Minnesota Plant Life. 



Violets. Violets, of which there are several species in Min- 

 nesota, are well-known as flowers of the springtime and are 

 remarkable for a number of structural peculiarities among 

 which may be mentioned the development of their flowers singly 

 upon slender, almost leafless stems; for the upper- and under- 

 sidedness of the flower, which in this respect superficially re- 

 sembles the flowers of larkspurs or of orchids; and for the 

 production in many varieties of small flowers, close to the sur- 

 face of the ground, incapable of opening, and, therefore, pol- 

 linated by their own pollen. The violets of Minnesota may be 

 divided into the stemless 

 and stemmed varieties. 

 Actually they all have 

 stems, but in the so-called 

 stemless sorts the leaves 

 and flower-bearing axes 

 arise from short, erect or 

 prostrate underground 

 stems, so that the leaves seem 

 tufted at the root, while in the 

 stemmed varieties, so named, 

 there is more or less branching 

 of the above-ground portion of 

 the plant-body. The stemless 

 varieties have, for the most 

 part, purple, lilac or white 

 flowers, while in the stemmed FlG " 16L Sweet ^ B.^*' After Britton 

 violets, yellow, white or cream- 

 colored flowers are also to be found. Among the violets of 

 the state, which are abundant and easily distinguished, are the 

 larkspur-leafed or prairie violet, with deeply-cut leaves, appar- 

 ently made up of seven or eight incised leaflets; the meadow 

 violet, with heart-shaped leaves; the arrow-leafed violet, with 

 leaves shaped like arrow-heads; the bird's-foot violet, similar 

 in general appearance to the prairie violet, but distinguished 

 from it by the beardless petals; the round-leafed violet, with 

 abundant closed flowers, developed later in the year than the 

 open ones; the marsh-violet, with its pale lilac petals marked 

 with darker veins; the sweet violet, with small, white, sweet- 



