and the tops of poppies,

66

66

"basket in such flowers, when "blown, which is confirmed by "Pliny, who. speaking of the lily, uses the following words; Foliis 'foris striatis, et ab angustiis in la«titudinem paulatim se laxantibus, effigie calathi." Hence he concludes, that Virgil's meaning perhaps may be, that the nymphs bring lilies, not in bud, but full blown, and double, dilata in orbem, et ef.formata in calathos jam plenos præ foliorum multitudine, et exuberantia. We might therefore, according to this criticism, render lilia plenis calathis, not lilies in full baskets, but lilies with full cups or bells. This sense would be very good, if we had any reason to believe that double lilies were known or esteemed among the ancients. There is indeed a double white lily, the lilium album, inodorum, flore pleno H. R. Par. But, as Mr. Miller observes, "there is 66 no beauty in it, for the flowers "seldom open, and have no scent,

so that it scarcely deserves a place "in a good garden." Therefore unless it could be made appear, that these double lilies are frequent in Italy, that they commonly open their flowers there, and afford some

smell, we ought to adhere to the common interpretation. Virgil has used the word calathis only in three other places. In the fifth Eclogue, it evidently signifies a sort of cup or drinking vessel;

Vina novum fundam calathis Arvisia nectar.

In the third Georgick it serves to express a basket, through which the whey is strained from the curd;

Quod jam tenebris et sole cadente Sub lucem exportans calathis adit oppida

seventh Eneid it is used for a work-basket;

-

Non illa colo, calathisve Minervæ Fœmineas assueta manus.

utensils were of the same shape, narIt is probable, that these several at the top, which Pliny expresses rower at the bottom, and broader by ab angustiis in latitudinem paullatim se laxantibus. The flowers of this form are called by us bellflowers.

Tibi candida Naïs.] Turnebus observes that a Naiad is mentioned here with great propriety; because those nymphs were fond of boys, and ran away with Hylas. Columella has imitated this passage, in some verses quoted already, in the note on Alba ligustra cadunt.

47. Pallentes violas.] That violets are usually called black by the poets, and that our common violets are of a very dark colour, is well known. It is therefore to be considered, what the poet means in this place by pale violets. This is cer

tain, that the common violet is often seen with white flowers; and Ray affirms, on his own experience, that both the purple and white vio

lets come from the seeds of the same

plant. There is also a sort of violet, with a pale yellow flower, in shape resembling that species, which we commonly call pansy or heart'sease. It is the Viola bicolor arvensis, C. B. It is a common weed amongst the corn; and I have formerly thought it to be the same that VirBut gil here calls pallentes violas.

on a more mature consideration of what the ancient writers have de

pastor.

leucoium, which is evidently derived from Auxòv lov, a white violet. Theophrastus says the leucoium is one of the earliest flowers, appearing even in the winter, if the weather is mild; but if it is cold, something later, in the spring: Tay δὲ ἀνθῶν πρῶτον ἐκφαίνεται τὸ λευκοίον, ὅπου μὲν ὁ ἀὴρ μαλακώτερος, εὐθὺς τοῦ χειμῶνος, ὅπου δὲ σκληρότερος, ὕστερον, ἐναχοῦ τοῦ ἦρος. Pliny, who has translated this very passage, renders Auxoion viola alba; "Florum prima ver nunciantium viola alba. Tepidioribus vero locis etiam "hyeme emicat." Some, observing that these authors speak of the leucoium or viola alba, as appearing first in the spring, will have it to be the snow-drop, or leucoium bulbosum, as it is commonly called. We might as well take it to be the primula veris, or primrose, the very name of which declares it to be one of the earliest flowers. But the snowdrop cannot be the plant in question; because Theophrastus, in another place, reckons it among those plants, which have a leafy stalk; Επικαυλόφυλλα δὲ πικρὶς ἀνθέμιον τὰ Φυλλώδες, λωτός, λευκοΐον. Now the snow-drop has no leaves upon the stalk; and therefore cannot be the leucoium of Theophrastus. Di oscorides thought the leucoium too well known to need any description. This unhappy negligence is so common among the ancients, that the plants which they were best ac quainted with are frequently least known by the moderns. He only says there is a difference in the colour of the flowers, which are either white, or yellow, or blue or purple; Λευκοΐον γνώριμον ἐστιν. Ἔστι δὲ αὐτῆς διαφορὰ ἐν τῷ ἄνθει ἢ γὰρ λευnóv ¿CTIV, pýživov, ĥ zvavoõv, πορφυροῦν εὑρίσκεται. It may be

flower of sweet-smelling dill.

