THE OTTAWA NATURALIST. 



Vol. XVII. OTTAWA, DECEMBER, 1903. No. 9 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES ON CANADIAN SPECIES OF VIOLA. 



By Theo. Holm. 



(With two plates, drawn from nature by the author.) 



In recent years North American, and especially Canadian, 

 violets have attracted considerable attention on account of their 

 very liberal contributions to the number of "undescribed species"; 

 but it so happens that we have gained no lurther knowledge of 

 the life-history of the genus than we already possessed from the 

 time when the Violacece were studied from a thoroughly scientific 

 point of view, when species were studied and treated as living 

 beings with some power to adapt themselves to their environment 

 and to vary, instead of as mere unnamed herbarium material. It 

 really seems as if the species of Viola fared better at the time of 

 Linnaeus than they do now, for at that time they were at least 

 classified in such a way as to become readily determinable, while 

 in recent years the accumulation of supposed new 'species has gone 

 on so rapidly as to leave the enumeration of these in anything 

 but a systematic arrangement, with the omission of important 

 morphological characters and regardless of natural affinities. 



We naturally arrive at the conclusion that it would be more 

 desirable and more beneficial to the study of natural science if we 

 contented ourselves with a smaller number of species but well- 

 defined and better appreciable from a biological view-point. The 

 mere leaf-outline, the presence or absence oi pubescence, the rela- 

 tive size and color of the perfect flower are deceptive characters, 

 and even the position of the so-called " apetalous " flowers : aerial 

 or underground, is far from constant. Systematic works, even of 

 a very recent date, seldom contain anything new in the line of 

 biology or morphology, since the authors generally content them- 



