VIOLET FAMILY 



VIOLACE^ 



Ever}'one is familiar with the leading charac- 

 teristics of the Violet family. The beautiful 

 irregular flowers w^ith five sepals and five petals, 

 some of the latter being curiously modified into 

 nectar spurs, are succeeded by small capsules 

 within which are the numerous minute seeds. 

 The one important genus of this family widely 

 distributed in eastern America is that of the true 

 Violets— Viola. 



May is the month of the Violets. Whether 

 blue, yellow or white these are always beautiful, 

 and they are perhaps more dear to most of us than 

 any of the other wild flowers. Some blossom in 

 April and others continue into June, but the 

 height of the season of these lovely flowers comes 

 in May. 



About thirty species of violets are found in the 

 United States. Most of these are widely dis- 

 tributed so that it is almost hopeless to attempt 

 to name without a careful botanical key all the 

 violets one may be able to find in a given region. 

 I can discuss here only a few of the more abun- 

 dant species. 



In classifying violets the first thing to notice 



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