BLUE VIOLETS. 



On the left in the opposite picture 

 is shown the COMMON, PURPLE 

 or MEADOW VIOLET, one of the 

 most delightful species and one that 

 grows in profusion everywhere. In 

 dry fields we find the plants small 

 and the blossoms low down so as to 

 be partly shielded by the grass; in 

 meadows and marshes, the leaves and 

 the flowers have exceedingly long 

 stems, but in cool, shady, moist 

 woods we find the plants in their 

 most perfect form and proportion. 

 Violets are favorite flowers with 

 everyone; they lack only a sweet 

 sceMt to make them ideal. So many 

 violets are collected every year to make nosegays for the 

 young ladies that it is very fortunate that they are not en- 

 tirely dependent upon the visible flowers setting seed, or the 

 species would become very rare. That it does not diminish 

 in numbers is due to the fact that at the base, sometimes 

 underground are tiny flowers that never open and that fer- 

 tilize themselves and produce seed. Of course enough of the 

 showy flowers are cross fertilized by bees to keep the plants 

 from degenerating by continued inbreeding. These violets 

 are often transplanted to the garden or raised in hothouses, 

 in the latter case the blossoms sometimes attain a somewhat 

 larger size than they do even under the most favorable con- 

 ditions outside. The present species, which is technically 

 known as Viola cucullata, has the heart-shaped leaves all 

 growing from the base on long slender petioles. Another 

 common blue violet, the CANADA VIOLET (V. canaden- 

 sis), shown by the picture on the right hand, has a leafy 

 stem and the flowers raised on slender stems rising from the 

 axils of the leaves. Still another species, very abundant in 

 the southern states and of local occurrence in our range, 

 known as BIRD-FOOT VIOLET (V. pedata), has the 

 leaves which proceed from the base, deeply cut into from 

 five to eleven parts. This species also has unusually large 

 bright orange anthers blocking the entrance to the flower 

 throat. 



