Last in order and least in size comes the violet. For "the flower of
sweetest smell is shy and lowly," and has taken a modest place in the
paper.
Violets are planted out in October or April. October is preferred, as
it is the rainy season; nor are the young plants then exposed to the
heat of the sun or to the drought, as they would be if starting life
in April.
The best place for them is in olive or orange groves, where they are
protected from the too powerful rays of the sun in summer and from the
extreme cold in winter. Specks of violets appear during November. By
December the green is quite overshadowed, and the whole plantation
appears of one glorious hue. For the leaves, having developed
sufficiently for the maintenance of the plant, rest on their oars, and
seem to take a silent pleasure in seeing the young buds they have
protected shoot past them and blossom in the open.
The flowers are picked twice a week; they lose both color and flavor
if they are allowed to remain too long upon the plant. They are
gathered in the morning, and delivered at the factories by the
commissionnaires or agents in the afternoon, when they are taken in
hand at once.
The products yielded by this flower are prized before all others in
the realms of perfumery, and cannot be improved; for, as one great
authority on all matters has said: "To throw a perfume on the violet
... were wasteful and ridiculous excess."
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