leaves, at least, are covered with hairs, and whose purplish-blue
flowers are more or less bearded within, prefers a shady but dry
situation; whereas its next of kin, the ARROW-LEAVED VIOLET (V.
sagittata), delights in moist but open meadows and marshes. The
latter's long, arrow, or halberd-shaped leaves, usually entire
above the middle, but slightly lobed below it, may rear
themselves nine inches high in favorable soil, or in dry uplands
perhaps only two inches. The flowering scapes grow as tall as the
leaves. All but the lower petal of the large, deep, dark,
purplish-blue flower are bearded. This species produces an
abundance of late cleistogamous flowers on erect stems. These
peculiar greenish flowers without petals, that are so often
mistaken for buds or seed vessels; that never open, but without
insect aid ripen quantities of fertile seed, are usually borne,
if not actually under ground, then not far above it, on nearly
all violet plants. It will be observed that all species which
bear blind flowers rely somewhat on showy, cross-fertilized
blossoms also to counteract degeneracy from close inbreeding.

The OVATE-LEAVED VIOLET (V. ovata), formerly reckoned as a mere
variety of the former species, is now accorded a distinct rank.
Not all the blossoms, but an occasional clump, has a faint
perfume like sweet clover. The leaf is elongated, but rather too
round to be halberd-shaped; the stems are hairy; and the flowers,
which closely resemble those of the arrow-leaved violet, are
earlier; making these two species, which are popularly mistaken
for one, among the earliest and commonest of their clan. The dry
soil of upland woods and thickets is the ovate-leaved violet's
preferred habitat.