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YELLOW VIOLET. 



Yellow Violets are much more 

 local in their distribution than other 

 species. They prefer rich but not 

 moist woods and are most often 

 found in small colonies along the 

 banks of woodland brooks. They 

 have always been prime favorites of 

 mine because in a certain piece of 

 woods where a small brook tumbles 

 its noisy way over the stones down 

 through the alders that line its banks, 

 a colony of Yellow Violets has been 

 established for a longer time than I 

 can remember. The space occupied 

 by them is barely larger than an or- 

 dinary room, but in this spot they 

 grow in such profusion that the leaves hide the ground. 

 This same place is an "ideal one for migrating birds and the 

 violets are always in bloom on May tenth when the season 

 if migration is at its very height. Furthermore, in the ald- 

 ers, almost over my bed of violets, a pair of Wood Thrushes 

 nearly always have their home. So whenever I see this spe- 

 cies, it always brings to me memories of this favorite spot 

 and of Wood Thrushes. There are two kinds of Yellow 

 Violets, the downy and the smooth, the former having a 

 hairy or downy stem and the latter having a number of 

 basal leaves during its flowering season. 



The Yellow Violet is one of the tallest members of the 

 family, its stem ranging from six to eighteen inches in 

 height. Usually two pairs of leaves branch out from the 

 stem and from the axils grow the flower stalks. The two 

 side petals of the handsome yellow flowers are heavily 

 bearded and the lower one has prominent veinings leading 

 down the throat. The markings are presumed to be guides 

 for insects to follow to reach the nectar at the end of the 

 short spur and the hairy beard is for them to hold to as they 

 reach within and to force them to brush against the stigma 

 and anthers in the proper manner. After the flowering 

 season, the Yellow Violets have numerous small, closed, self- 

 fertilizing blossoms on runners from the ro^t. 



