Viola imberbis Leighton. 385 



if it were certainly a permanent character, which I doubt : 

 for my Altai specimens of V. hirta have their petals perfectly 

 beardless ; and V. collina has them in a state so intermediate 

 between bearded and beardless, that one can scarcely say 

 whether they are the one or the other. V. suavis, being an 

 adopted name, will take precedence of Mr. Leighton's V. 

 imberbis ; which has, moreover, been already applied to a 

 different species. — John Lindley {Professor of Botany in the 

 London University. Received June 4. 1835.] 



V. suavis Bieb. has been figured, and described detailedly, 

 in Sweet's British Flower- Garden, second series, t. 126.; 

 which t. 126. occurs in No. 32.; and No. 32. is dated Jan. 1. 

 1832. In G. Don's General System of Gardening and. Botany, 

 in vol. i., diagnostics of V. suavis Bieb. ; V. epipsila Lede- 

 bour, in Link's Enumeratio ; and V. imberbis Ledebour, in 

 Flora Altaica; and of 167 other species of Fiola, and of 

 some varieties besides, are presented. On V. suavis Bieb. 

 some particulars are quoted in Gard. Mag., viii. 16, 17., 

 from Sweet's British Flower-Garden. Mr. Leighton may 

 prefer to this reference to descriptions of V. suavis Bieb. 

 reference to living illustrations of it in a plant or plants of it, 

 of exotic origin, alive in Britain. Should he, the following 

 notices may avail him : — It is stated, in Sweet's Brit. Flow.- 

 Gard., in the account of V. suavis Bieb., that " our drawing 

 of this interesting addition to our sweet violets was taken, at 

 the Chelsea Botanic Garden, last spring. Its flowers are 

 very fragrant, and produced in great profusion ; and the 

 plant is readily increased by parting the roots, or by seeds. 

 We observed what we considered the same species in the 

 nursery of Messrs. Allen and Rogers [Chelsea and Battersea]." 

 V. suavis Bieb. was living in the botanic garden at Bury St. 

 Edmunds, in Nov. 1829 ; where it had been raised from seed, 

 doubtless exotic, received from Mr. J. Hunneman, 9. Queen 

 Street, Soho, London, in 1825. In relation to the degree of 

 affinity which may obtain between V. suavis Bieb. and V. 

 odorata L., I may remark, from my recollection of the aspect 

 of both as I have seen them living in the last-named garden, 

 that they seemed sufficiently dissimilar to be specifically dis- 

 tinct. This summary of the points in which V. suavis Bieb. 

 differs from V. odorata L. is given in the account of V. suavis 

 Bieb. in Sweet's Brit. Flow.-Gard. " Distinguished from V. 

 odorata by its paler green herbage, and by its larger and 

 paler flowers, with the four upper petals longer and narrower, 

 and the lowermost broader and more distinctly emarginate. 

 The stipules are also narrower." The petals are there de- 

 scribed to have " the upper part pale blue, the lower white." 



