Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXI. AN ACCOUNT OF FLOWERS. AND THOSE USED FOR CHAPLETS MORE PARTICULARLY., CHAP. 14. (6.)—HOW THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF THE VIOLET ARE RESPECTIVELY PRODUCED, GROWN, AND CULTIVATED. THE THREE DIFFERENT COLOURS OF THE VIOLET. THE FIVE VARIETIES OF THE YELLOW VIOLET.

Next after the roses and the lilies, the violet is held in the highest esteem: of this there are several varieties, the purple,¹ the yellow, and the white, all of them reproduced from plants, like the cabbage. The purple violet, which springs up spontaneously in sunny spots, with a thin, meagre soil, has larger petals than the others, springing immediately from the root, which is of a fleshy substance. This violet has a name, too, distinct from the other wild kinds, being called "ion,"² and from it the ianthine³ cloth takes its name.

Among the cultivated kinds, the yellow⁴ violet is held in the greatest esteem. The Tusculan violet, and that known as the "marine"⁵ violet, have petals somewhat broader than the others, but not so odoriferous; the Calatian⁶ violet, too, which has a smaller leaf, is entirely destitute of smell. This last is a present to us from the autumn, the others from the spring.

1 The Viola odorata of Linnæus.

2 The Greek name.

3 "Ianthina vestis," violet-coloured.

4 Desfontaines identifies this with the Cheiranthus Cheiri; but Fée says that there is little doubt that it belongs to the Viola tricolor herbensis (pansy, or heart's-ease), in the petals of which the yellow predominates, and the type of which is the field violet, or Viola arvensis, the flowers of which are extremely small, and entirely yellow.

5 This has been identified with the Cheiranthus incanus, the Cheiranthus tricuspidatus of the shores of the Mediterranean, the Hesperis maritima of Linnæus; also, by some commentators, with the Campanula Medium of Linnæus.

6 So called, according to Pintianus and Salmasius, from Calatia, a town of Italy. Fée adopts the reading "Calathiana," and considers it to have received that name from its resemblance to the Caltha mentioned in the next Chapter. Dalechamps identifies it with the Digitalis purpurea; Gessner, Dodonæus, and Thalius, with the Gentiana pneumonanthe, others with the Gentiana ciliata and Pannonica, and Sprengel with the Gentiana verna of Linnæus. Fée admits himself totally at a loss on the subject.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 14. (6.)—HOW THE SEVERAL VARIETIES OF THE VIOLET ARE RESPECTIVELY PRODUCED, GROWN, AND CULTIVATED. THE THREE DIFFERENT COLOURS OF THE VIOLET. THE FIVE VARIETIES OF THE YELLOW VIOLET.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.