22 2 Rhodora [November 



vain effort to get good fruit. The capsules all seemed but half- 

 grown ; though as it afterward appeared many of them contained 

 ripe seed. Subsequent study of the plants preserved leaves no 

 doubt in my mind that they are the result of a cross between the 

 two associated species. 



The other station for this hybrid is in my own dooryard. For 

 many years I had admired a large patch of blue violets growing in 

 moist loam under a large appletree. The plants were cespitose and 

 numerous, and flowered profusely in May, presenting almost a con- 

 tinuous sheet of blue. Until recently they have been to me a great 

 puzzle ; 1 could not satisfactorily place them with any of the common 

 species of the region. I concluded finally "it must be" K papili- 

 ofiacea, an opinion that both Mr. Pollard and Dr. Robinson were 

 disposed to confirm. But the leaves were too small and too pointed, 

 the sepals too attenuate, the capsules too small and purple, when I 

 compared them with specimens of V. papilionacea from the Middle 

 States. Further investigation the past season solves the problem. I 

 find (i) several plants that are undoubtedly V. sororia, bearing pale- 

 bbfie flowers, large broad pubescent leaves, large oblong capsules 

 with ovale lanceolate sepals and abundant seeds; (2) more numerous 

 specimens of genuine V. ajfitiis, bearing smaller acuminate perfectly 

 glabrous leaves, violet-blue flowers, small, short oblong capsules with 

 lanceolate sepals and abundant seeds ; (3) still more numerous 

 plants, bearing leaves intermediate in outline, size and pubescence, 

 and capsules that are small often one-sided and relatively infertile. 

 The average number of seeds in ten capsules (all that were mature 

 on one plant), was six and two tenths. 



8. V. SORORIA X cucuLLATA. On May 20, 1903, in Cheshire, 

 Mass., (alt. 1200 ft.), I found a large clump of a strange violet, 

 bearing numerous large blue flowers, growing in moist rich soil 

 under a wild appletree along the roadside. The plant was nearly 

 glabrous, the peduncles somewhat longer than the leaves, the sepals 

 lanceolate. I was at a loss whether to call it V. cucullata or V. 

 sororia; and hoping to remove the perplexity by getting mature 

 fruit, I revisited the station the following August. Kut in this I 

 was for the time being disappointed; for the capsules, though 

 numerous, were all small, imperfect and few-seeded. The long 

 auricles and erect peduncles pointed to V. cucullata^ while the 

 pubescence of the petioles, more manifest than in May, pointed to 



