Violets of the Atlantic Coast. 87 



Passing over for the present the consideration of the Linnsean 

 species, Viola pedata, which differs in root-structure from the other 

 members of the group, we shall find that V. palmata, also de 

 scribed by Linnaeus, may be fairly regarded as the type of its 

 class, since it is the aggregate from which most of the remaining 

 species have been separated. With sagittata and possibly dentata, 

 V. palmata constitutes what we may call the heterophyllous type 

 of stemless violets, or those in which the earliest leaves differ in 

 shape from the later appearing ones. In palmata only the first 

 two or three leaves, which are cordate in outline and rather 

 small, are entire, the remainder being usually lobed to a greater 

 or less extent. In the majority of forms there are three main 

 divisions, of which the central one is the largest, the lateral lobes 

 being occasionally cut-toothed or still more deeply divided. The 

 general contour of the leaf is ovate or oblong, the length some 

 what exceeding the breadth, the base never cucullate or inrolled 

 as in obliqua, our common round-leaved violet. With a view to 

 ascertaining how closely these two species might approach each 

 other in leaf-forms, I set out several specimens in close proxim 

 ity one fall. The following summer the leaves of palmata were 

 scarcely at all lobed, but they preserved their characteristic 

 outline, and were quite clearly distinguishable from the allied 

 species. Similar observations have been made by others who 

 have had the plants under cultivation. But this is not the only 

 distinguishing character of V. palmata; it grows almost invari 

 ably in rich, snaded woodlands, and, as Schweinitz has observed,* 

 never occurs in swamps or bogs, where obliqua is most common. 

 Dr. Gray once reduced palmata to varietal rank in the fifth edi 

 tion of the Manual,t but he afterward restored it to its former 

 place, a conclusion in which every other botanist of the century 

 has concurred. The species of Muhlenberg and Schweinitz here 

 referred to palmata are merely forms exhibiting slightly unusual 

 degrees of lobation. Le Conte's V. septemloba, however, belongs 

 to a different category. It is apparently confined to brackish 

 meadows along the coast from Staten Island to the Gulf States, 

 and I had always considered it a good illustration of varietal dif 

 ferences induced by local influences, but on a recent excursion 

 with Dr. Britton to the home of the plant I became thoroughly 

 convinced as to its specific validity. The leaves are quite gla- 



*Ain. Journ. Sci., 5, 54, 1822. f Gray, Man. Ed., 5, 78, 1867. 



JCoult., Bot. Gaz., 11, 254, 1886. 



