12 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



ORDER VIII.— V I O L A C E ^. 



Herbs or shrubs with alternate (rarely opposite) leaves, gene- 

 rally entire or crenatc, more rarely laciniate. Stipules leaf-like or 

 scale-like, usually deciduous in the shrubby species. Flowers often 

 solitary, with 2 bracteoles on the pedicels, or arranged in cymes, 

 racemes, or panicles ; generally perfect but sometimes polygamous, 

 irregular or regular. Calyx generally persistent, of 5 imbricated 

 sepals. Petals 5, hypogynous or slightly adhering to the calyx. 

 Perfect stamens 5, hyjjogynous or slightly perigynous ; anthers 

 sessile or sub-sessile, disposed in a ring and frequently united ; con- 

 nective often dilated and forming a membranous scale-like appen- 

 dage beyond the anther-cells, which open by a longitudinal cleft, 

 or very rarely by an apical pore. Staminodes present only in the 

 sub-order Sauvagesiese. Ovary free, sessile, 1-ceUed, with parietal 

 placentas, generally 3 in number. Style simple ; sometimes thick- 

 ened or incurved at the apex, with a stigma on the under side ; 

 sometimes subulate, with a terminal stigma ; more rarely cleft at 

 the apes, or absent, so that the stigmas become sessile. Ovules on 

 each placenta numerous, rarely 1 or 2, anatropous. Pruit a 1-celled 

 capsule, opening by as many valves as there are placentas, rarely 

 indehiscent. Seeds with a very short funiculus, and most com- 

 monly a hard or leathery testa ; albumen fleshy, usually plentiful ; 

 embryo in the axis of the albumen generally straight. Cotyledons 

 flat ; radicle next the hilum. 



GENUS I.—V I O L A. Linn. 



Sepals 5, prolonged backwards beyond the point of insertion, 

 persistent. Petals 5, unequal, spreading, with short claws; the 

 lower one generally larger, and furnished with a spur at the base ; 

 the lateral ones often with a patch of hairs at the base of the lamina. 

 Petals absent in the later flowers of some species. Anthers sub- 

 sessile, forming a ring round the ovary ; connective produced into a 

 membranous scale at the apex ; the two lowest anthers often 

 spurred at the base, the spurs included in that of the lower petal. 

 Style thickened at the apex, curved downwards, with the stigma on 

 the under side, or dilated into a hollow knob, obliquely truncate at 



