(A) Common Violet (Viola cucullata) is the commonest and best known of all the Violets. It grows in low land everywhere—in woods, meadows, marshes, or along roadsides. It is a very beautiful and variable species both as to size and color of blossoms and to shape of the leaves.
The flowers are sometimes a deep purple and again may be a light blue, or even nearly white. The two upper petals are usually darker near the throat; the three lower ones shade to white at the throat, the side ones being beautifully fringed or bearded. The leaves are usually heart-shaped, round-toothed, and concave or furled; they are on long stems from the base.
(B) Canada Violet (Viola canadensis) is the most common of the leafy-stemmed blue Violets. You will notice that the preceding species all had their leaves from the base, and the flowers nodding on slender scapes, while this one has leaves growing on the slender stem and flowers above them on peduncles, springing from the angles of the leaves. This species is quite common in woods throughout the United States.
(A) Sweet White Violet (Viola blanda) is the most fragrant of our wild Violets, regardless of color. It is a most charming plant, but very diminutive, in fact, it is probably the smallest of the entire family. Occasionally we may find them in some exceptionally favorable locality growing to a height of perhaps 6 inches, but the usual height will barely exceed 2 inches. The plant is stemless, that is, the leaf stems and flower stalks all spring directly from the root.
The leaves of the common White Violet are rounded heart-shaped with slightly scalloped or round-toothed edges. It is very common in swamps and moist woods throughout the United States and southern Canada.
(B) Lance-leaved Violet (Viola lanceolata) is a taller, more slender species growing from 3 to 8 inches high. Its leaves are lance-shaped, scallop-edged, and on long stems from the root. The white flowers are only slightly fragrant; the three lower petals are strongly veined with purple and the two side ones are rarely bearded. It is commonly found in swamps and moist ground from N. S. to Minn. and southward, flowering from April to June.
Downy Yellow Violet (Viola pubescens) is a large, very handsome Violet that prefers, for its habitat, dry, hilly woods, often by the side of rushing brooks, but not usually where the soil is moist.