156 Violets. 



children, they touch and sweeten the soul of every passer-by ; and the vio- 

 let's modesty — is it not always named as the crowning, most exquisite grace 

 of woman ? 



But it is not of these well-known members of one of the most beautiful 

 and highly individualized families of plants that I propose to write, but 

 of the shyer and less-understood species which belong to the virgin soil 

 of a new world. These have not yet had time to rufifle their gowns : 

 they are not yet acquainted with that purple relation, the pride of our gar- 

 dens ; or even the fairer cousin, the English violet, so justly named odorata. 

 " It doth not yet appear what they shall be " when the eyes have come for 

 which the unclaimed beauty of the earth seems ever to be waiting. 



I'^irst to appear in the spring, and oftenest on the top of a hummock in 

 still frozen marshes, is the round-leaved violet ( V/o/a rotimdifolia), which a 

 childish fancy once named " the Frog's Friend." Its tiny, bright-yellow 

 face, delicately pencilled with brown lines, the very picture of cheerfulness, 

 must be, even to dull batrachian eyes, a welcome herald of the new season. 

 It has a narrower range than its frequent neighbor and associate, Viola 

 blanda, — the sweet-violet ; and is not often found west of the Alleghanies. 

 Both these species increase rapidly by throwing out runners ; have deep- 

 green, polished leaves, pressed closely to the ground ; and take kindly to 

 civilization. 



By the middle of April, in our latitude, every moist secluded nook open 

 to the sun, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, is sprinkled with the infan- 

 tine blossoms of the " sweet white violet." They spread northward, a 

 fragrant carpet for the feet of spring, as far as Hudson's Bay ; and reach 

 southward to clasp hands with the " primrose-leaved violet" ( Viola primulcs- 

 folia) of the Georgian woods. No flower that I know is so completely 

 clothed in humility ; no other so nearly related to the mosses, in whose 

 company it is always found. With them it creeps lovingly around the 

 gnarled roots of old trees, comforting their ruin ; and is there found in its 

 greatest wild perfection. Its fragrance is earthiness, and scent of mosses, 

 mingled with pure sweetness. Give it a moist corner of your garden where 

 it will catch the stray sunshine, and it will improve greatly in size, without 

 losing its native polish, or any thing of its essential character. 



I need not point out the characteristics of two quite contrasted species 



