1903] Robinson,— Viola arvensis in New England 155 
unknown in A. rifarda and its immediate allies, is not unprecedented 
in the subgenus Æuanemone. Our common Wood Anemone, 4. 
guinguefolia, varies from white to crimson-tinged, and the northern 
A. multifida, ordinarily with red flowers, is not rare with white or 
even greenish sepals. 
It is interesting in this connection to note that Mr. Richards col- 
lected on Grand River flowers of Anemone multifida having as many 
as fourteen sepals. — M. L. FERNALD. 
VIOLA ARVENSIS IN NEW ENGLAND. 
B. L. ROBINSON. 
THE success with which the little pale-flowered pansy of the 
Alleghany region has been shown to be a distinct American species 
instead of the V. arvensis, Murr. (or as many authors prefer V. tri- 
color, var. arvensis) of the Old World has led students of our violets 
to the over hasty conclusion that all our violets of this type from 
Maine to Georgia are of the same endemic species and are to be 
classed as V. Rafinesguii, Greene (V. tenella, Muhl., not Poir.). Itis, 
however, a fact familiar to many New England observers that the little 
yellowish white flowered pansy, locally abundant from southern New 
England to Newfoundland, instead of appearing endemic, has the 
habits of an introduced’ plant. It is seldom if ever found far from 
dwellings and is chiefly seen in old fields, about dumping places, 
etc., almost always in soil which has been artificially loosened. 
Some months ago Dr. E. H. Eames called my attention to the fact 
that this violet of New England of which he had observed specimens 
near Bridgeport, Connecticut, was not the plant of the South and 
West, now classed as V. ARafinesquit. A careful examination of mate- 
rial sent by Dr. Eames and specimens from other sources fully con- 
firms his view. 
V. Rafinesquii is a slender delicate plant with peculiar many-parted 
and palmately cleft stipules of roundish contour. The petals are of 
a pale blue or lavender tinge shading at the base into yellow, and they 
are nearly or quite twice as long as the very short sepals. This spe- 
cies is frequent from Eastern New York to Kansas and southward. 
