattish, hexagons!—B, placed at a totally + different angle.</p> + + <p>And before I can give you the figure revised with any available + accuracy, I must know why or how the cells are enlarged, and in what + direction.</p> + + <p>Do their walls lengthen laterally when they are empty, or does the + 'matière' inside stuff them more out, (itself increased from what + sources?) when they are full? In either case, during this change from + circle to hexagon, is the marrow getting thicker without getting longer? + If so, the change in the angle of the cells is intentional, and probably + is so; but the number of cells should have been the same: and further, + the term 'hexagonal' can only be applied to the <i>section</i> of a + tubular cell, as in honeycomb, so that the floor and ceiling of our pith + cell are left undescribed.</p> + + <p>11. Having got thus much of (partly conjectural) idea of the + mechanical structure of marrow, here follows the solitary vital, or + mortal, fact in the whole business, given in one crushing sentence at the + close:—-</p> + + <p>"The medullary tissue" (first time of using this fine phrase for the + marrow,—why can't he say marrowy tissue—'tissue moelleuse'?) + "appears very early struck with <!-- Page 131 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_131"></a>[131]</span> atony," ('atonic,' want of tone,) "above + all, in its central parts." And so ends all he has to say for the present + about the marrow! and it never appears to occur to him for a moment, that + if indeed the noblest trees live all their lives in a state of healthy + and robust paralysis, it is a distinction, hitherto unheard of, between + vegetables and animals!</p> + +<a name="ChVII_12"></a> + <p>12. Two pages farther on, however, (p. 45,) we get more about the + marrow, and of great interest,—to this effect, for I must abstract + and complete here, instead of translating.</p> + + <p>"The marrow itself is surrounded, as the centre of an electric cable + is, by its guarding threads—that is to say, by a number of cords or + threads coming between it and the wood, and differing from all others in + the tree.</p> + + <p>"The entire protecting cylinder composed of them has been called the + 'étui,' (or needle-case,) of the marrow. But each of the cords which + together form this étui, is itself composed of an almost infinitely + delicate thread twisted into a screw, like the common spring of a + letter-weigher or a Jack-in-the-box, but of exquisite fineness." Upon + this, two pages and an elaborate figure are given to these + 'trachées'—tracheas, the French call them,—and we are never + told the measure of them, either in diameter or length,<a + name="NtA_39"></a><a href="#Nt_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a> and still less, + the use of them!</p> + + <p><!-- Page 132 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_132"></a>[132]</span> I collect, however, in my thoughts, what + I have learned thus far.</p> + + <p>13. A tree stem, it seems, is a growing thing, cracked outside, + because its skin won't stretch, paralysed inside, because its marrow + won't grow, but which continues the process of its life somehow, by + knitted nerves without any nervous energy in them, protected by spiral + springs without any spring in them.</p> + + <p>Stay—I am going too fast. That coiling is perhaps prepared for + some kind of uncoiling; and I will try if I can't learn something about + it from some other book—noticing, as I pause to think where to + look, the advantage of our English tongue in its pithy Saxon word, + 'pith,' separating all our ideas of vegetable structure clearly from + animal; while the poor Latin and French must use the entirely inaccurate + words 'medulla' and 'moelle'; all, however, concurring in their + recognition of a vital power of some essential kind in this white cord of + cells: "Medulla, sive illa vitalis anima est, ante se tendit, + longitudinem impellens." (Pliny, 'Of the Vine,' liber X., cap. xxi.) + 'Vitalis anima'—yes—<i>that</i> I accept; but 'longitudinem + impellens,' I pause at; being not at all clear, yet, myself, about any + impulsive power in the pith.<a name="NtA_40"></a><a + href="#Nt_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a></p> + + <p><!-- Page 133 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_133"></a>[133]</span> 14. However, I take up first, and with + best hope, Dr. Asa Gray, who tells me (Art. 211) that pith consists of + parenchyma, 'which is at first gorged with sap,' but that many stems + expand so rapidly that their pith is torn into a mere lining or into + horizontal plates; and that as the stem grows older, the pith becomes dry + and light, and is 'then of no farther use to the plant.' But of what use + it ever was, we are not informed; and the Doctor makes us his bow, so far + as the professed article on pith goes; but, farther on, I find in his + account of 'Sap-wood,' (Art. 224.) that in the germinating plantlet, the + sap 'ascends first through the parenchyma, especially through its central + portion or pith.' Whereby we are led back to our old question, what sap + is, and where it comes from, with the now superadded question, whether + the young pith is a mere succulent sponge, or an active power, and + constructive mechanism, nourished by the abundant sap: as Columella has + it,—</p> + + <p>"Naturali enim spiritu omne alimentum virentis quasi quædam anima, per + <i>medullam</i> trunci veluti per siphonem, trahitur in summum."