VIOLA PEDATA. 



BIRD'S-FOOT VIOLET. 



NATURAL ORDER, VIOLACE^. 



Viola pedata, Linnjeus.— Nearly smooth; rootstock short and very thick, erect, not scaly ; 

 leaves all three to five divided, or the earliest only parted, the lateral divisions two to 

 three parted, all linear or narrowly spatulate, sometimes two to three toothed or cut at the 

 apex ; petals beardless ; stigma nearly beakless ; flowers large, one inch broad, pale or 

 deep lilac-purple, or blue. (Gray's Manual of the Botany of the N'orthern United States. 

 See also Wood's Class-Book of Botany, and Chapman's Flora of the Southern United 

 States.) 



R ITERS have given various accounts of the derivation 

 of the word Viola, as applied botanically to the Violets, 

 but most of them rest contented with the simple statement that 

 it is the origcinal Latin name, to which some add, " of uncertain 

 etymology." One of the best modern writers on the Latin 

 lano-uaee, Ainsworth, considers it, however, to be derived from 

 the Greek. In that language the Violet is called ion, and this is 

 a derivative from ienai, which signifies " to go." It has been 

 sucro-ested, therefore, that the name was given to our plant from 

 its being a companion to the traveller going through woods and 

 along paths, and in this connection the Latin Viola comes to 

 us, via being a path or way. This has plausibility to recom- 

 mend it, and is no worse an explanation than most of those 

 which are offered as solutions of many similar puzzles. It is, at 

 least, pleasant to associate the Violet with wayside travel, for 

 few persons, probably, look back on their childhood, and remem- 

 ber their early rambles along rural paths, without giving the 

 Violet a prominent place in these happy recollections. Whittier 

 truly says : — 



