Our Artist has tastefully combined in the wreath that adorns her title
page several of our native Spring Flowers. The simple blossoms of
_Claytonia Virginica_, better known by its familiar name “SPRING
BEAUTY,” may easily be recognized from the right hand figure in the
group of the first plate in the book. For a description of it see page
16.
The tall slender flower on the left side on the title page is
_Potentilla Canadensis_, (Var _simplex_). This slender trailing plant
may be found in open grassy thickets, by road side wastes, at the foot
of old stumps, and similar localities, with the common Cinquefoil or
Silver Leaf. This last species is much the most attractive plant to the
lover of wild flowers. It abounds in dry gravelly and sandy soil,
courting the open sunshine, rooting among stones, over which it spreads
its slender reddish stalk, enlivening the dry arid wastes with its
silvery silken leaves and gay golden rose-shaped blossoms.
The Potentilla family belongs to the same Natural Order, ROSACEÆ, as the
Strawberry, Raspberry, Blackberry and the Rose—a goodly fellowship of
the useful and the beautiful among which our humble Cinquefoil has been
allowed to find a place.
The little plant occupying the lower portion of the plate is _Viola
sagittata_, “ARROW LEAVED VIOLET.” The anthers of the stamens are flesh
coloured or pale orange; the slender pointed sepals of the calyx are of
a bright light green, which form a lively contrast to the deep purple
closely wrapped pointed buds that they enfold. The leaves are of a dull
green, somewhat hairy, narrow, blunt at the apex, not heart-shaped as in
many of the species but closed at the base and bordering the short
channelled foot-stalk. Among our numerous species few are really more
lovely than “the Arrow Leaved Violet.” _Viola ovata_ and _Viola villosa_
closely resemble the above, and probably are varieties of our pretty
flower.
The violet, like the rose and lily, has ever been the poet’s flower.
This is not one of our earliest violets; it blossoms later than the
early white violet, _V. rotundifolia_ or than the early Blue Violet, _V.
cucullata_, or that delicate species _V. striata_, the lilac striped
violet, which adorns the banks and hill sides on some of our plain
lands, early in the month of May. Later in this month and in the
beginning of June we find the azure blossoms of _V. sagittata_ in warm
sheltered valleys, often among groups of small pines and among grasses
on sandy knolls and open thickets. The plant grows low, the leaves on
very short foot-stalks closely pressed to the ground; the bright full
blue flowers springing from the crown of the plant on long slender stems
stand above the leaves.
The petals are blunt, of a full azure blue, white at the base and
bearded. Among many allusions to this favourite flower, here are lines
somewhat after the style of the older poets, addressed to early violets
found on a wintry March day at Waltham Abbey.