The boy who
"Drives home the cows from the pasture
Up through the long shady lane"
knows how reluctantly they leave the feast afforded by the wild
peanut. Hogs, rooting about in the moist soil where it grows,
unearth the hairy pods that should produce next year's vines;
hence the poor excuse for branding a charming plant with a
repellent folk-name,
VIOLETS
(Viola) Violet family
Lacking perfume only to be a perfectly satisfying flower, the
COMMON, PURPLE, MEADOW, or HOODED BLUE VIOLET (V. obliqua; V.
cucullata of Gray) has nevertheless established itself in the
hearts of the people from the Arctic to the Gulf as no
sweet-scented, showy, hothouse exotic has ever done. Royal in
color as in lavish profusion, it blossoms everywhere - in woods,
waysides, meadows, and marshes, but always in finer form in cool,
shady dells; with longer flowering scapes in meadow bogs; and
with longer leaves than wide in swampy woodlands. The
heart-shaped, saw-edged leaves, folded toward the center when
newly put forth, and the five-petalled, bluish-purple,
golden-hearted blossom are too familiar for more detailed
description.
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