Mr. C. C. Babington on a new British Viola. 13 



Fries and of Grenier, to distinguish the several species which, 

 being apparently rare in Britain, may have been confounded 

 under the name of V. lactea (Sm.) ; and more especially disco- 

 vered the necessity of separating those of them which possess 

 rhizomes from the non-rhizomatous species. Or possibly it would 

 be more correct to say, that we did not know of the existence of 

 any of the former as native plants. It is curious to observe that 

 Fries (Summa Veg. Scand. p. 34) stated in the year 1846 as a 

 well-ascertained fact, that the whole of his group of " Pratenses 

 in Anglia desunt." At that recent date the remark was justly 

 made, for not one species of this well-marked section of Violets 

 had then been recorded from any British locality. In the third 

 edition of my ^ Manual ' and also in the ' Botanical Gazette ' 

 (ii. 144 and 178), I have introduced V. stagnina as our only 

 native representative of the group, but it had previously been 

 noticed by Mr. H. C. Watson in his valuable ' Cybele Britannica ' 

 (iii. 179). The following is the species now to be added to that 

 group : — 



Viola stricta (Hornem.) ; anther-spur short broadly lancet-shaped 

 blunt (about twice as long as broad), corolla-spur short blunt 

 (green), leaves cordate-ovate, petioles winged at the top, sti- 

 pules ob long -[anceolate leaflike incise-serrate (^-) shorter than 

 the petioles " on the middle of the stem," primary and lateral 

 stems flowering and elongated. 



V. stricta var. humilis, Ftnes Mant. iii. 124. 



V. stricta, Gren. et Godr. Fl. Fran. i. 180. 



V. Ruppii, Reichenb. Icon. Fl. Germ. iii. t. 14. fig. min. 



The habit is apparently very much like that of V. stagnina. 

 Stems erect, in the rather young specimens before me they are 

 3 or 4 inches in height, slender, glabrous. Leaves shorter and 

 broader than those of V. stagnina, and cordate at their base. 

 Stipules, when well developed, large and broad, oblong or ob- 

 long-lanceolate, all (on our specimens) about half as long as the 

 petioles, as they are stated to be upon the middle of the stem on 

 the continental more fully grown plants, on the upper part of 

 which they are described as being longer than the petioles. It 

 is highly probable that if our specimens had been allowed to ad- 

 vance beyond the commencement of the flowering state in which 

 they were gathered, they would have produced longer stipules 

 and shorter petioles than those which they now exhibit, and so 

 have quite agreed with the character given in foreign books. 

 The flowers are stated by Fries to be " coerulescentibus," by 

 Grenier '^ blue violet ;" on the dried specimens they are cream- 

 coloured, but had a slight tinge of blue when fresh ; this difl*er- 



