BLUE AND PURPLE WILD FLOWERS 



ing widely and giving it a slightly scrawly appearance. 

 The great, handsome flower is the largest of our Violets. 

 It varies in colour from red violet to blue violet. Some 

 varieties have the upper petals coloured dark purple, 

 and the lower ones of a lighter shade. Rarely white 

 flowers are found. The stamens are orange-tipped, 

 and set off the regal beauty of the flower with their 

 contrast. The lower petal is slightly grooved, and 

 has a prominent, flat spur. The upper petals are 

 curved backward, adding greatly to the general pleas- 

 ing effect of the flower. This Violet frequently blos- 

 soms again in August. It does not produce stolens. 

 It is partial to dry fields and hillsides, from Maine and 

 southern Ontario to Minnesota, Florida, and Missouri, 

 during April, May and June. 



MEADOW VIOLET. COMMON BLUE VIOLET. 

 HOODED BLUE VIOLET 



Viola cucullata. Violet Family. 



This is the most common and best known of our 

 Violets, and is found everywhere within its r nge, 

 preferring generally low grounds in woods, meadows 

 and marshes from Nova Scotia to Minnesota, and 

 southward to Georgia and Kansas during April, May 

 and June. It readily adapts itself to all conditions, 

 and varies greatly in colour, size and leaf form, accord- 

 ing to its situation. In boggy lands it produces ridicu- 

 lously long, flowering stems, quite necessary, however^ 

 to raise its blossoms to the light, above the long grasses. 

 In wet, swampy woods, forms having their leaves 



34o 