<a + name="NtA_41"></a><a href="#Nt_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a></p> + + <p>As none of these authors make any mention of a <i>communication</i> + <!-- Page 134 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_134"></a>[134]</span> between the cells of the pith, I + conclude that the sap they are filled with is taken up by them, and used + to construct their own thickening tissue.</p> + + <p>15. Next, I take Balfour's 'Structural Botany,' and by his index, + under the word 'Pith,' am referred to his articles 8, 72, and 75. In + article 8, neither the word pith, nor any expression alluding to it, + occurs.</p> + + <p>In article 72, the stem of an outlaid tree is defined as consisting of + 'pith, fibro-vascular and <a name="NtA_42"></a><a + href="#Nt_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a> woody tissue, medullary rays, bark, and + epidermis.'</p> + + <p>A more detailed statement follows, illustrated by a figure surrounded + by twenty-three letters—namely, two <i>b</i> s, three <i>c</i> s, + four <i>e</i> s, three <i>f</i> s, one <i>l</i>, four <i>m</i> s, three + <i>p</i> s, one <i>r</i>, and two <i>v</i> s.</p> + + <p>Eighteen or twenty minute sputters of dots may, with a good lens, be + discerned to proceed from this alphabet, and to stop at various points, + or lose themselves in the texture, of the represented wood. And, knowing + now something of the matter beforehand, guessing a little more, and + gleaning the rest with my finest glass, I achieve the elucidation of the + figure, to the following extent, explicable without letters at all, by my + more simple drawing, Figure 25.</p> + + <p>16. (1) The inner circle full of little cells, diminishing in size + towards the outside, represents the pith, 'very large at this period of + the growth'—(the first year, we <!-- Page 135 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135"></a>[135]</span> are told in next + page,) and 'very large'—he means in proportion to the rest of the + branch. <i>How</i> large he does not say, in his text, but states, in his + note, that the figure is magnified 26 diameters. I have drawn mine by the + more convenient multiplier of 30, and given the real size at B, + <i>according to Balfour</i>:—but without believing him to be right. + I never saw a maple stem of the first year so small.</p> + + <div class="figright" style="width:30%;"> + <a href="images/137.png"><img width="100%" src="images/137.png" + alt="Stem structure." /></a> + FIG. 25. + </div> + <p>(2) The black band with white dots round the marrow, represents the + marrow-sheath.</p> + + <p>(3) From the marrow-sheath run the marrow-rays <!-- Page 136 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136"></a>[136]</span> 'dividing the + vascular circle into numerous compact segments.' A 'ray' cannot divide + anything into a segment. Only a partition, or a knife, can do that. But + we shall find presently that marrow <i>rays</i> ought to be called + marrow-<i>plates</i>, and are really mural, forming more or less + continuous partitions.</p> + + <p>(4) The compact segments 'consist of woody vessels and of porous + vessels.' This is the first we have heard of woody <i>vessels</i>! He + means the '<i>fibres</i> ligneux' of Figuier; and represents them in each + compartment, as at C (Fig. 25). without telling us why he draws the woody + vessels as radiating. They appear to radiate, indeed, when wood is sawn + across, but they are really upright.</p> + + <p>(5) A moist layer of greenish cellular tissue called the cambium + layer—black in Figure 25—and he draws it in flat arches, + without saying why.</p> + + <p>(6), (7), (8) Three layers of bark (called in his note + Endophlœum; Mesophlœum, and Epiphlœum!) with 'laticiferous + vessels.' <a name="NtA_43"></a><a href="#Nt_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a></p> + + <p>(9) Epidermis. The three layers of bark being separated by single + lines, I indicate the epidermis by a double one, with a rough fringe + outside, and thus we have the parts of the section clearly visible and + distinct <!-- Page 137 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_137"></a>[137]</span> for discussion, so far as this first + figure goes,—without wanting one letter of all his three and + twenty!</p> + + <p>17. But on the next page, this ingenious author gives us a new figure, + which professes to represent the same order of things in a longitudinal + section; and in retracing that order sideways, instead of looking down, + he not only introduces new terms, but misses one of his old layers in + doing so,—thus:</p> + + <p>His order, in explaining Figure 96, contains, as above, nine members + of the tree stem.