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.

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.

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.

"The Spring is come, the violet's _gone_,
The first-born child of the early sun.
With us, she is but a winter's flower;
The snow on the hills cannot blast her bower,
And she lifts up her dewy eye of blue
To the youngest sky of the selfsame hue.

And when the Spring comes, with her host
Of flowers, that flower beloved the most