32 FAMILIAK FLOWEES OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 



this flower, as Bryant says, "in forest bare," nor 

 could I ever discover the " faint perfume " ; and, 

 although the valleys of the White Mountains hold 

 many a drift of snow as late as May, not a sign of 

 snow is ever seen about the patch 1 have allnded 

 to. Nor does the little flower seem to bend its 

 " gentle eye " earthward. My drawing certainly tells 

 the exact truth, as it was made on the spot where 

 the violets grew, and was taken from a single speci- 

 men. These two little yellow beauties held their 

 heads pretty high — something like ten inches above 

 the ground. But it is possible that the poet referred 

 to the less common, earlier, and lower form of the 

 yellow violet, called Y. rotundifolia, whose leaves by 

 midsummer measure three inches across, and whose 

 early blossom resembles my downy violet. The yel- 

 low of this flower is golden in character, but consid- 

 erably paler than dandelion yellow, and is veined 

 with brownish purple. The blossom is very small, 

 and springs up from between a pair of leaves which 

 start from a bare stem about eight or nine inches taU. 



The specimen which I have drawn of 

 Purple Violet. , , i . i , 



Viola cucuiata. *^^ P^^P^^ ^^^^^t (commonly called 

 Hue, but I prefer the truer purple) 

 was gathered on the 25th of May, in a very wet spot 

 not more than a hundred yards away from the yel- 

 low violet patch just mentioned. It makes a great 



