Rhodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 9. ; June, 1907. No. 102. 
THE OLDER TYPES OF NORTH AMERICAN VIOLETS.— I. 
E. BRAINERD. 
AN earnest effort has been made to ascertain what specific types 
were before the older students of Viola when they published their 
American species. The task is indeed a difficult one, as the type 
specimen is usually not extant, and the description often brief and 
inadequate. In some instances it would seem that the problem must 
be abandoned as insoluble. But as we get a clearer knowledge of 
our plants in the field, and learn to distinguish specific differences 
from fluctuating variability, we may hope also to make progress in 
identifying the older specific names. Fortunately, absolute proof 
is not necessary; if we can get nothing better, we may be content 
with a reasonable degree of probability. 
V. oBLIQUA Hill (Hortus Kew. 1769.) In the judgment of many 
students of the genus, this, the oldest name for one of our cordate- 
leaved violets, though published with a figure, is hopelessly vague. 
A species so ill-defined that Pursh could think that V. blanda was 
intended, Schweinitz that it stood for V. cucullata, and LeConte that 
it might be V. rotundifolia, — not to speak of its recent interpretation 
as V. papilionacea and V. affinis,— must surely be discarded as past 
recognition. 
The status of the three allied species, V. cucULLATA, V. PAPILIONA- 
CEA and V. AFFINIS, is much alike, and they may be best discussed 
together. It is now less than a decade since Prof. Greene put forth 
his interpretation of these old species, which for over sixty years had 
been merged into one. We could wish that the proof were more 
positive as to what Aiton, Pursh, and LeConte had before, them, 
when giving these several names; but recent students of Viola seem 
