58 Popular Studies of California Wild Flowers 



In the language of flowers, the Yellow Violet stands for "rural 

 happiness"; the Blue Violet means "faithfulness," and the Pansy 

 means "thoughts." Perhaps one might say of the "Johnny- 

 Jump-Up" that it fulfills its part for the rural happiness which it 

 brings in its haunts on the open fields, and is faithful in returning 

 with the seasons, when it may still give thoughts for the poet who 

 is to be found in all of us. It seems to have been the special pur- 

 pose of violets to delight the poets, for many volumes could be 

 compiled of the writings concerning them. Aside from the Rose, 

 perhaps no flower has been more written about. 



I have found the little Redwood Violet growing in the depths 

 of those mighty forest areas, where the filtered beams of sunlight 

 give a warm glow to the great columnar trunks of the monarchial 

 trees, whose vast height is lost in their purple shadows and their 

 crowns of hazy green. There is a majesty and grandeur in their 

 dim cathedral aisles which makes one reverent; and finding these 

 little yellow violets growing about the forest floor, one wonders if 

 they, too, have come down through the centuries with the giant 

 trees. Their flowers are pale yellow and the sparsely leafed plants 

 multiply vegetatively by their filiform root stocks. The larger 

 flowers of these plants, while they secrete honey, are often sterile, 

 for violets are not obliged to depend upon insects for pollenization. 

 They have little buds, sometimes hidden under the foliage, which 

 are without petals, and abundantly fertile, and do not open until 

 the seeds are ready to be ejected. 



Among the rare species of violets to be found in California are 

 Hall's Violet, of Humboldt County, which is yellow and deep violet 

 in color, and whose leaves are three-parted ; and Viola cuneata, of 

 Humboldt County, which is deep purple and white. And then there 

 is the small White Violet ( Viola blanda) , which is white, delicately 

 veined with purple, and occasionally found in the wet places of the 

 Sierras; and Shelton's Violet (Viola sheltonii), which is yellow, 

 veined with purple, and found but rarely in the middle ranges of the 

 Sierras. Among. other California violets may be mentioned Beck- 

 with's Violet or the "Mountain Heart's Ease," which is similar to 

 Shelton's in coloring, but with leaves much dissected ; it is often 

 found growing among the sagebrush in open places of the central 

 and eastern Sierras. Nuttall's Violet (Viola nutallii) is a large, 

 yellow, brown and purple violet found in Northern California, from 

 Humboldt to Modoc County; and in the eastern Sierras one some- 

 times finds Viola cucullata. In color it is a deep, clear lavender to 

 purple. Then there is that moisture-loving variety, Viola glabella, 

 bright yellow and purple veined, growing in wet places in woods of 

 the Coast Range and Sierras. The Cut Leaf Violet, Violet doug- 

 lasi, is widely distributed on the open hillsides of Coast Range and 

 Sierras. Its leaves are much dissected, and the flowers are large, 

 orange-yellow and brownish-purple in color. It was named for that 

 noted botanist and collector of nearly a century ago, and for whom 

 many of our finest flowers and trees are named. This variety is 

 now cultivated in English gardens ; while the Blue English Violet 

 has escaped from California gardens and covers many waste places 



