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duncles about equal the leaves in length, bearing a medium-sized, deep blue flower, whose five ovate petals are paler near their insertion with the lateral ones bearded. The spur is short and blunt. This appendage, which constitutes one of the prominent characteristics of the genus, is formed by the prolongation of the lower petal into a hollow tube, into which corresponding projections on two of the anthers extend. The calyx is divided into five narrow, lanceolate sepals. The stamens have also a generic peculiarity, which is an extension of the filaments beyond the anthers, of a triangular form. The ovary is surmounted by a club-shaped style, which turns to one side at the apex, bearing some resemblance to a leg and foot. The fruit is a dry, three-celled pod which opens to the base, exposing numerous yellow seeds.

This species is so liable to change by situation and circumstance, that its varieties have been raised into species by different botanists. According to Torrey and Gray's Flora of North America, the species sagittata now includes V. ovata of Nuttal, V. primulifolia of Pursh, and V. alleghaniensis of Ræm. and Schult., all given to the villous forms; and V. emarginata of Nuttal and V. dentata of Pursh, applied to a smoother variety with emarginate petals. It grows broadcast over all the United States.

Another equally common and variable species is the HoOD LEAVED VIOLET (V. cucullata Ait.) which is one of the first flowers to appear in moist places. The leaves are on long petioles rising from a thickened rootstock. They are broadly ovate, heart-shaped at base, with a deep sinus, and serrate with rounded teeth. The lobes are generally rolled loosely inwards at the base, closing the sinus and forming a sort of cup. They vary extremely in outline, and have thus given rise, like the preceding one, to several nominal species. V. papilionacea of Pursh V. obliqua of Ait., V. affinis and congener of Leconte, and V. sororia of Willd. are now considered identical with the cucullata of Ait. It is sometimes very villous, but generally quite sinooth. The leaves vary from an acute ovate to a broad reniform shape, with lobes sometimes meeting and at others widely diverging. The flower stems are from two inches to eight inches high, and generally longer than the leaves. The flowers vary from light to deep blue, and are occasionally white. The sepals are broadly lanceolate; the petals are

obovate and large, with a beard upon the lateral ones. The spur is short and

blunt.

It is oftenest found in moist situations, where it attains its greatest height, and is then smooth. The hairy forms appear in drier soils.

Nearly allied to the last, and appearing somewhat later in the year, is the PALMATE VIOLET (V. palmata L.) The whole plant is somewhat pubescent, though, in moist situations, it becomes smooth, in accordance with a very general law throughout the vegetable world. The young leaves, and even all of those which grow in dry soils, are nearly entire; but when fully developed they have long petioles, and are cut at the base into large, and diverging variously toothed lobes. The flowers resemble those of the cucullata.

A small and distinct species belonging to this group, called the GREAT SPURRED VIOLET (V. Selkirkii, Goldie) is found sparingly along our western border, and also in New York. The leaves are round, with a heart-shaped base and deep sinus. They are serrate with rounded teeth, on petioles an inch or two long, growing in little tufts. The flowers are smaller than those of the cucullata, but large in proportion to the size of the plant. They are of a pale blue color, on peduncles shorter than the leaves. The spur is quite prominent, equalling the petals in length, with a somewhat swollen apex. The antler spurs are also large in proportion.

The species is not sufficiently common to be familarly known.

But rarer still is the MARSH VIOLET (V. palustris L.) which is found only on the alpine regions of the White Mountains. Its slender and creeping rootstock is jointed, with a scaly border at each articulation. The leaves are reniform or heart-shaped, remotely and obtusely serrate, thin, and smooth. The flowers resemble those of the cucullata, except that they are smaller and of a pale lilac hue. The spur is short and blunt. This slender and delicate species is found on the mountains of our Pacific shore, and also in Great Britain and Europe.

Of all the different violets, perhaps no one is better known or more universally admired than the PEDATE OF BIRD'S-FOOT VIOLET (V. pedata L.) It springs up in great abundance in the month of May, tinging our fields and open woods with a brilliant blue. It is the largest and

most showy of all, sometimes covering the ground so thickly as to make it appear one vast bed of its bright flowers. The large rhizoma is abruptly truncated at the base, giving forth stout roots all around. The leaf-stalks have two long, linear, hairy stipules; the leaves are cut into from five to seven lanceolate segments, that are regularly divided into three main divisions, which are themselves deeply cut, except the central one, which is generally entire. The divisions are sometimes entire, and sometimes cut into laciniate teeth. The flowers rise above the leaves on peduncles from four to six inches long. The calyx lobes are long and acute. The petals are obovate, perfectly smooth, of a peculiarly bright metallic blue, and abruptly spreading within the calyx lobes, presenting a flatter surface than any other species. The spur is remarkably short. The points of the filaments which project beyond the anthers are of a rounded form and reddish brown color. They are prominent in the throat of the approximate petals, giving a dark eye to the centre of the flower. The large stigma is visible in the middle of these points.

