STUDIES OF PLANT LIFE 



this, for the loss was soon replaced from Nature's abundant 

 store. 



I doubt not but that Violets and Primroses, the Blue- 

 bells and the Cowslips yet bloom and flourish in the loved 

 haunts of our childhood. Year after year sees them bloom 

 afresh pure, sweet and fragrant as when last we filled our 

 laps w r ith their flowers or twined them in garlands for our 

 hair; but we change and grow old. God wills it so, and 

 it is well ! Though Canada boasts of many members of this 

 charming family, there is none among our Violets so deeply 

 blue, or so deliciously fragrant, as the common English 

 March Violet, Viola odorata. This sweet flower bears away 

 the crown from all its fellows. One of our older poets (Sir 

 Henry Wotton) has said, as if in scornful contrast of it 

 when compared with the rose, 



" Ye violets that first appear, 



By your pure purple mantles known, 

 Like the proud virgins of the year, 

 As if the spring were all your own, 

 What are ye when the rose is blown ? " 



Good Sir Henry, we would match the perfume of the 

 lowly violet even against the fragrance of the blushing rose. 



Though deficient in the scent of the purple Violet of 

 Europe, we have many lovely species among the native 

 Violets of Canada. The earliest is the small flowered 



EARLY WHITE VIOLET Viola Wanda (Willd.). 



This blossoms early in April, soon after the disappear- 

 ance of the snow. The light green smooth leaves may be 

 seen breaking through the black, damp, fibrous mould 

 closely rolled inward at the margins ; the flowers are small, 

 rather sweet scented, greenish white, with delicate pencil- 



