Home › Contents › Downy Yellow Violet

Downy Yellow Violet

Viola pubescens. Violet Family.

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 "blue-bird's warble" has been heard for some time when these pretty flowers begin to dot the woods. The lines which run: "Yet slight thy form, and low thy seat, And earthward bent thy gentle eye, Unapt the passing view to meet, When loftier flowers are flaunting night," would seem to apply more correctly to the round-leaved V. rotundifolia, (I find the round-leaved violet blossoming so early in the year as to make it seem probable that this species is the subject of Bryant's poem.) than to the downy violet, for although its large, flat shining leaves are somewhat conspicuous, its flowers are borne singly on a low scape, which would be less apt to attract notice than the tall, leafy flowering stems of the other.