PURPLE MOUNTAIN VIOLET 



Viola adunca J. E. Smith 



The purple mountain violet is a small plant of the higher altitudes, 

 whose flowers are large in proportion to the size of the leaves. It nes- 

 tles in the grass and other herbage as though to hide its lovely blossoms, 

 and soon fades in the hot sunshine of early summer. The painting repre- 

 sents an unusual dwarfish form of this species, which at lower alti- 

 tudes is a taller, longer-stemmed plant, especially when it grows in 

 wet, shaded spots. 



Viola adunca has a wide range, being found from New Hampshire 

 and New Brunswick to the mountains of New Mexico and Califor- 

 nia, and north to Alaska. 



The specimen sketched grew near the shores of Bow Lake, thirty 

 miles north of Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada, at an altitude of 6,000 

 feet. 



PLATE l8l 



