1904] Brainerd, — Notes on New England Violets 17 



Vermont it is frequently found in partial shade on gravelly hillsides. 

 It especially affects the company of young conifers, and thrives in 

 the open groves of arbor-vitae that abound on the rocky shores of 

 Lake Champlain. 



9. V.Jimbriatula, ]. E. Smith, has been separated of late years by 

 general consent from V. sagittata, and is too well known to call for 

 special comment. 



10. V. sagithita, Ait., has not been found in Vermont or in the 

 Berkshire Hills. In New England it seems to be for the most part 

 restricted to the neighborhood of the coast. 



Some may query whether these closely allied species are ever 

 found to hybridize under natural conditions. It often happens that 

 colonies of two species are growing intermixed, and it would not be 

 strange if occasionally a crossing should be effected in the petalifer- 

 ous flowers through the agency of insects. I am aware that evidence 

 of such crossing should be weighed with great caution and verified in 

 all possible ways ; but an important phase of this report would be 

 omitted if I failed to state that in three instances I have found plants 

 that had every appearance of being hybrids. One of these that 1 

 have watched for two seasons, is in flower, fruit and foliage a 

 striking intermediate between V. fimbriatula and V. sororia ; the 

 second is an intermediate between V. cucullata and V. venustula ; 

 and the third, an intermediate between V. septentrionalis and V. 

 venustula. In all instances the supposed parents were near at hand 

 and numerous, Mr. Pollard, who has seen flowering specimens of 

 the first mentioned hybrid, was inclined to regard it rather as a new 

 species ; and so it may be — possibly. But I fancy that more than 

 one of the many new species recently proposed, based on plants 

 from a single station, seen only in petaliferous flower, may prove on 

 more extended observation to be hybrids. This interbreeding may, 

 indeed, be more extensive than we have supposed, and be one of the 

 causes of the perplexity that has attended the study of these inter- 

 esting plants. 



MiDDLEBURY COLLEGE, Middlebury, Vermont. 



