1905]  Brainerd, — Notes on New England Violets, — II 5 
The type of V. nephrophylla consists of fourteen plants collected 
two months later, August 29. They display numerous cleistogamous 
capsules in various stages of growth, the mature ones being oblong, 
green, 6-8 mm. long, bearing oblong obtuse sepals half the length of 
the capsule. Several of the plants also bear on peduncles (2-4 cm. 
long) reduced petaliferous flowers, which cannot be regarded as a 
remnant of the vernal crop, but as an occasional autumnal develop- 
ment, not rarely observed in other species of violets. Indeed, Dr. 
Fletcher and myself found two such flowers with half-developed petals 
at the type station of V. vagula, September 3d. The leaves of V. 
nephrophylla are broadly cordate, obtuse or with a short blunt apex, 
obscurely crenate, glabrous (save a few minute stiff hairs on the 
upper surface of some of the basal lobes), 2-5 cm. wide, except that 
in one large plant the width of 6.8 cm. is attained. In all these par- 
ticulars the eastern plants under discussion in their autumnal stage 
are an excellent match for V. nephrophylla. In spite of a marked 
difference in aspect of these two western types, I am forced to regard 
them as representing only one species, collected first in its vernal state, 
and afterward in its late summer development. 
It should not surprise us to find a northern species of Viola 
extending through such a wide range of longitude. There are a 
hundred or more boreal species occurring in the northern Rocky 
Mountains, and also in northern New England or in eastern Canada ; 
and fresh researches are yearly adding to the list) Among these 
additions it is interesting to find this distinct violet, of which I ven- 
ture to set forth the following description : 
VIOLA NEPHROPHYLLA, Greene. Glabrous, but under a lense often 
disclosing minute stiff white hairs on the upper surface of «estival 
leaves, and occasionally on petioles and veins beneath; earliest 
leaves orbicular or slightly reniform, later leaves cordate-deltoid or 
broadly cordate, obtuse, obscurely crenate-serrate, 3-6 cm. wide; 
flowers violet, on peduncles exceeding the leaves, spurred petals 
‘As illustrating the points of identity in these two floras, I would cite on 
Mr. Fernald's authority: Anemone parviflora, A. multifida, Thalictrum alpinum, 
Ranunculus Macounti, R. Purshii, Astragalus elegans, A. Srigidus, var. Ameri- 
canus, Dryas Drummondii, Parnassia parviflora, Epilobium latifolium, Lonicera 
involucrata, as characteristic plants of the river-valleys where V. nephrophylla 
abounds in Eastern Quebec. In one section alone of Carex (Hyparrhenae) I 
count twenty-one species common to the two regions in which V. nephrophylla 
is found. 
