232 The Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. XI, No. 2, 



VIOLA HIRSUTULA IN OHIO. 



Robert F. Griggs. 



Every spring for several years past the writer has observed a 

 blue violet in the vicinity of Sugar Grove to which he was unable 

 to assign a name. But the plant was so common and so clearly 

 distinct from all of the other violets of the region that he supposed 

 that his trouble arose from the difficulty of the genus rather than 

 from any rarity of the plant itself. Finally in 1910 particular 

 care was taken to collect perfect specimens both at flowering time 

 and in early summer and from a study of these it was evident 

 that the plant was Viola hirsutula Brainerd, better known as 

 Viola villosa Walt., but not, according to Brainerd, Walter's 

 plant. This determination has since been verified at the Gray 

 Herbarium. The mature plants are entirely similar to those in 

 the herbaritmi but those in flower vary somewhat from the usual 

 form in a tendency toward lobing at the base of the leaf which while 

 occasionally seen in the herbarium specimens is sufficiently pro- 

 nounced in almost all of the Sugar Grove plants to make it diffl- 

 cult to decide which section of the key to follow in their deter- 

 mination. This tendency is confined to the youngest leaves and 

 in mature plants the leaves are all cordate. In addition to the 

 characters given in the manual there is a very distinctive field 

 character which should be included in the descriptions. This 

 is the purple \-eining of the upper surfaces of the leaves which 

 together with their mottling of different shades of green renders 

 the plants very beautiful for their foliage alone. In the herbarium 

 specimens this color fades and becomes indistinct but in many 

 cases it is still \'isiblc and when ]jresent is useful for diagnostic 

 ptirposes. 



The hitherto known range of Viola hirsutula is: Southern New 

 York and New Jersey to Florida and Louisiana, both in the moun- 

 tains and on the coastal plain. The present station is about two 

 hundred miles Avest of the most westerly locality previously 

 reported, namely in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, where it is reported 

 b\- Shafcr. At Sugar Grove it is exceedingh- abundant on the 

 uplands where it occupies much the same place in the plant associa- 

 tions that the common blue violet fills on the bottomlands. It 

 is especially a plant of old fields and pine barrens though it is 

 also to be "found along with many other of the upland plants in 

 pasttires where the land is more fertile. From the abundance of 

 the species in this region and the widespread occurrence of similar 

 habitats over all of Southeastern Ohio, the writer is led to believe 

 that when once it is recognized by the botanists it will be found 

 growing almost throughout this region. 



