SOME BRITISH VIOLETS 



221 



in the west of Ireland — considerable difficulty is experienced in 

 defining exactly the boundary between the group of V. lutea and 

 the group of v! Ciutidi. Mr. A. G. More, in this Journal for 1873, 

 p. 117, when speaking of the Flora of Ireland, states that the 

 sandhill pansies of the whole coast belong rather to V. Curtisii, 

 except some plants he refers to growing near Lahinch and Miltown, 

 in Co. Clare." 



Generally speaking, F. Curtuil is a plant of sandy sea-shores, 

 and V, lutea of grassy places in hilly and mountainous regions ; 

 the former having short decumbent stems and short subterranean 

 stolons, and in the latter the stems are either short or elongated, 

 but ascendiug, and long, slender, subterranean stolons. 



Group I. — Representative species V. lutea Hudson. 



Perennials. Rootstock branched, branches slender, producing 

 short or more rarely elongated ascending stems. Stipules of lowest 

 leaves digitately multipartite or digitately pinnatifid. Petals gene- 

 rally longer than the sepals, spreading (except in the case of var. 

 hamulata Baker). 



The members of this group are found in grassy places in hilly 

 and mountainous districts, very occasionally on sandbanks near the 

 sea — as at Lahinch and Miltown, in Co. Clare. 



V. LUTEA Hudson, Fl. Angl. ed. 1, p. 331 (1762), p.p.; Eng. 

 Bot. t. 721 (1800). F. (jrandifiora Hudson, Fl. Angl. ed. 2, 

 p. 380, p. p. F. sudetica Willd. a lutea DC. Prod. i. p. 302 

 (1824). It is unnecessary to give a detailed description of this 

 well-known species. Hudson's plant, as the name implies, was 

 yellow-flowered. 



Var. AMCENA Henslow, Cat. Brit. Plants, p. 3 (1829). F. amcena 

 T. F. Forster in Symons' Synopsis, p. 198 (1798); Eng. Bot. 

 t. 1287. F. sudetica Willd. var. media DC. I.e. The flower is thus 

 described in the original description : — " Flos magnus saturate pur- 

 pureus aut violaceus. Petala superiora obtuse ovata, purpurea ; 

 lateralia barbata purpurea, venosa, venis saturatius purpureis ; 

 infima magna, superiore parte lutea, venis purpureis notata ; calcar 

 breve, obtusum." It is described as from Scotland, where it was 

 first found by Mr. Dickson. The plant from which the original 

 description was taken cannot have had a particularly elongated 

 stem, as it is described as being only half the length of the scape 

 — i.e. " Scapus erectus canaliculatus caule duplo longior." 



Gardiner [Rambles in Braemar, 1845, p. 18) gives nine grades 

 of colour-variation which he states exist between this and T'. lutea. 



A very fine Violet grows on some of the Breadalbane Mountains, 

 which bears close relations to F. amcena and to the F. grandifiora 

 figured by Villars (Cat. PI. Jard. Strasbourg, p. 288, tab.V. (1807) ) 

 — the F. lutea Hudson, var. grandifiora of Koch's Synopsis, ed. 2, 

 p. 95. I have closely compared it with Villars' figure and with 



* Specimens 1 have seen in Mr. Shoolbred's herbarium from sand-banks, 

 Miltown, Co. Clare, approach very closely to the Pansy from MuUaghmore to 

 which my father gave the name V. Symei, 