</p> + + <p>But his order, in explaining Figure 97, contains only eight, thus:</p> + + <p>(1) The pith. (2) Medullary sheath. Circles.</p> + + <p>(3) Medullary ray = a Radius.</p> + + <p>(4) Vascular zone, with woody <i>fibres</i> (not now vessels!) The + fibres are composed of spiral, annular, pitted, and other vessels.</p> + + <p>(5) Inner bark or 'liber,' with layer of cambium cells.</p> + + <p>(6) Second layer of bark, or 'cellular envelope,' with laticiferous + vessels.</p> + + <p>(7) Outer or tuberous layer of bark.</p> + + <p>(8) Epidermis.</p> + + <p>Doing the best I can to get at the muddle-headed gentleman's meaning, + it appears, by the lettering of his Figure 97, my 25 above, that the + 'liber,' number 5, contains the cambium layer in the middle of it. The + part <!-- Page 138 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_138"></a>[138]</span> of the liber between the cambium and the + wood is not marked in Figure 96;—but the cambium is number 5, and + the liber outside of it is number 6,—the Endophlœum of his + note.</p> + + <div class="figleft" style="width:15%;"> + <a href="images/140.png"><img width="100%" src="images/140.png" + alt="FIG. 26. A stem of two years growth." /></a> + FIG. 26. + </div> + <p>Having got himself into this piece of lovely confusion, he proceeds to + give a figure of the wood in the second year, which I think he has + borrowed, without acknowledgment, from Figuier, omitting a piece of + Figuier's woodcut which is unexplained in Figuier's text. I will spare my + readers the work I have had to do, in order to get the statements on + either side clarified: but I think they will find, if they care to work + through the wilderness of the two authors' wits, that this which follows + is the sum of what they have effectively to tell us; with the collated + list of the main questions they leave unanswered—and, worse, + unasked.</p> + + <p>18. An ordinary tree branch, in transverse section, consists + essentially of three parts only,—the Pith, Wood, and Bark.</p> + + <p>The pith is in full animation during the first year—that is to + say, during the actual shooting of the wood. We are left to infer that in + the second year, the pith of <!-- Page 139 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_139"></a>[139]</span> the then unprogressive shoot becomes + collective only, not formative; and that the pith of the new shoot + virtually energizes the new wood in its deposition beside the old one. + Thus, let <i>a b</i>, Figure 26, be a shoot of the first year, and <i>b + c</i> of the second. The pith remains of the same thickness in both, but + that of the new shoot is, I suppose, chiefly active in sending down the + new wood to thicken the old one, which is collected, however, and + fastened by the extending pith-rays below. You see, I have given each + shoot four fibres of wood for its own; then the four fibres of the upper + one send out two to thicken the lower: the pith-rays, represented by the + white transverse claws, catch and gather all together. Mind, I certify + nothing of this to you; but if this do not happen,—let the + botanists tell you what <i>does</i>.</p> + + <p>19. Secondly. The wood, represented by these four lines, is to be + always remembered as consisting of fibres and vessels; therefore it is + called 'vascular,' a word which you may as well remember (though rarely + needed in familiar English), with its roots, <i>vas</i>, a vase, and + <i>vasculum</i>, a little vase or phial. 'Vascule' may sometimes be + allowed in botanical descriptions where 'cell' is not clear enough; thus, + at present, we find our botanists calling the pith 'cellular' but the + wood 'vascular,' with, I think, the implied meaning that a 'vascule,' + little or large, is a long thing, and has some liquid in it, while a + 'cell' is a more or less round thing, and to be supposed <!-- Page 140 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140"></a>[140]</span> empty, + unless described as full. But what liquid fills the vascules of the wood, + they do not tell us.<a name="NtA_44"></a><a + href="#Nt_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a> I assume that they absorb water, as + long as the tree lives.</p> + + <div class="figleft" style="width:10%;"> + <a href="images/142.png"><img width="100%" src="images/142.png" + alt="FIG. 27. A stem of three years growth." /></a> + <p>FIG. 27.</p> + </div> + <p>20. Wood, whether vascular or fibrous, is however formed, in outlaid + plants, first outside of the pith, and then, in shoots of the second + year, outside of the wood of the first, and in the third year, outside of + the wood of the second; so that supposing the quantity of wood sent down + from the growing shoot distributed on a flat plane, the structure in the + third year would be as in Figure 27. But since the new wood is + distributed all round the stem, (in successive cords or threads, if not + at once), the increase of substance after a year or two would be + untraceable, unless more shoots than one were formed at the extremity of + the branch. Of actual bud and branch structure, I gave introductory + account long since in the fifth volume of 'Modern Painters.'