Honesty
Lunaria biennis.
THIS old-fashioned flower comes to us with quite a new name, that has, like the flower, a very old-fashioned appearance. It is not known as "Honesty" in the old herbals, but as the satin violet, which is by no means a bad name for it. In Lyte's "Dodoens" (1573) common single pinks are called "small honesties;" but we have not found any merely nominal "Honesty" in honest John Gerarde or John Parkinson. They tell us of Viola lunaris, the Bobbonac or satin flower; and John Gerarde figures it well, while the other John figures it very poorly. Gerarde saith "the stalks are loden with many flowers like the stocke gilliflower, of a purple colour, which, being fallen, the seede commeth foorth conteined in a flat thinne cod, with a sharp point or pricke at one end, in fashion of the moone, and somewhat blackish. This cod is composed of three filmes or skins, whereof the two outmost are of an ouerworne ashe colour, and the inner-most, or that in the middle whereon the seed doth hang or cleaue, is thin and cleere shining, like a piece of white satten newly cut from the peece." A better description one could not desire; but we are inclined to add that when a number of honesties are in flower in a country garden they afford us immense pleasure, because of the various, and often delicious, shades of purple their fine flowers display. The moon-like seeds, divested of the dark outer skin, are so often seen as ornaments of the chimney-shelf, that the propriety of the term "satin flower" will not be challenged. Dr. Prior, in his "Popular Names of Plants," derives the name honesty "from the transparency of its dissepiments;" but he gives no hint of the time when the name first came into use.
A hunt amongst our big books discloses the name for the first time in works by the Rev. William Hanbury, 1771, and by Philip Miller, of the same date; the earlier editions of Miller appear not to recognise the plant under any name. If the result of this casual search is of any definite value, it proves that the "ancient" name of honesty has been borne by this plant only a little over a hundred years, which is nothing for a name, although happily the quality of honesty is of really ancient date.
A very little horticultural skill suffices for the successful cultivation of this plant. Being fearful of the simplicity of the subject, we have turned to Hanbury, who thus directs:--"This plant is propagated by sowing the seeds, soon after they are ripe, in any soil or situation, for nothing of that sort comes amiss to them. After they have once flowered and shed their seeds, they will propagate themselves, coming up in plenty all over the garden. Nay, in neglected gardens, they will rise among the weeds, and exhibit their satin-like, broad, flat, pellucid pods as if they belonged to the same fraternity."
But there is a high culture of everything, even of honesty. Therefore I will ask you to fly with me to Belvoir Castle. There, on a grand slope overlooking one of the finest woodland scenes in Britain, is a paradise called the "Duchess's Garden," planted with hardy spring flowers for the most part, and beautiful beyond description from March to may, after which a little touch of the commonplace comes over it, although it is always bright and glorious. Here the lunaria plays an important part in the spring colouring, and a definite system is followed in its cultivation. It consists in the destruction of every inferior plant the instant the flowers are seen, and the saving of seed from the very best. The seeds are sown in frames and sheltered beds, and in the course of the summer the plants are put out where they are to flower in the following spring. Occasionally, plants that possess particularly fine qualities are propagated by division; but careful selection of seed is generally sufficient to insure strong plants and flowers of the finest colour. When we have basked in the sunshine and inhaled the sweet odours of this grand garden of spring flowers, we have recalled the lines of Gower:-- "For there no stormy weder falleth Whiche might greue man or best: And eke the londe is so honest That it is plentuous and plaine There is no idell ground in vaine."
With such a subject, a moment of moralising may be allowed, but we will not trust to any wisdom of our own for a homily on honesty. We prefer to turn to a great gardener, Sir William Temple, who, in an "Essay on Government," written at a time when good government was much wanted, spoke as follows:--"Goodness is that which makes men prefer their duty and their promise before their passions or their interest, and is properly the object of trust; in our language it goes rather by the name of HONESTY, though what we call an honest man the Romans called a good man; and honesty in their language, as well as in French, rather signifies a composition of those qualities which generally acquire honour and esteem to those who possess them.'