camellias, and jonquils mingled their high-born beauties with the more
homely charms of wild-flowers that grew under the shadow of the great
solemn stone-pines on the heights around, or twined their fresh
garlands over the sad ruins of the Campagna. In the hand of every
little boy and girl were bunches for sale of wild cyclamens, blue
anemones, and sweet-scented violets, surrounded by their own leaves,
and neatly tied up with thread. They had been gathered in the princely
grounds of the Doria Pamphili and Borghese villas in the neighbourhood
of Rome, which are freely opened to all, and where for many days in
February and March groups of men, women, and children may be seen
gathering vast quantities of those first-born children of the sun. The
violets, especially in these grounds, are abundant and luxuriant,
making every space of sward shadowed by the trees purple with their
loveliness, like a reflection of the violet sky that had broken in
through the lattice-work of boughs, and scenting all the air with
their delicious perfume. They brought into the hot hard streets the
witchery of the woodlands; and no one could inhale for a moment, in
passing by, the sweet wafture of their fragrance without being
transported in imagination to far-off scenes endeared to memory, and
without a thrill of nameless tenderness at the heart. Some of the
bunches of violets I was asked to buy were of a much paler purple than
the others, and I was at no loss to explain this peculiarity. The
plants with the deep violet petals and dark crimson eye had single
blossoms, whereas those whose petals were lilac, and whose eye was of
a paler red colour, were double. Cultivation had increased the number
of petals, but it had diminished the richness of the colouring. This
is an interesting example of the impartial balancing of nature. No
object possesses every endowment. Defect in one direction is made up
by excess in another. The rose pays for its mass of beautiful petals
by its sterility; and the single violet has a lovelier hue, and is