[Reprinted from Journal of the New York Botanical Garden, Sept., 1912.] 



WILD PLANTS NEEDING PROTECTION.^ 



5. "Bird's-foot Violet" (Viola pedata L.). 



After the spring is well advanced, and most of the other 

 violets have been in bloom for nearly two weeks, the bird-foot 

 violet comes to show how lovely a violet can be! Its flowers are 

 larger and more delicate in color than any other of our wild 

 species, the petals spread with a jaunty air, like a pansy, and 

 vary in color from deep violet to pale lavender or white. They 

 stand above the leaves on long stout pedicels and when 

 growing in masses, as they used to on the Hempstead Plains of 

 Long Island and Todt Hill on Staten Island, are as showy as any 

 of the Alpine violets of Europe, comparing favorably with the 

 long-spurred pansy of the Alps, Viola calcarata. 



The leaves give the plant its specific and common name from a 

 fancied resemblance to a bird's foot. They are palmately 

 divided almost to the base, into narrow segments which are entire, 

 or again divided into 3-5 wedge-shaped subdivisions. There is 

 great variability in the shape and size of the leaves and they also 

 vary from nearly smooth to quite hairy. The rootstocks are 

 erect and stout, scaly above, and bear a large number of leaves 

 and flowers on each, so that the temptation is to pull up the 

 whole plant at once. When growing luxuriantly, they sometimes 

 reach a foot in height with a dozen or more flowers open at once. 

 The leaf-stalks and pedicels are tinted with purple and vary from 

 2 to 6 inches or more in length. The two upper petals are bent 

 backward over the short spur, the two lateral ones are spreading 



' Illustrated by the aid of the Stokes Fund for the Preservation of Native Plants. 



135 