The whole plant is quite smooth, except the stipules, the petals exhibiting none of the beard which most other species possess. It grows in abundance over the whole country, and is everywhere distinct. The color frequently varies from dark to light; bunches of almost white flowers being often seen amid the general blue. In the country west of the Mississippi, a kindred form (V. delphinifolia, Nutt.) seems to take its place. It has the same brilliancy of color, with leaves much more divided.

The species hitherto described are all stemless. The first was yellow, the rest blue and three more remain which are all white.

The commonest of these is the SPEAR LEAVED OF LANCE LEAVED VIOLET (V. lanceolata L.), which makes its appearance quite early in the soaking meadows and swampy places. The leaves are of an oval-lanceolate form, tapering into long petioles, with obscure, rounded teeth. The flowers are smaller than any of the preceding species, of a pure white color, except on the lower petal and sometimes the lateral ones, which are marked with dark lines. The spur is quite short and obtuse. The height is generally from two to four inches, and although it grows plentifully all over the

country, it is subject to less variety than any other species.

The PRIMROSE LEAVED VIOLET (V. primulafolia, L.) is not so common as the preceding, but it grows in similar situations. The leaves are more ovate and pointed, and the base is not so gradually attenuated towards the petiole. The flower stalks are somewhat longer than the leaves, bearing longer bracts than any other species. The petals are more acute than any others, and the lateral ones are smooth. The northern form is minutely described by Bigelow under the name of Vacuta. The species extends over the whole country, and in the South, where it attains its greatest size, it is remarkedly distinct from the lanceolata. The leaves there are decidedly cordate and two or three inches long. Bigelow called the northern form our smallest native violet; but in the South it reaches nearly a foot in height. As the leaves increase in length, the cordate lobes grow to the petiole in such a way as to form a winged margin, while the base of the leaves becomes truncate and almost wedge-shaped.

The third white violet is a small and delicate species, which is called, from its fragrance, the SWEET SCENTED WHITE VIOLET (V. blanda Willd). It grows in damp soils everywhere, resembling the lanceolata in its flowers, though not in its leaves. These are round, heartshaped, thin and of a delicate texture. The sinus is short and rounded, and the margins have obscurely serrate appressed teeth. The flowers, like those of all our white violets, are small in proportion to the size of the plant, which ranges from two to six inches high. The lower and lateral petals are strongly marked with violet lines and entirely smooth. Pursh made a new species, V. clandestina, of one of its forms which exhibits a peculiarity of all the acaulescent species. From the crown of the subterranean stem, little shoots spring forth late in the season, bearing flowers without petals, but otherwise perfect and fertile.

The other species have leafy and branching stems. They appear later in the year, but to complete our description of the genus we will detail their distinctive particularities.

The CANADA VIOLET (V. Canadensis L.) grows in shady woods, but is not common. The radical leaves are on petioles sometimes six inches long. The stems are either single or two to three together from the same root, bearing large, ovate,

acuminate, alternate leaves on long petioles. They are serrate with rounded teeth, larger than in any other species. The stipules vary from broad to narrow lanceolate. The flowers spring from the axils of the upper leaves on slender peduncles from one to three inches long. The petals are rounded, of a pale tint above, and violet beneath. The lateral ones are bearded and the spur is short. This is our largest species reaching sometimes the height of nearly two feet.

One of the most distinct species is the LONG SPURRED or BEAKED VIOLET (V. rostrata Pursh). It is distinguished at once by its remarkably long spur, which is sometimes twice the length of the petals. The general aspect is that of a sinall Canadensis, from which it differs in the spur and the fringed stipules, cut into slender, very narrow teeth at the base. The leaves are ovate, cordate, sometimes acuminate and bluntly toothed, on long petioles. The flowers are rather large, pale, and veined, with bluntly pointed petals without a beard. The spur is more than half an inch long, including the anther spurs, which are proportionately increased. The species is nowhere common, but it is found from Canada to Virginia, and westward to Ohio. It grows on moist, shady, rocky hill-sides.

The most abundant of the caulescent forms is the SPREADING VIOLET (V. Muhlenbergii, Torr.), which grows in moist, low woods. It sends out numerous stems from four to six inches long, which spread in every direction over the ground, sometimes resting on it and becoming geniculated. The leaves are small, round and heart-shaped; the lower ones have long petioles with their lobes curling inwards in the manner of the cucullata. The stipules are large and, like the last, cut into laciniate teeth. The flowers are of medium size, light blue, and marked with pale lines,

with a spur about half as long as the petals. According to Torrey and Gray, this is the V. debilis of Pursh and Bigelow, but not of Michaux.

