18 
RURAL HOURS. 
Thursday, 18th. — The \iolets abound now, everywhere, in the 
grassy fields, and among the withered leaves of the forest ; many 
of them grow in charming little tufts, a simple nosegay in them- 
selves ; one finds them in this way in the prettiest situations pos- 
sible, the yellow, the blue, and the white. A pretty habit, this, 
with many of our early flowers, growing in little sisterhoods, as 
it were ; we rarely think of the violets singly, as of the rose, or 
the lily ; we always fancy them together, one lending a grace to 
another, amid their tufted leaves. 
There are many different varieties. Botanists count some fif- 
teen sorts in this part of the country, and with one or two excep- 
tions, they are all probably found in our neighborhood. There 
are some eight different kinds of the blue, or purple, or gray, these 
colors often changing capriciously ; three more are yellow ; three 
more again are white, and one is parti-colored or tri-color ; the 
blue and purple are the largest. Some of these are very beau- 
tiful, with every grace of color or form one could desire in a 
violet, but not one is fragrant. It seems strange, that with all 
the dewy freshness and beauty of theh kind, they should want 
this charm of the violet of the Old World ; but so it is. Still, 
they are too pleasing and too common a flower to find fault with, 
even though scentless. The European violet, however, is not 
always fragrant ; some springs they are said to lose their odor 
almost entirely ; the English violet, at least, which has been attrib- 
uted to the dryness of the season. 
Our yellow varieties are great ornaments of the spring, and 
very common, though not so abundant or large as the purple ; 
one kind, the earliest, grows in little companies of bright, golden 
blossoms, which are often out before the leaves. 