<a + name="NtA_45"></a><a href="#Nt_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> to which I would + now refer the reader; but <!-- Page 141 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_141"></a>[141]</span> both then, and to-day, after twenty + years' further time allowed me, I am unable to give the least explanation + of the mode in which the wood is really added to the interior stem. I + cannot find, even, whether this is mainly done in springtime, or in the + summer and autumn, when the young suckers form on the wood; but my + impression is that though all the several substances are added annually, + a little more pith going to the edges of the pith-plates, and a little + more bark to the bark, with a great deal more wood to the + wood,—there is a different or at least successive period for each + deposit, the carrying all these elements to their places involving a + fineness of basket work or web work in the vessels, which neither + microscope nor dissecting tool can disentangle. The result on the whole, + however, is practically that we have, outside the wood, always a + mysterious 'cambium layer,' and then some distinctions in the bark + itself, of which we must take separate notice.</p> + + <p>21. Of Cambium, Dr. Gray's 220th article gives the following account. + "It is not a distinct substance, but a layer of delicate new cells full + of sap. The inner portion of the cambium layer is, therefore, nascent + wood, and the outer nascent bark. As the cells of this layer multiply, + the greater number lengthen vertically into <i>prosenchyma</i>, or woody + tissue, while some are transformed into ducts" (wood vessels?) "and + others remaining as <i>parenchyma</i>, continue the medullary rays, or + commence new ones." Nothing is said here of the part of <!-- Page 142 + --><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142"></a>[142]</span> the cambium + which becomes bark: but at page 128, the thin walled cells of the bark + are said to be those of ordinary 'parenchyma,' and in the next page a + very important passage occurs, which must have a paragraph to itself. I + close the present one with one more protest against the entirely absurd + terms 'par-enchyma,' for common cellular tissue, 'pros-enchyma,' for + cellular tissue with longer cells;—'cambium' for an early state of + <i>both</i>, and 'diachyma' for a peculiar position of <i>one</i>!<a + name="NtA_46"></a><a href="#Nt_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> while the + chemistry of all these substances is wholly neglected, and we have no + idea given us of any difference in pith, wood, and bark, than that they + are made of short or long—young or old—cells!</p> + + <p>22. But in Dr. Gray's 230th article comes this passage of real value. + (Italics mine—all.) "While the newer layers of the wood abound in + <i>crude</i> sap, which they convey to the leaves, those of the inner + bark abound in <i>elaborated</i> sap, which <i>they receive from the + leaves</i>, and convey to the <i>cambium</i> layer, or <i>zone of + growth</i>. The proper juices and peculiar products of plants are + accordingly found in the foliage and bark, especially the latter. In the + bark, therefore, either of the stem or root, medicinal and other + principles are usually to be sought, rather <!-- Page 143 --><span + class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143"></a>[143]</span> than in the wood. + Nevertheless, as the wood is kept in connection with the bark by the + medullary rays, many products which probably originate in the former are + deposited in the wood."</p> + + <p>23. Now, at last, I see my way to useful summary of the whole, which I + had better give in a separate chapter: and will try in future to do the + preliminary work of elaboration of the sap from my authorities, above + shown, in its process, to the reader, without making so much fuss about + it. But, I think in this case, it was desirable that the floods of pros-, + par-, peri-, dia-, and circumlocution, through which one has to wade + towards any emergent crag of fact in modern scientific books, should for + once be seen in the wasteful tide of them; that so I might finally pray + the younger students who feel, or remember, their disastrous sway, to + cure themselves for ever of the fatal habit of imagining that they know + more of anything after naming it unintelligibly, and thinking about it + impudently, than they did by loving sight of its nameless being, and in + wise confession of its boundless mystery.</p> + + <br clear="all" /> +<hr /> + + <p>In re-reading the text of this number I can secure my young readers of + some things left doubtful, as, for instance, in their acceptance of the + word 'Monacha,' for the flower described in the sixth chapter. I have + used it now habitually too long to part with it myself, and I think it + will be found <!