thought strange, that a plant, which derives its name from whiteness, should be said to have yellow, blue, or purple flowers: but it is the general opinion of the modern botanists, that it was called white, not from the colour of its flower, but from the hariness of its leaves. Caspar Bauhinus, not to quote any more of them, says expressly,

Leucrium, id est, viola alba, po"tius foliorum quam florum ra"tione." The colours mentioned by Dioscorides are all to be met with in the stock gilliflower, except blue, whence xvavov is supposed by several critics to have slipped into the text by some mistake. Marcellus affirms that blue is omitted in a very old Latin version of Dioscorides, which he had seen. This suspicion is confirmed also by Oribasius and Serapio, who do not mention blue, though they copy all the other words of Dioscorides exactly. Hippocrates, in his book περὶ γυναικείης φύσιος, speaks of the black leucoium, Arv◄ κοιον ρίζαν τοῦ μέλανος ἐν οἴνω διεὶς τὸν avròv Tónov xenada, which must be understood of that sort with purple flowers. That sort which bears yellow flowers can be no other than what we all the wall-flower, which has a sweet smell, and blows early in the spring, and therefore agrees with what Theophrastus has said of the leucoium. It is indeed a stock gilliflower with yellow flowers, though it happens to have obtained a name peculiar to itself. It may be a matter of some difficulty, to imagine how the ancients came to give almost the same name to two sorts of plants, so different as violets and stock gilliflowers. Perhaps the first sort taken notice of by them might be that with the purple flowers, which being something like a violet, and

casia, and other sweet herbs,

having hoary leaves, might induce them to call it Asvxotor, or white violet. Or perhaps the smell alone, which is the most remarkable property commonly observed in aviolet, might be the occasion of their bestowing on it a similar name. The giving the same general name to several species of plants, which have a similar structure of flower and fruit, is an exactness known only to the modern botanists, and hardly thought of till the latter end of the sixteenth century. Hence it has been very usual to call plants of a like structure by different names, and those of different structure by the same name. Numberless instances of this might be mentioned, as lily of the valley, which hardly bears any other resemblance of a lily than its whiteness; and ground ivy, which seems to resemble ivy in nothing else but its creeping. But we need go no farther than the plant under consideration. The word gilliflower has been applied to plants most widely different from each other; the stock-gilliflower, which comprehends the wall flower; and the clove-gilliflower, which comprehends the several sorts of carnations and pinks. How these so different plants came to have the same name bestowed on them, is not easy to imagine, unless it was from the fineness of their smell. The clove-gilliflower has the smell of that sort of spice, which is called clove, and in Latin caryophyllum. From caryophyllum the French derive their girofle, which means same spice. Hence they call the flower, which has that smell, giroflier, which we have corrupted to gilliflower. Chaucer, in his Komaunt of the Rose, writes it

the

plofre, transposing the I and the r of giroflier;

There was eke wexyng many a spice,

As Clowe Gylofre, and liquorice.

And our old Turner has gelover and gelyfloure. Here we may observe the error of those, who not knowing the derivation of the word gilliflower, have affected to call these plants july-flowers. The species of leucoium having also a fine smell, obtained thereby the name of gilliflowers also. For the same reason, the French call these last not only giroflier, but violier also, agreeable to the idea of the ancients. Thus much I thought necessary to say, in justification of my translating pallentes violas wallflowers. But I must still beg leave to add a word or two concerning the epithet pallentes. We have seen already, that the Romans called stock-gilliflowers viola albæ. It is therefore plain that they comprehended both them and common violets under the general name of viola. It is probable also, that when they intended to express any one particular sort, they added some epithet to distinguish it. our poet, intending here to express the yellow stock-gilliflower, which we vulgarly distinguish under the name of wall-flower, added the epithet pallentes, or yellow. Paleness is that appearance of the human countenance, which hap

pens

Thus

when the blood ceases to animate it. Thus diseases are called pale in the sixth Æneid, because they occasion this paleness of the face;

Pallentesque habitant Morbi.