10 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



was just my obstinate way of looking at the thorns and mul- 

 leins that kept me from seeing the really beautiful and rare 

 things. However, that bed of fringed polygala simply insisted 

 on being seen and so I had to look. The little pink-purple 

 blossoms were everywhere. They fairly elbowed each other out 

 of the bit of woods where they properly belonged and held up 

 their impudent little faces in the open pasture beyond, along 

 with the cows and mulleins. I followed them as far as they 

 had dared to go and picked with discrimination and modera- 

 tion with determination against extermination. 



While I was gathering them I stopped to pick a few vio- 

 lets. What a deep color they had ; what odd little leaves, so 

 purple beneath ; and what large blossoms. Surely these were 

 no common violets. I would "look them up" when I reached 

 home. So look them up I did, and found (according to Brit- 

 ton and Brown) that my plant was the "southern wood violet" 

 (V. villosa). My new Gray's Manual, however, was completely 

 silent on the subject, although in an old and coverless volume 

 I found "V. villosa, probably a round-leaved form of V. sagit- 

 tata." Turning again to the later edition, I found V. sagittata 

 often passed in to V. paliuata var. cucullata. Poor innocent 

 little violet, that can't find a name for itself among all those 

 words. I wonder what it really is, don't you? 



Besides these puzzling violets, my bouquets contained 

 many of the ever present, faded-looking, dog violets, which I 

 thought hardly worth carrying home. Still, I decided to find 

 out all I could about them. Perhaps they would amount to 

 more than I supposed. "Wh) look — there are two kinds! I 

 never knew before that there were two kinds of dog violets, 

 except the albinos that I occasionally find" Nor did I know 

 it then. However, I was very soon to know that two-thirds 

 of my "dog violets" were long spurred violets {V. rostrata), 

 of which Gray condescends to say, "Rather rare." 



Violets, though, are not the only flowers to be found on 