-- Page 144 --><span class="pagenum"><a + name="Page_144"></a>[144]</span> serviceable and pleasurable by others. + Neither shall I now change the position of the Draconidae, as suggested + at p. <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, but keep all as first planned. See + among other reasons for doing so the letter quoted in p. <a + href="#Page_121">121</a>.</p> + + <p>I also add to the plate originally prepared for this number, one + showing the effect of Veronica officinalis in decoration of foreground, + merely by its green leaves; see the paragraphs <a href="#ChVI_1">1</a> + and <a href="#ChVI_5">5</a> of Chapter VI. I have not represented the + fine serration of the leaves, as they are quite invisible from standing + height: the book should be laid on the floor and looked down on, without + stooping, to see the effect intended. And so I gladly close this + long-lagging number, hoping never to write such a tiresome chapter as + this again, or to make so long a pause between any readable one and its + sequence.</p> + + <br clear="all" /> +<hr /> + +<h3>NOTES</h3> + +<div class="note"> + <p><a name="Nt_1"></a><a href="#NtA_1">[1]</a> Vol. i., p. 212, note.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_2"></a><a href="#NtA_2">[2]</a> See 'Deucalion,' vol. ii., + chap, i., p. 12, § 18.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_3"></a><a href="#NtA_3">[3]</a> I am ashamed to give so + rude outlines; but every moment now is valuable to me: careful outline of + a dog-violet is given in Plate X.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_4"></a><a href="#NtA_4">[4]</a> A careless bit of Byron's, + (the last song but one in the 'Deformed Transformed'); but Byron's most + careless work is better, by its innate energy, than other people's most + laboured. I suppress, in some doubts about my 'digamma,' notes on the + Greek violet and the Ion of Euripides;—which the reader will + perhaps be good enough to fancy a serious loss to him, and supply for + himself.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_5"></a><a href="#NtA_5">[5]</a> Nine; I see that I missed + count of P. farinosa, the most abundant of all.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_6"></a><a href="#NtA_6">[6]</a> "A feeble little + quatrefoil—growing one on the stem, like a Parnassia, and looking + like a Parnassia that had dropped a leaf. I think it drops one of its own + four, mostly, and lives as three-fourths of itself, for most of its time. + Stamens pale gold. Root-leaves, three or four, grass-like; growing among + the moist moss chiefly."</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_7"></a><a href="#NtA_7">[7]</a> The great work of Lecoq, + 'Geographic Botanique,' is of priceless value; but treats all on too vast + a scale for our purposes.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_8"></a><a href="#NtA_8">[8]</a> It is, I believe, + Sowerby's Viola Lutea, 721 of the old edition, there painted with purple + upper petals; but he says in the text, "Petals either all yellow, or the + two uppermost are of a blue purple, the rest yellow with a blue tinge: + very often the whole are purple."</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_9"></a><a href="#NtA_9">[9]</a> Did the wretch never hear + bees in a lime tree then, or ever see one on a star gentian?</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_10"></a><a href="#NtA_10">[10]</a> Septuagint, "the eyes + of doves out of thy silence." Vulgate, "the eyes of doves, besides that + which is hidden in them." Meaning—the <i>dim</i> look of love, + beyond all others in sweetness.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_11"></a><a href="#NtA_11">[11]</a> When I have the chance, + and the time, to submit the proofs of 'Proserpina' to friends who know + more of Botany than I, or have kindness enough to ascertain debateable + things for me, I mean in future to do so,—using the letter A to + signify Amicus, generally; with acknowledgment by name, when it is + permitted, of especial help or correction. Note first of this kind: I + find here on this word, 'five-petaled,' as applied to Pinguicula, "Qy. + two-lipped? it is monopetalous, and monosepalous, the calyx and corolla + being each all in one piece."</p> + + <p>Yes; and I am glad to have the observation inserted. But my term, + 'five-petaled,' must stand. For the question with me is always first, not + how the petals are connected, but how many they are. Also I have accepted + the term petal—but never the word lip—as applied to flowers. + The generic term 'Labiatæ' is cancelled in 'Proserpina,' 'Vestales' being + substituted; and these flowers, when I come to examine them, are to be + described, not as divided into two lips, but into hood, apron, and + side-pockets. Farther, the depth to which either calyx or corolla is + divided, and the firmness with which the petals are attached to the + torus, may, indeed, often be an important part of the plant's + description, but ought not to be elements in its definition. Three + petaled and three-sepaled, four-petaled and four-sepaled, five-petaled + and five-sepaled, etc., etc., are essential—with me, + primal—elements of definition; next, whether resolute or stellar in + their connection; next, whether round or pointed, etc. Fancy, for + instance, the fatality to a rose of pointing its petals, and to a lily, + of rounding them! But how deep cut, or how hard holding, is quite a minor + question.