258 PLANTS GROWING IN DRY SOIL. 



Along with the spring come the buttercups, and crop up 

 everywhere to tell us that a sunny, gay time is in store for us 

 all. The earth is awake and bright again, and the blossoms 

 appear to dance and skip through the fields, stopping now and 

 then to sip the dew and make merry with the bees and butter- 

 flies. None is more warmly welcomed or loved more dearly 

 than the buttercups. 



J?. acris, tall or meadow buttercup, is common in the fields 

 and meadows, especially in the northern states. It is erect, 

 with a hairy or sometimes glabrous stem, and grows from two 

 to three feet tall. As the preceding species, it is naturalised 

 from Europe. 



The exquisite grasses on the plate with the buttercups and 

 daisies are called Poa pratensis, and we usually find them all 

 growing closely together. 



COMMON BLUE VIOLET. (Plate C XXX V^ 



Viola cuculldta. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Violet. Purple. Scentless, Arctic regions to Florida April, May. 



and westward. 



Flowers: solitary; terminal ; growing on scapes. Calyx: of five green sepals 

 extending into ears at the base. Corolla : of five unequal petals ; the lower one 

 with a sac, or spur. Stamens: five, short, united about the pistil. Pistil ' : one, 

 short, with a one-sided stigma. Leaves: from the base; roundish; cordate. 

 Scape: slender; leafless. 



The violet needs little description, as somewhere in every 

 heart it has its own resting place. Over the ragged urchin 

 and the mighty Emperor it casts its subtle enchantment ; for 

 have they both not been children ? It is in childhood that the 

 violet makes its claim to the heart ; and to be the first to dis- 

 cover that it has peeped through the crust of winter and to 

 shout in triumph of superior knowledge that the violets have 

 come, is one of the keenest delights. 



In France the popular legend concerning the violet is that 

 one day, shortly before going into exile, Napoleon was walking 

 in the garden at Fontainebleu. His companions were General 



