[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR. "]
SIR,—Mr. Winslow seems not to know that, especially in the evening, violet leaves, when in quantities, smell as etrong as violets. He thinks that he has smelt the ghost of a smell; but it is not so, be has smelt a real smell. The smell of violets in his mind and in the mind of his sister has always been associated with violets, hence the " suggestion " of violets—a very cloudy suggestion, by the by, for he does not tell us whether the violets were, to his eye, white or one of the many shades of blue, nor whether they were in bud or in full flower. Mr. Winslow says, however, that "the appear- ances and the scent faded away, and there was no trace of either (the leaves giving no smell)." I am not quite sure that I understand the clause in brackets. If, however, lie smelt at individual leaves, probably they would give no perceptible scent. In any case, the scent from violet leaves is extra- ordinarily transitory ; it seems to come and go with the breath of some insensible wind, and "the appearances," according to my theory, would fade as the scent faded—if, indeed, they ever existed to the eye as distinct from the mind's eye.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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