</p> + + <p>Farther, that all plants <i>are</i> petaled and sepaled, and never + mere cups in saucers, is a great fact, not to be dwelt on in a note.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_12"></a><a href="#NtA_12">[12]</a> Our 'Lucia Nivea,' + 'Blanche Lucy;' in present botany, Bog bean! having no connection + whatever with any manner of bean, but only a slight resemblance to + bean-<i>leaves</i> in its own lower ones. Compare Ch. IV. <a + href="#ChIV_11">§ 11</a>.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_13"></a><a href="#NtA_13">[13]</a> It is not. (Resolute + negative from A., unsparing of time for me; and what a state of things it + all signifies!)</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_14"></a><a href="#NtA_14">[14]</a> With the following + three notes, 'A' must become a definitely and gratefully interpreted + letter. I am indebted for the first, conclusive in itself, but variously + supported and confirmed by the two following, to R.J. Mann, Esq., M.D., + long ago a pupil of Dr. Lindley's, and now on the council of Whitelands + College, Chelsea:—for the second, to Mr. Thomas Moore, F.L.S., the + kind Keeper of the Botanic Garden at Chelsea; for the third, which will + be farther on useful to us, to Miss Kemm, the botanical lecturer at + Whitelands.</p> + + <p>(1) There is no explanation of Lentibulariaceæ in Lindley's 'Vegetable + Kingdom.' He was not great in that line. The term is, however, taken from + <i>Lenticula</i>, the lentil, in allusion to the lentil-shaped + air-bladders of the typical genus <i>Utricularia</i>.</p> + + <p>The change of the c into b may possibly have been made only from some + euphonic fancy of the contriver of the name, who, I think, was Rich.</p> + + <p>But I somewhat incline myself to think that the <i>tibia</i>, a pipe + or flute, may have had something to do with it. The <i>tibia</i> may + possibly have been diminished into a little pipe by a stretch of licence, + and have become <i>tibula</i>: [but <i>tibulus</i> is a kind of pine tree + in Pliny]; when <i>Len tibula</i> would be the lens or lentil-shaped pipe + or bladder. I give you this only for what it is worth. The + <i>lenticula</i>, as a derivation, is reliable and has authority.</p> + + <p><i>Lenticula</i>, a lentil, a freckly eruption; <i>lenticularis</i>, + lentil-shaped; so the nat. ord. ought to be (if this be right) + <i>lenticulariaceæ</i>.</p> + + <p>(2) BOTANIC GARDENS, CHELSEA, <i>Feb.</i> 14, 1882.</p> + + <p><i>Lentibularia</i> is an old generic name of Tournefort's, which has + been superseded by <i>utricularia,</i> but, oddly enough, has been + retained in the name of the order <i>lentibulareæ</i>; but it probably + comes from <i>lenticula</i>, which signifies the little root bladders, + somewhat resembling lentils.</p> + + <p>(3) 'Manual of Scientific Terms,' Stormonth, p. 234.<br /> + <i>Lentibulariaceæ</i>, neuter, plural.<br /> (<i>Lenticula</i>, the + shape of a lentil; from <i>lens</i>, a lentil.) The Butterwort family, an + order of plants so named from the lenticular shape of the air-bladders on + the branches of utricularia, one of the genera. (But observe that the + <i>Butterworts</i> have nothing of the sort, any of them.—R.)</p> + + <p>Loudon.—"Floaters."</p> + + <p>Lindley.—"Sometimes with whorled vesicles."</p> + + <p>In Nuttall's Standard (?) Pronouncing Dictionary, it is + given,—<br /> <i>Lenticulareæ</i>, a nat. ord. of marsh plants, + which thrive in water or marshes.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_15"></a><a href="#NtA_15">[15]</a> More accurately, shows + the pruned roots of branches,—<span lang="el" title="epeidê prota tomên en horessi lelotpen" + >επειδη + προτα τομην + εν ‛ορεσσι + λελοτπεν</span>. The + <i>pruning</i> is the mythic expression of the subduing of passion by + rectorial law.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_16"></a><a href="#NtA_16">[16]</a> The bitter sorrow with + which I first recognized the extreme rarity of finely-developed organic + sight is expressed enough in the lecture on the Mystery of Life, added in + the large edition of 'Sesame and Lilies.'</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_17"></a><a href="#NtA_17">[17]</a> Lat. acesco, to turn + sour.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_18"></a><a href="#NtA_18">[18]</a> Withering quotes this + as from Linnæus, and adds on authority of a Mr. Hawkes, "This did not + succeed when tried with cows' milk." He also gives as another name, + Yorkshire Sanicle; and says it is called <i>earning grass</i> in + Scotland. Linnæus says the juice will curdle reindeer's milk. The name + for rennet is <i>earning</i>, in Lincolnshire. Withering also gives this + note: "<i>Pinguis</i>, fat, from its effect in CONGEALING + milk."