94 Class V. Order I. 



two feet ; stems succulent, smooth ; leaves ovate, toothed. 

 Annual. 



101. VIOLA.* 



VIOLA LANCEOLATA. L. Spear leaved yiolet. 



Stemless ; root creeping ; leaves lanceolate, flow- 

 ers white. 



Root creeping and fibrous. Leaves lanceolate, varying in 

 width, smooth, crenate, somewhat obtuse. Petioles semicylin- 

 dric, variable in length. Scape tetragonous with two acute 

 bractes near the middle. Calyx mostly acute. Petals white, 

 greenish at base, the lower and sometimes the two lateral ones 

 striate with purple, the two lateral ones bearded or smooth. 

 Common in wet meadows. May. Perennial. 



VIOLA BLANDA. Willd. Sweet scented white Violet. 



Stemless ; root creeping ; leaves heart shaped and 

 ovate, smooth ; flowers white. 



Root fibrous and in the older plants creeping ; leaves smooth 

 and crenate, sometimes broad heart shaped with a deep sinus, at 

 others ovate with the base truncate or acute. Petioles semicy- 

 liudrical. Scape and bractes as in the preceding species. The 

 flowers exactly resemble those of the former species, both being 



* The great attention which this genus has received from botanists, espe- 

 cially in this country, may be attributed to the ear!y and almost simultaneous 

 period when most of its species are in flower, and when there is less to at- 

 tract botanical notice than at other seasons. Most of the species are 

 changeable and polymorphous, and the attention which has been paid them 

 lias resulted in a multiplication of names, considerably exceeding the real 

 species. Unfortunately the characters used by botanists to distinguish the 

 species, are most of them more liable to variation, than in other plants. 

 For example, the width of the leaves and the form of their base are often 

 liable to vary ; the cucullation, or roiling in, is a character common to 

 most of the genus; the pubescence depends greatly upon soil ; the bearding 

 of the petals is uncertain ; the comparative length of the stalks is fallacious, 

 being influenced by situation and earliness of flowering, so that the same 

 violet growing in the water shall have a petiole twice as long as the leaf, 

 while in drier ground it shall be shorter than the leaf; the scapes also being 

 longer or shorter than the leaves, as they appear early or late. On these 

 accounts much care is requisite in admitting, as distinct species, those which 

 are not sufficiently constant, independently of accidental influences, to be 

 entitled to a distinctive character. 



