I perceive, farther, that this disorderly flower [violet] is lifted on a lanky, awkward, springless, and yet stiff flower-stalk; which is not round, as a flower-stalk ought to be, but obstinately square, and fluted, with projecting edges, like a pillar run thin out of an iron-foundry for a cheap railway station.

Proserpina: Studies of Wayside Flowers (Volume 2), Part VII, Chapter I (p. 16)