—(A.) Withering of course wrong: the name comes, be the + reader finally assured, from the fatness of the green leaf, quite + peculiar among wild plants, and fastened down for us in the French word + 'Grassette.' I have found the flowers also difficult to dry, in the + benighted early times when I used to think a dried plant useful! See + closing paragraphs of the *4th chapter.—R.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_19"></a><a href="#NtA_19">[19]</a> I find much more + difficulty, myself, being old, in using my altered names for species than + my young scholars will. In watching the bells of the purple bindweed fade + at evening, let them learn the fourth verse of the prayer of Hezekiah, as + it is in the Vulgate—"Generatio mea ablata est, et convoluta est a + me, sicut tabernaculum pastoris,"—and they will not forget the name + of the fast-fading—ever renewed—"belle d'un jour."</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_20"></a><a href="#NtA_20">[20]</a> "It is Miss Cobbe, I + think, who says 'all wild flowers know how to die + gracefully.'"—A.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_21"></a><a href="#NtA_21">[21]</a> See distinction between + recumbent and rampant herbs, below, under 'Veronica Agrestis,' p. <a + href="#Page_72">72</a>.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_22"></a><a href="#NtA_22">[22]</a> 'Abstracted' rather, I + should have said, and with perfect skill, by Mr. Collingwood (the joint + translator of Xenophon's Economics for the 'Bibliotheca Pastorum'). So + also the next following cut, Fig. 5.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_23"></a><a href="#NtA_23">[23]</a> Of the references, + henceforward necessary to the books I have used as authorities, the + reader will please note the following abbreviations:—</p> + + <blockquote> + <p>C. Curtis's Magazine of Botany.<br /> D. Flora Danica.<br /> F. + Figuier.<br /> G. Sibthorpe's Flora Græca.<br /> L. Linnæus. Systema + Naturæ.<br /> L.S. Linnæus's Flora Suecica. But till we are quite used to + the other letters, I print this reference in words.<br /> L.N. William + Curtis's Flora Londinensis. Of the exquisite plates engraved for this + book by James Sowerby, note is taken in the close of next chapter.<br /> + O. Sowerby's English Wild Flowers; the old edition in thirty-two thin + volumes—far the best.<br /> S. Sowerby's English Wild Flowers; the + modern edition in ten volumes.</p> + + </blockquote> + <p><a name="Nt_24"></a><a href="#NtA_24">[24]</a> See letter on the last + results of our African campaigns, in the <i>Morning Post</i> of April + 14th, of this year.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_25"></a><a href="#NtA_25">[25]</a> I deliberately, not + garrulously, allow more autobiography in 'Proserpina' than is becoming, + because I know not how far I may be permitted to carry on that which was + begun in 'Fors.'</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_26"></a><a href="#NtA_26">[26]</a> In present Botany, + Polygala Chamæbuxus; C. 316: or, in English, Much Milk Ground-box. It is + not, as matters usually go, a name to be ill thought of, as it really + contains three ideas; and the plant does, without doubt, somewhat + resemble box, and grows on the ground;—far more fitly called + 'ground-box' than the Veronica 'ground-oak.' I want to find a pretty name + for it in connection with Savoy or Dauphine, where it indicates, as above + stated, the <i>healthy</i> districts of <i>hard</i> limestone. I do not + remember it as ever occurring among the dark and moist shales of the + inner mountain ranges, which at once confine and pollute the air.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_27"></a><a href="#NtA_27">[27]</a> Which, with the + following page, is the summary of many chapters of 'Modern Painters:' and + of the aims kept in view throughout 'Munera Pulveris.' The three kinds of + Desert specified—of Reed, Sand, and Rock—should be kept in + mind as exhaustively including the states of the earth neglected by man. + For instance of a Reed desert, produced <i>merely</i> by his neglect, see + Sir Samuel Baker's account of the choking up of the bed of the White + Nile. Of the sand desert, Sir F. Palgrave's journey from the Djowf to + Hāyel, vol. i., p. 92.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_28"></a><a href="#NtA_28">[28]</a> This subject is first + entered on in the 'Seven Lamps,' and carried forward in the final + chapters of 'Modern Painters,'to the point where I hope to take it up for + conclusion, in the sections of 'Our Fathers have told us' devoted to the + history of the fourteenth century.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_29"></a><a href="#NtA_29">[29]</a> See in the first + volume, the plates of Sonchus Arvensis and Tussilago Petasites; in the + second, Carduus tomentosus and Picris Echioides.