138 WILD FLOWER FAMILIES 
is whether the plant in hand is a stemless or a 
stemmed species. In the former the leaves and 
flowers are borne on stalks which all appear to 
rise from the ground or from rootstocks creeping 
along the ground. In the latter the leaves and 
stems arise from branches which extend upward 
from the crown. One of the next things to notice 
is the presence or absence of a fringe of hairs on 
the inside of the petals toward the base: when 
these are present the Violet is said to be one of 
the bearded species; when they are absent it is 
a beardless species. 
STEMLEsS BLUE VIOLETS. Of the stemless 
bearded Violets the Common Blue Violet, fre- 
quently called the Meadow Violet and sometimes 
the Hooded Blue Violet, is perhaps the most 
abundant. ‘ Royal in color as in lavish profu- 
sion,” writes Neltje Blanchan, “it blossoms 
everywhere—in woods, waysides, meadows and 
marshes, but always in finer form in cool shady 
dells; with longer flowering scapes in meadow 
bogs; and with leaves longer than wide in swampy 
woodlands. Beards on the spurred lower petal 
and the two side petals give the bees a foothold 
when they turn head downward, as some must, to 
suck nectar. This attitude enables them to receive 
the pollen dusted on their abdomens when they 
jar the flower at a point nearest their pollen- 
collecting hairs. It is also an economical advan- 
