burt] THE BLUE VIOLET 201 



"One might guess, 

 A storm of blossoms had fallen there, 

 And covered the ground with sweet excess." 



But we will always find the finer forms of this little flower in cool, 

 shady dells, where the moss clings on the stones and the water 

 trickles over the rocks; here each little flower will be, — 



"Fair as a star, when only one 

 is shining in the sky." 



The blue violet doesn't seek gaudy rose bowers or gardens to 

 show its beauty, it is perfectly content by the poorest homes 

 arrayed in modest tints. I think it could teach us all a lesson in 

 humility. 



The flower is distributed from Maine to Georgia in the east 

 and extends westward to Minnesota and Arkansas. 



The violet grows about twelve inches high, it has a fleshy, 

 thickened rootstock which begins its work before the snow goes 

 off the ground, and if we were to uncover the ground from its 

 leaves and snow in March, we should find the violet leaves well 

 on their way. The profusion of blossoms however, comes in 

 April and May. This fleshy rootstock stores food all during the 

 summer, so in the early spring the plant does not have to make 

 a supply of food, but can put forth leaves and flowers to get the 

 sunlight before many of the other plants around it, have thought 

 about waking up. When the complete summer foliage is out the 

 violet might have no chance whatever with the sunlight. 



The leaves and flowers are borne on stalks which all appear to 

 rise from the ground or from rootstocks creeping along the ground, 

 thus it is known as the stemless species. The first leaves are 

 likely to be heart shaped with the sides rolled inward resembling 

 those of Meadow violet, but the later ones have margins divided 

 into many lobes; they are radical and long petioled with a broad 

 sinus. 



The irregular flowers of Viola palmala are borne solitarily on a 

 single scape, in color they are deep or a pale violet blue rarely ever 

 white, 



"I know blue modest violets, 

 Gleaming with dew at morn — 

 I know the place you came from, 

 And the way that you were born! 



