Violets. 



285 



We grow it plentifully in the garden, where it comes up year after year, and 

 increases. The only care is to transplant it, when in bloom, with a ball of 

 earth: of hundreds moved in this way, we have never lost a plant. 



The common upland l)lue violets are among the earliest of our indigenous 

 spring flowers ; but, in New England, they are seldom found before the first 

 of May. This violet ( F. ciicullata) is very variable in all its parts, and 

 varieties are often mistaken for species : the leaves vary in shape, and the 



flowers in size and in color, which is every shade, from nearly white to 

 deepest blue. 



The large blue violet of our marshes, in some of its forms, seems to run 

 into the last species, but is generally considered distinct, and is known as 

 V. sagittata. The flowers are generally large, long-stemmed, light or dark 

 blue. These two species often are sufficiently abundant to make the fields 

 blue with the flowers. 



