138 WILD FLOWER FAMILIES 



is whether the plant in hand is a stemless or a 

 stemmed species. In the former the leaves and 

 flowers are borne on stalks which all appear to 

 rise from the ground or from rootstocks creeping 

 along the ground. In the latter the leaves and 

 stems arise from branches which extend upward 

 from the crown. One of the next things to notice 

 is the presence or absence of a fringe of hairs on 

 the inside of the petals toward the base: when 

 these are present the Violet is said to be one of 

 the bearded species; when they are absent it is 

 a beardless species. 



STEMLESS BLUE VIOLETS. Of the stemless 

 bearded Violets the Common Blue Violet, fre- 

 quently called the Meadow Violet and sometimes 

 the Hooded Blue Violet, is perhaps the most 

 abundant. " Royal in color as in lavish profu- 

 sion/' writes Neltje Blanchan, " it blossoms 

 everywhere in woods, waysides, meadows and 

 marshes, but always in finer form in cool shady 

 dells; with longer flowering scapes in meadow 

 bogs ; and with leaves longer than wide in swampy 

 woodlands. Beards on the spurred lower petal 

 and the two side petals give the bees a foothold 

 when they turn head downward, as some must, to 

 suck nectar. This attitude enables them to receive 

 the pollen dusted on their abdomens when they 

 jar the flower at a point nearest their pollen- 

 collecting hairs. It is also an economical advan- 