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_30"></a><a href="#NtA_30">[30]</a> For the sense in which + this word is used throughout my writings, see the definition of it in the + 52nd paragraph of the 'Queen of the Air,' comparing with respect to its + office in plants, §§ 59-60.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_31"></a><a href="#NtA_31">[31]</a> Written in 1880.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_32"></a><a href="#NtA_32">[32]</a> The plate of Chamædrys, + D. 448, is also quite right, and not 'too tall and weedlike,' as I have + called it at p. <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_33"></a><a href="#NtA_33">[33]</a> "Stems numerous from + the crown of the root-stock, de-cumbent."—S. The effect of the + flower upon the ground is always of an extremely upright and separate + plant, never appearing in clusters, (I meant, in close masses - it forms + exquisite little rosy crowds, on ground that it likes) or in any relation + to a central root. My epithet 'rosea' does not deny its botanical de- or + pro-cumbency.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_34"></a><a href="#NtA_34">[34]</a> Compare especially + Galeopsis Angustifolia, D. 3031.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_35"></a><a href="#NtA_35">[35]</a> Octavo: Paris, + Hachette, 1865.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_36"></a><a href="#NtA_36">[36]</a> See in the ninth + chapter what I have been able, since this sentence was written, to notice + on the matter in question.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_37"></a><a href="#NtA_37">[37]</a> I envy the French their + generalized form of denial, 'Il n'en est rien.'</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_38"></a><a href="#NtA_38">[38]</a> 'Sensiblement + invariable;' 'unchanged, <i>so far as we can see,</i>' or to general + sense; microscopic and minute change not being considered.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_39"></a><a href="#NtA_39">[39]</a> Moreover, the confusion + between vertical and horizontal sections in pp. 46, 47, is completed by + the misprint of vertical for horizontal in the third line of p. 43, and + of horizontal for vertical in the fifth line from bottom of p. 46; while + Figure 45 is to me totally unintelligible, this being, as far as can be + made out by the lettering, a section of a tree stem which has its marrow + on the outside!</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_40"></a><a href="#NtA_40">[40]</a> "Try a bit of rhubarb" + (says A, who sends me a pretty drawing of rhubarb pith); but as rhubarb + does not grow into wood, inapplicable to our present subject; and if we + descend to annual plants, rush pith is the thing to be examined.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_41"></a><a href="#NtA_41">[41]</a> I am too lazy now to + translate, and shall trust to the chance of some remnant, among my + readers, of classical study, even in modern England.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_42"></a><a href="#NtA_42">[42]</a> '<i>Or</i> woody + tissue,' suggests A. It is 'and' in Balfour.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_43"></a><a href="#NtA_43">[43]</a> Terms not used now, but + others quite as bad: Cuticle, Epidermis, Cortical layer, Periderm, + Cambium, Phelloderm—six hard words for 'BARK,' says my careful + annotator. "Yes; and these new six to be changed for six newer ones next + year, no doubt."</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_44"></a><a href="#NtA_44">[44]</a> "At first the vessels + are pervious and full of <i>fluid</i>, but by degrees thickening layers + are deposited, which contract their canal."—BALFOUR.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_45"></a><a href="#NtA_45">[45]</a> I cannot better this + earlier statement, which in beginning 'Proserpina,' I intended to form a + part of that work; but, as readers already in possession of it in the + original form, ought not to be burdened with its repetition, I shall + republish those chapters as a supplement, which I trust may be soon + issued.</p> + + <p><a name="Nt_46"></a><a href="#NtA_46">[46]</a> "'Diachyma' is + parenchyma in the middle of a leaf!" (Balfour, Art. 137.) Henceforward, + if I ever make botanical quotations, I shall always call parenchyma, + By-tis; prosenchyma, To-tis; and diachyma, Through-tis, short for + By-tissue, To-tissue, and Through-tissue—then the student will see + what all this modern wisdom comes to!</p> + +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Proserpina, Volume 2, by John Ruskin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROSERPINA, VOLUME 2 *** + +***** This file should be named 15088-h.htm or 15088-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/0/8/15088/ + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Keith Edkins and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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