174 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



segments linear to spatulate, often two to four-cleft or toothed near the 

 apex. Early leaves usually smaller and less deeply dissected. Corolla 

 two-thirds to i| inches broad, the upper petals dark violet, the lower three 

 lilac-purple, or as in the common northern variety (var. linear! lob a 

 DeCandolle) here illustrated, all the petals lilac-purple, all beardless, the 

 orange tips of the stamens large and conspicuous in the center of the 

 flower. Seed pods smooth, green; seeds copper-colored. 



Apetalous or cleistogamous flowers are never formed in this species, 

 but petaliferous flowers are frequent in late summer and autumn. 



Common in dry or sandy fields and open woods from Massachusetts 

 to Florida and Louisiana, less abundant or locally common inland to 

 Minnesota. Flowering in May and June. 



Early Blue or Palmate-leaved Violet 



Viola piih)!atti Linnaeus 



Plate 134a 



Leaves palmately five to eleven-lobed or parted, erect or nearly so, 

 from a thick, usually oblique, simple or branched rootstock, the leaf seg- 

 ments variously toothed or cleft, the middle segment usually the widest, 

 more or less villous beneath, especially on the veins and on the petioles, 

 the upper stirface of the leaves often smooth; early leaves smaller and 

 usually less divided than the later ones. Flowers on stalks about as long 

 as the leaves, two-thirds to i inch broad, violet-purple; sepals blunt; 

 cleistogamous flowers on prostrate pedtmcles; seeds brown. 



In woods and thickets, rarely in open fields and most abundant in 

 rather dry, rich soil on wooded hills, Massachusetts to Minnesota, south 

 to Florida. Flowering from April to June. Like several of the other 

 blue-flowered violets it is locally known as Johnny-iump-up. 



Among its close relatives in the east is Viola triloba 

 Schweinitz, in which the earliest leaves and those put forth in late summer 

 are usually with uncut, reniform, cordate blades, the summer leaf blades 

 4 to 6 inches wide, densely villous beneath and on the petioles, three-lobed 

 or three-parted. 