There is another species, nearly related to this, which grows westward and southward, and has been in a few instances found in our borders, but it is not so common as to be familiar even to those who seek for our floral varieties. It is the PALE VIOLET (V. striata Ait). It is erect, with leaves pointed and very regularly serrate, with rounded teeth and large stipules, cut-toothed like the garden species. The flowers are on long peduncles, of a very light yellow color, with prominent veins. Some forms of it approach the Canadensis in habit.

The last species for us to describe is the YELLOW VIOLET (V. pubescens Ait). The stem is from six to twelve inches high, leafless below, giving out three or four broad, heart-shaped, acuminate, serrate leaves at the summit. A single, ovate, obtuse bract springs from the naked portion of the stem and, similar ones accompany each leaf. The lobes are sometimes cucullate. The flowers appear in the axils of the upper leaves on long peduncles with two small, subulate bracts in the middle. They are of medium size, yellow and elegantly striated, with a very short and slightly swollen spur. The whole plant is generally clothed with a soft pubescence, extending to the seed-vessel, which is covered with a woolly down. This is one of the handsomest species, frequenting the woodlands and extending over the whole country. There is a smoother and greener variety to which Schweinitz gave the name of scabriuscula.

The Violets are the type of the order to which they belong, VIOLACE. There are but two other genera in North America; Solea and Ionidium.

THE POETS.

YES, theirs be " blessings and eternal praise,"

The poets of all time! Yet not alone For the high song of old resounding tone, The solemn chant of earth's heroic days,

Or passion's pleading voice-the fiery lays,

Which make the world's heart one; glorious are these,

Yet are there sweeter, dearer melodies

Old homelike songs around the fireside blaze,

With a known music to the kindred soul

Tuned, and familiar utterance; clouds, that roll

Through the dark hour they pierce; the mood, that weighs

On the wrung heart, they lift, with sweet control,

And, deep beneath the burdened waste of years,

Unseal anew the fount of childhood's freshening tears.

"MY

THE DOUBLE VEIL.

Y dear sir," said a pale gentleman in a well-fitting black suit, touching my elbow and addressing me abruptly, as I stood looking over the taffrail of the Stonington steamer" My dear sir, never, on any account, buy food of old people, nor practice impositions on cats."

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"Why," I answered, laughing, "I don't intend to practice impositions either on cats or men; but I see no reason why edibles vended by an old person, should not be as savory and as properly salable as others."

"Especially if you are peddling," continued my new friend, with a smile— "especially if you are peddling. I'll tell you the reason, if you like, and I think it will please you; for there is really a good deal of truth in this advice of mine."

It is a good plan to tolerate all manner of queer self-introductions. I have gathered many singular stories, and much useful information and new truth, from fellow-travellers of easy manners and a cacoëthes loquendi. So I answered that I should be extremely happy to listen to the account which my friend seemed prepared to furnish, whereupon he proceeded to narrate the following:

"While I was engaged in the peddling business, ten or fifteen years ago, in the rough country including those portions of Virginia. Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina, which are nearest each other, I was in the habit of putting up at a solitary frame house, on the mountains in East Tennessee. It was inhabited by two poor creatures, a man and his wife; old, decrepit, and scarcely able to crawl. They had a small garden, and an enormous tom-cat; in both of which they took very great pride. They raised a little corn, and a few vegetables; but for other housekeeping comforts and necessaries, they depended upon chance passengers; peddlers, emigrants, hunters, &c. The house was full twenty miles from any other on the road, either way, and the route was extremely rough. How these two feeble old mortals should ever have settled there, or how they should dare to stay so long, I'm sure I can't imagine. Their nearest neighbors used to tell queer stories about the old place, as if it had formerly been the haunt of horse-thieves, negro-stealers, counterfeiters, and that riff-raff of miscel

laneous miscreants that gathers now and then in the West and South; and as if the old man and his old wife had been implicated in many dark deeds, and lived there, by a retributive imprisonment, in the place of their ancient crimes. But of all this, I never saw any indications. I repeatedly passed the night there in safety, even when having property and money to a considerable amount with me. The old folks, to be sure, were 'as cross as two sticks;' but they served me as well as they could. Besides, I was pretty well used to serve myself; and it was one good sign, that they evidently loved their enormous old tom-cat as if it had been an only child. There was only one thing about them which positively displeased me, and that was their terrible avarice. I always paid them well, for they were poor, and needed the money. And the grin and clutch with which they seized the cash, and the gloating delight which they felt, seemingly, even in handling the coins, were ugly and hateful to see.

