SOME BRITISH VIOLETS. 

 By Edmund G. Baker, F.L.S. 



The following are notes on some British violets of the Melanium 

 section which have been sent to the Natural History Museum clurino- 

 the last few months. ^ 



It may be well to group the plants referable to V. tricolor L. 

 (sensu lat.), if we are dealing with British forms alone, under five 

 or six heads ; if plants occurring on the Continent were dealt with, 

 these groups would include about double this number.* 



Viola Pesneaui Lloyd, Fl. Ouest. ed. 3, p. 43 (1876) ; V. Curtisii 

 Forster /? Pesneaui Eouy & Foucaud, Fl. France, iii. 50 (1896). 

 This plant belongs to the group of which F. Curtisii Forst. is the 

 representative species. The group is only a small one, all the 

 members being found near the sea ; the diagnostic characters con- 

 trasting with the other groups being drawn from the stipule and 

 the flower. The former organ is nearly palmatipartite with straight, 

 linear, narrow and pointed lateral segments. The flowers are not 

 so large as in V. hitea Huds., but larger than in V. arvensis Murr. 



V. Curtisii Forst. was first described in Engl. Bot. Suppl. 

 t. 2693, from Braunton Burrows, where it was gathered by William 

 Curtis,! and cultivated in his garden. The roots are fibrous ; the 

 stem is angular and rough. The lower leaves oval, or suborbicular, 

 subcordate ; the others oval-lanceolate or lanceolate. The bracteoles 

 are placed below the curvature. The petals are generally a little 

 longer than the calyx, " yellowish with blackish branched radiating 

 lines, the lateral paler than the lower, the upper whitish " ; but 

 British specimens which have been referred to this species present 

 great variation as to size of flower. 



V. Pesneaui Lloyd differs from the above more particularly in 

 the violet colour of the flowers, the upper petals being of a deeper 

 hue. Other alleged differences are that the bracteoles are either 

 placed on the curvature or a very little below, and that the plant is 

 more pubescent, and that the lobes of the stipules are rather 

 larger. 



Specimens agreeing with this plant in all its principal charac- 

 teristics have been received from Mr. D. A. Jones, gathered at 



* The representative species of these groups for British and Western 

 Continental forms would be as follows (see also Eouy & Foucaud Fl de 

 France, ni. p. 40) :— (1.) V. hortensis DC. (pro varietate), Prod. i. p. 303. 

 (2. V. saxatihs Schmidt, Fl. Boh. iii. p. 60. (3.) V. tricolor L. Sp. PI. p. 935 

 (4.) F. arvensis^ Murray, Prod. Stirp. Gott. p. 73. (5.) V. Oly.siponensis Eouy 



n^ooJ^^S'];. ^''""- ^- '^^- ^^'^- ^ ^1^^^^)' P- 114; & in Bol. Soc. Brot. vi. p. 1^3 

 (i8b«). (b.) V. Kitaibeliana Eoem. & Schultes, Syst. 5, p. 383 (7) V 



rTt ^'n^°\?".^' ^^'- P^- '^^- P- ^- (S-) ^' ^"'•^'^^« Foi'st. in Eng. Bot! 

 t. ^byd. (9.) V. Vivariensis Jord. Obs fragm. i. p. 19, t. 2. (10 ) V Rotho- 

 magensis Desf. Cat. p. 153. (12.) F. lutea Huds. Fl. Angl. ed i. p 331 If 

 Central and Eastern European plants were also included, several species, 

 such asV Hijmettia Boiss. & Heldr. and F. Mercurii Orphanides, would have 

 to be added. 



t A specimen from Curtis from Forster's Herbarium is in the National 

 Herbarium. 



