This section is from the book "A Guide To The Wild Flowers", by Alice Lounsberry. Also available from Amazon: A Guide to the Wild Flowers.
(Plate CXXXV.)
Violet.
White; the lower petals veined with purple.
Delicately fragrant.
Northward from the Alleghanies.
May.
Flowers: small; terminal; solitary; growing on a scape. Calyx: five-eared at the base. Corolla: of five unequal beardless petals, one being spurred at the base. Stamens: five; short; united about the pistil. Pistil: one; short. Leaves: from the root on petioles; reniform. Stem: erect; not leafy.
OK, dearest, sweetest little thing, What message do you bring To us from other lands than ours And other worlds of flowers ? We bend our ears to listen, dear, Our hearts grow mute with fear Lest such a dainty, fairy sprite Should vanish from our sight.
It must be a cold heart that does not love the sweet white violet. In its turn it loves the mossy, moist places that shield it so carefully and from where it sends out its faint perfume.
This white violet has larger flowers than the preceding species; and the lance-shaped leaves that taper into long petioles are the mark by which it can be distinguished. The two are often found growing together; and belong to the class of so-called stemless violets. These have no true stems; but bear their leaves from the root-stock, and the flowers upon scapes. In the late season, near the root may be found cleistogamous blossoms, closed buds that never open, but are within themselves self-fertilized.
 
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