STfje 3&ocft*<!5arTien. 119 



North American, are most desirable. P. subu- 

 lata, or moss-pink, the little evergreen with lav- 

 ender-colored flowers, together with the white 

 and many other varieties, are all charming sub- 

 jects. How gracefully, too, the moss-pink drapes 

 a grave, paying its lovely but voiceless tribute 

 to the departed ! P. procumbens succeeds su- 

 bulata, but neither its color nor its habit is as 

 pleasing. P. amaena, with lighter-colored pur- 

 ple flowers and of dwarfer habit, is preferable 

 to the latter. Prettier than either of these is a 

 much larger growing species, P. divaricata, 

 whose profusion of bluish or lilac flowers, on 

 stems a foot high, perfume the places where it 

 grows. Under cultivation, it increases rapidly 

 in full sunshine. Growing near it, in a rich 

 wood, I found, the other day, a colony of Viola 

 rostrata, one of our most beautiful species, rare 

 in this vicinity. It has a long, slender spur, the 

 four lavender petals beautifully stained, and pen- 

 ciled with dark purple. The flower is of good 

 size, and its hue might almost correspond to 

 the " lids of Juno's eyes." 



The white-umbeled, evergreen, sand-myrtle 

 (Leiophyllum buxifolium) is in bloom, togeth- 

 er with the yellow Polygala lutea, and the lit- 

 tle yellow heath-like Hudsonta tomentosa of the 

 New Jersey pine-barrens. There are very many 



