1904] Brainerd, — Hybridism in the Genus Viola 221 



minutely ciliate and slightly pubescent leaves ; the cleistogamous 

 flower is nearly as long and slender as in V. cucuUata^ but with 

 slightly hispidulous auricles, somewhat as in V. septeniriofialis. 



Dr. James Fletcher, the botanist of the Dominion Experimental 

 Farm at Ottawa, who has given much expert study to the violets of 

 Canada, showed me when I visited him last September, a potted 

 plant of this hybrid that came from St. Stephen, New Brunswick. A 

 fine photograph taken last May shows over thirty large flowers on 

 slightly hairy peduncles but little taller than the leaves, and confirms 

 Dr. Fletcher's statement that it is one of the most beautiful of our 

 violets. Mr. Watson and Mr. Fernald have both spoken in similar 

 praise of their respective finds. It is a promising plant that merits 

 the attention of the florist. 



6. V. SORORIA X SEPTENTRiONALis. I havc not as yet succeeded 

 in finding this hybrid in more than one station. This was in a thicket 

 on a narrow terrace of fine silt bordering the river above Middlebury. 

 The plants were growing with a large colony of nearly glabrous V. 

 sororia, a form that might pass as V. papilionacea. A few rods 

 farther up the stream was to be seen V. septctitrionahs. The hybrid 

 is distinguished from the plants with which it grew by the narrower 

 leaves, finer pubescence, somewhat spreading auricles of the sepals, 

 and the uniformly stunted and often distorted capsules containing 

 mostly aborted ovules. The plants have not been seen in flower, 

 and require further study. 



7. V.AFFiNis X SORORIA. This has turned up in two stations, fifty 

 miles apart. The first was on a narrow w^ooded island of four or five 

 acres, in northern Lake Champlain. On the north end of the island 

 is a large lagoon of stagnant water made by the joining of two sand- 

 bars driven northward by wave-action from the two sides of the 

 island. In the moist leaf mould on the borders of this pool are to be 

 seen luxuriant specimens of V. affinis, some plants in May bearing 

 each as many as forty petaliferous flowers. A little farther back in 

 drier and more shaded spots are colonies of V. sororia ; and these 

 are the only two species of blue stemless violets to be seen on the 

 island. Not far from them I discovered, Aug. 6, 1903, a colony of 

 plants intermediate in foliage and pubescence. At the time I did 

 not suspect its relationship with the other forms ; I fancied when I 

 noticed its scanty pubescence, that I might have found the long 

 sought for V. papilionacea, and destroyed most of the plants in a 



