as pure in outline as an oxalis, both in flower and
leaf: it is like a violet imitating oxalis and anagallis.

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.

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.[7]

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."

Also belongs to chalk or limestone only (Sowerby).

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 of spring to it, in English mountain ground, than to the Regina.

XI. VIOLA CORNUTA. Cow Violet. Enough described already.

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.[8]

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.

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