Kiss-her-in-the-buttery

From its coquettish hanging head and half-hidden face, the Pansy bears a whole catalogue of amatory names: it is Heart's-ease, Love in Idleness, Pink of my John[,] Tittle my Fancy, Jump up and Kiss me, Kiss behind the Garden Gate, Meet-her-in-the-entry-and-kiss-her-in-the-buttery—the longest Plant-name surely in any language.

The pansy that we love so well and for which our English cousins have so many nicknames is, after all, only a violet that has had a chance. Some call it "Heart's-ease," others "Meet-her-in-the-entry," others "Kiss-her-in-the-buttery," and still others "Jump-up-and-kiss-me" and "Tickle-my-fancy."

Love-in-Idleness, Tickle-My-Fancy, / Heartsease, Kiss-Her-in-the-Buttery, / when I hear the pet names of the pansy / I think I may have to go back to being / in love with my mother. She grew them, huge / and furry-faced, maybe she brushed them, / in her sleep, with some holy, baby hairbrush, / the motionless animals she loved.

[I]n English parishes people saw two faces, up to much less intellectual business. They were kissing, the side petals lip to lip within a hood formed by the upper petals. Kiss-and-look-up was the nickname in Somerset, and elsewhere, Kiss-behind-the-garden-gate, Kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate, Kiss-me-quck, Leap-up-and-kiss-me, climaxing in Lincolnshire's upstairs-downstairs version, Meet-her-in-the-entry-kiss-her-in-the-buttery. But the wild pansy was more widely known as heartsease, and perhaps it was used for just that purpose, picked as a posy to claim the kiss it pictured.

'Looks like a common pansy,' I said, studying the fine ink drawing she was just starting to fill in with touches of purple, both subtle and bold. 'Love-in-idleness is the name I prefer, but lady-in-waiting, kiss-her-in-the-buttery, heartsease, if you must. Though there's nothing common about the pansy.' Fanny commanded a room when she talked about her plants.