SMOOTH YELLOW VIOLET 



Viola eriocatpa Schw. 



April -May Certain flowers are found together. Almost invariably if 

 Oak woods one finds a particular species in a ])articular place, he 

 Jinds others which belong in that same association of 

 plants. Thus, when it happens that spring has come hack and the oak 

 woods are in bloom, yellow violets blossom in comjjany with red trilliums. 

 Dutclnnan's breeches, mayajiplcs, and wild blui' phlox. Find one. find 

 lliciii all — almost always. 



The smooth yellow violet is one of the hranched sjjccies of that 

 extensive clan. The stems are smooth and yellow-green and are nnuli 

 branched. The leaves are h('art-sha]ied. tlu> sha])(' of tho>(^ found on the 

 conniion blue violet. Tlie llowcrs are l)i)rne on long, thin stems and are a 

 bright butter yellow with delicate brown hair-lines along which insects 

 are guided to the nectar. 



The yellow violet comes at a time when liie is reiiliy awakening in 

 earnest in the oak woods. The snails are out in the good nutisture of an 

 April morning. Theri> i< a shining black salamander under a log. a sala- 

 mander which in the ^oH Ajjril night went to the |)ond to lay its eggs. 

 Ijast night, too. the toads were trilling softly in the woods. The whip- 

 ])0()r-wills lame baik and added their own urgent voices to the night 

 chorus. Nr>w in the .spring sunshine there is a nunirning cloak butterlly 

 flitting about in search of a willow on which to hiy c^^^. Beneath a spice 

 bush a towhoe has nuide its nest aiul stratehes energetically among the 

 leaves. .^]iring. Oak woods. Yellow violi>ts. 



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