Stems.—Leafy above, erect. Leaves.—Broadly heart-shaped, toothed. Flowers.—Yellow, veined with purple, otherwise much like those of the common blue violet.
When beechen buds begin to swell,
And woods the blue-bird’s warble know,
The yellow violet’s modest bell
Peeps from the last year’s leaves below,
sings Bryant, in his charming, but not strictly accurate poem, for the chances are that the “beechen buds” have almost burst into foliage, and that the “bluebird’s warble” has been heard for some time when these pretty flowers begin to dot the woods.
PLATE XXXVII
DOWNY YELLOW VIOLET.—V. pubescens.
The lines which run:
Yet slight thy form, and low thy seat,