124 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



distribution. The exotic forms are sometimes trees 

 or shrubs, with small, nearly regular flowers. 



The Violet group includes both annual and perennial 

 plants, herbaceous or shrubby in habit. The leaves 

 are radical or alternate, usually entire, and possess 

 stipules, which are entire, or divided as in the Pansies. 



The flowers are few in the axils, or radical, in 

 racemes, with bracteoles. They are hermaphrodite. 

 The calyx is polysepalous and inferior, persistent, 

 with five sepals. The corolla is polypetalous, 

 irregular, with five spreading petals, hypogynous, the 

 anterior or lowest petal often spurred. There are 

 five stamens which are hypogynous, are alternate to 

 the petals, and form a ring around the ovary, with 

 short broad anther-stalks. The anthers are borne on 

 their inner surface, and open inwards, the two lower 

 being spurred below. The pistil, which is syncarpous, 

 consists of three carpels. The style is single, with a 

 swollen, thickened or hooked, oblique stigma. The 

 ovary is one-celled, with many ovules, and many- 

 seeded. The capsule opens by three valves, folded 

 lengthwise. 



The lower petal, which is prolonged into a spur, 

 contains the honey. The five stamens have appen- 

 dages into which the pollen falls, and the two lower 

 ones project into the spurred petal. The stigma 

 closes the opening to the flower, giving it the yellow 

 eye, and is like a bird's head in shape. Insect visitors 

 touch the stigma first, then the anthers, and the 

 pollen they withdraw is applied to the stigma of the 