These

"Well, I always used to put up there, because it was almost necessarily my stopping-place, in getting across one of the twisted combinations of mountain ranges that shut off the western part of North Carolina from Tennessee. visits occurred at irregular intervals during several years, while I was on my circuit in that section of country. I could see that the old couple grew weaker and weaker, and their horrid avarice stronger and stronger. They even used to give way, latterly, to unpleasant demonstrations of maudlin affection at my coming, apparently for no other reason than that they expected handsome payment for my board and lodgings. And the great old cat, though coy at first, ultimately took up a cattish and freaky liking to me; rubbing himself against my boot, purring and looking up and winking slowly at me with his big, green eyes, and even scrambling up into my lap to go to sleep, and lying and kneading and digging his sharp claws into me, as a token of amity, after the fashion of amicable cats.

"I had stopped there one night, towards the end of the summer; and after partaking of an unusually meagre supper and breakfast, departed, leaving the poor old man and his wife mumbling and grinning to each other over a dollar

or two which I gave them, as much in charity as in payment.

"I mused much, as I went, upon the unaccountable change in the behavior of the old cat. He had forgotten all his feline blandishments, and of my caresses and attentions he would none; spitting and swelling up in a inanuer very ugly to behold, developing his great yellow tail into a cylindrical brush almost as large as his body, arching his back and striking spitefully at me with his claws out at full length, whenever I tried to be friendly. The old woman scolded, and the old man swore; until finally he threw a couple of old boots and a broom at Tom, who evacuated the kitchen, went out and perched on the woodpile, and commenced a horrid and persistent grand solo cat's-concert, calculated to dismay the boldest heart. He wauled and miauled all the evening. He carried on imaginary conflicts with intrusive rivals, and amorous cooings-if one may imagine a tom-cat to coo-with lady-lovers; and be kept me awake nearly all night, in spite of the expenditure of all the missiles I could muster in my crack-lit attic bed

room.

"Nor was he improved in the morning. His unmelodious notes seemed to have been aggravated by his serenadingsinging in the night, you know, is very trying to the voice--and I fancy he must have caught a cold in the head, from sitting undressed on a damp log: for his eyes were considerably inflamed, and were now horribly red and fiery, and his vile crowing and screeching was as hoarse and harsh as a sick Shanghai's. All the time that I was eating my scanty breakfast and harnessing my horse, he sat on his log, kneading and clawing, flirting his abominable tail, and cursing end swearing at me after his cattish sort, with an expression of face perfectly diabolical.

He

"Upon all these savage demonstrations I meditated a good deal; but at last concluded that they must be charged to the changeable character of the beast. had first liked me, and then hated me without any particular reason; for I had made no advances towards him, either friendly or hostile. I however considered that I might lightly endure the enmity of a yellow tom-cat, even of the largest dimensions, and so dismissed the matter from my mind.

"A few weeks afterwards, while I was in Nashville, and had nearly sold out my stock, I received a letter from a firm in

Charleston with whom I had transacted some business, requesting me to come immediately thither, and make arrangements to undertake an agency further south, in their employment. I made preparations to start next inorning, for their terms were liberal, and at that time I cared little what or where was my occupation, if only I could rove enough. A day's notice would have sufficed me for a voyage around the world.

"As I lay in bed next morning waiting for the breakfast bell, the recollection of old Mr. and Mrs. Graves, and their enormous and fickle pussy came into my mind. The strange behavior of that respectable quadruped had served to impress the occurrences of my last visit deeply on my memory; and by spontaneous mental operation, I now remembered a circumstance which had before escaped me. During my last breakfast at the mountain tavern, the old lady remarked to her husband, as I finished the fag end of a lean scrap of bacon, and a crust of corn bread, that she didn't know what on earth they should do for dinner, unless they should kill Tom; for there wasn't another mouthful of anything on the place. Now, thought I to myself, what could the miserable old creatures do if they should actually get out of provisions? For they could not possibly travel to any other house, in either direction. They had told me that once or twice already they had been reduced to great straits by the non-arrival of any passengers, at times when their own stores had failed. But there was the garden? Yes; but as it happened, there was also nothing in it; for an unprecedentedly long and late drought had that season destroyed nearly all the summer crops, and even many of the forest trees, in the drier parts of that high, moantainous region. And their Western improvidence would prevent them from actual preparation for an emergency of the kind I was contemplating, since they had done well enough so far.' Now, I continued, could that frightful yellow cat have foreseen, by some inscrutable animal intuition, such as dogs and horses have often been supposed to possess, that a famine was impending over the household, and that I was consuming the last portion of food, and leaving only useless, inedible specie in return? And was it that foreboding which made him so savage and persistent in his wrath and his vociferations? very soon, however, got rid of these

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