Lacking perfume only to be a perfectly satisfying flower, the Common
Purple, Meadow, or Hooded Blue Violet (_V. cucullata_) has nevertheless
established itself in the hearts of the people from the Arctic to the
Gulf as no sweet-scented, showy, hothouse exotic has ever done. Royal in
color as in lavish profusion, it blossoms everywhere--in woods,
waysides, meadows, and marshes, but always in finer form in cool, shady
dells; with longer flowering scapes in meadow bogs; and with longer
leaves than wide in swampy woodlands. The heart-shaped, saw-edged
leaves, folded toward the centre when newly put forth, and the
five-petalled, bluish-purple, golden-hearted blossom are too familiar
for more detailed description. From the three-cornered stars of the
elastic capsules, the seeds are scattered abroad.
In shale and sandy soil, even in the gravel of hillsides, one finds the
narrowly divided, finely cut leaves and the bicolored beardless blossom
of the Bird’s-foot Violet (_V. pedata_), pale bluish purple on the lower
petals, dark purple on one or two upper ones, and with a heart of gold.
The large, velvety, pansy-like blossom and the unusual foliage which
rises in rather dense tufts are sufficient to distinguish the plant from
its numerous kin. This species produces no cleistogamous or blind
flowers. Frequently the Bird’s-foot Violet blooms a second time, in
autumn, a delightful eccentricity of this family. The spur of its lower
petal is long and very slender, and, as might be expected, the
longest-tongued bees and butterflies are its most frequent visitors.
These receive the pollen on the base of the proboscis.
In course of time the lovely English, March, or Sweet Violet _(V.
odorata)_, which has escaped from gardens, and which is now rapidly
increasing with the help of seed and runners on the Atlantic and the
Pacific coasts, may be established among our wild flowers. No blossom
figures so prominently in European literature. In France, it has even
entered the political field since Napoleon’s day. Yale University has
adopted the violet for its own especial flower, although it is the
corn-flower, or bachelor’s button _(Centaurea cyanus)_ that is the true
Yale blue. Sprengel, who made a most elaborate study of the violet,
condensed the result of his research into the following questions and
answers, which are given here because much that he says applies to our
own native species, which have been too little studied in the modern
scientific spirit:
“1. Why is the flower situated on a long stalk which is upright, but
curved downward at the free end? In order that it may hang down; which,
firstly, prevents rain from obtaining access to the nectar; and,
secondly, places the stamens in such a position that the pollen falls
into the open space between the pistil and the free ends of the stamens.
If the flower were upright, the pollen would fall into the space
between the base of the stamen and the base of the pistil, and would not
come in contact with the bee.
“2. Why does the pollen differ from that of most other insect-fertilized
flowers? In most of such flowers the insects themselves remove the
pollen from the anthers, and it is therefore important that the pollen
should not easily be detached and carried away by the wind. In the
present case, on the contrary, it is desirable that it should be looser
and drier, so that it may easily fall into the space between the stamens
and the pistil. If it remained attached to the anther, it would not be
touched by the bee, and the flower would remain unfertilized.
“3. Why is the base of the style so thin? In order that the bee may be
more easily able to bend the style.
“4. Why is the base of the style bent? For the same reason. The result
of the curvature is that the pistil is much more easily bent than would
be the case if the style were straight.
“5. Finally, why does the membranous termination of the upper filament
overlap the corresponding portions of the two middle stamens? Because
this enables the bee to move the pistil and thereby to set free the
pollen more easily than would be the case under the reverse
arrangement.”