from the dried plant in Clayton’s Herbarium, ftill preferved in 
Sir Josern Banxs’s Mufeum; from him it has been adopted 
by Linnads and fubfequent authors; whofe details however 
afford but little affiftance in difcriminating it from the prefent 
fpecies. But a reference to the prototype in the above herba- 
rium, fhewed us that verva was either a mere variety of criflata 
(No. 412.) with narrower leaves and {maller flower; or if 
{pecifically diftin€t far nearer akin to that than the prefent 
{pecies, from which it differs by a feffile flower having a long 
filiform tube equal to or longer than the limb and about even 
with. its long narrow fpathe. Since the firft adoption by authors 
of verna into their fyftems, the figure from Pruxener’s work 
has been uniformly repeated by them as its fynonym ; now this 
figure any atientive obferver will foon find to belong to criflatas 
of which itis a diminifhed but very charaéteriftic reprefentation; 
where the circular ramenta of its creeping rootftock and long 
intervals between the fafcicles, as well as the cuneately oblong 
lamine, and their divaricately patent ungues of the outer 
fegments of the corolla are accurately defined. The omiffion 
of all mention of the three fingular crefted lines in the corolla 
of criflata (fubfequently taken up as a fpecies from ‘the 
living plant in the firft edition of Hortus Kewenfis), when we 
know that vera was defcribed from a dried f{pecimen in which 
they are obliterated or nearly fo, makes nothing againit our 
fuppofition of the identity of the two plants. We have feen 
crifata with leaves full as narrow as thofe of the plant in CLay- 
ton’s Herbarium. Mricuaux enumerates both as diftiné 
{pecics; but his defcription of verna, like thofe of his prede- 
ceffors, is rendered ufelefs by its vaguenefs. If we could fup- 
pofe that there was no miftake in Mr. Wurtiey’s account of 
the quarter from which the feeds of the prefent plant had been 
received, we might from the habitat guefs that Micaaux’s 
verna was meant for our plant. But we believe that there is 
an error in this account; and that ruthenica is of Ruffian origin 
alone and not of both Ruffian and Virginian, But of this we 
do not pretend to be pofitive; although we are fo that it 1s 
not the verva of Gronovius, Linnaus, or Mititer. In 
Hortus Kewenfis the cultivation of verna in our gardens was 
moft probably recorded folely on the authority of MirveR, as 
was that of fo many other plants in that work; and this is the 
more probable fince there is no fpecimen of it from thofe 
- gardens to be found im the Bankfian Herbarium. ‘To this 
circumftance we ftrongly fufpe€& we owe the formation of 
criftata and verna into diftin& {pecies. Ruthenica thrives well 
in the open border, where it flowers in April and ace the 
corolla has the fcent as well as colour of the violet; for further 
account fee No. 1123. G. 
