A cold infusion of this little plant is used as a domestic remedy in cases of fever, where a cooling drink is desired.
The genus has received the common name of "bed-straw," because it was supposed that one of the species, G. verum, filled the manger in which was laid the Infant Jesus. There are a dozen or so species in California.
Very conspicuous all through the south is G. angustifolium, Nutt., often three feet high, sending up very numerous slender, feathery stems from a woody base. This has its small leaves in whorls of four.
MOUNTAIN HEART'S-EASE.
Viola Beckwithii, Torr. and Gray. Violet Family.
Leaves.—Broadly cordate in outline; three-parted; the divisions cleft into linear or oblong segments. Peduncles.—About equaling the leaves. Petals.—Four to seven lines long; very broad; the upper deep purple, the others lilac, bluish, or white, veined with purple, with a yellowish base; the lateral bearded; the lowest emarginate. Stigma.—Bearded at the sides. Capsule.—Obtuse. (Otherwise as V. pedunculata.) Hab.—The Central Sierras.
"By scattered rocks and turbid waters shifting,
By furrowed glade and dell,
To feverish men thy calm, sweet face uplifting,
Thou stayest them to tell
"The delicate thought that cannot find expression—
For ruder speech too fair,—
That, like thy petals, trembles in possession,
And scatters on the air."
The poet, with a delicate insight, has made this mountain flower the reminder to the rugged miner of home and scenes far away. But the vision lasts but for a moment only; then, as he brushes away a tear, his uplifted pick—
"Through root and fiber cleaves—
And on the muddy current slowly drifting
Are swept thy bruised leaves.