YELLOW AND ORANGE WILD FLOWERS 



shaded, this charming little aristocrat of violetdom 

 makes its home. When the warmth of the earliest 

 April showers has dissolved the frost crystals about 

 their roots, and while the belated, cold, damp-laden 

 winds are yet contesting the supremacy of the bright, 

 ever-warming sunshine, the pale yellow flowers bear 

 silent witness to the conflict. And so William Cullen 

 Bryant found it: 



" When beechen buds begin to swell, 



And woods the bluebirds's warble know, 

 The yellow violet's modest bell 



Peeps from, the last year's leaves below." 



Occasionally I have found the earliest flowers of the 

 Round-leaved Violet only after brushing aside the 

 loose blanket of bleached oak-leaves, which hid them 

 from sight. Their flower and leaf stems are rather 

 short, and the blossoms seem to be contented with a 

 sheltered chink between the fallen leaves, without 

 forcing their way above them, as they do later in the 

 season. During the spring months, while in flower, 

 the plant is quite small and without an abundance of 

 foliage. The early leaves measure from one-half to 

 two inches broad, but they continue to expand, until 

 by midsummer they have increased in size to three 

 or four inches, and form a pretty rosette, flattened 

 against the ground, or very near it. The matured 

 leaf is rounded, with a short cleft between two lobes, 

 forming a heart-shaped structure. The upper sur- 

 face is smooth, very shiny, and dark green in colour. 

 The under surface is lighter in colour, and the general 



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