BRAINERD: STEMLESS VIOLETS OF THE SOUTH 5 
emarginata—a plant that LeConte in his paper on Viola considers 
equivalent to V. dentata Pursh.* Having seen this beautiful 
drawing, through the kindness of Professor Greene, I am con- 
vinced that it does represent the V. Porteriana of Pollard; but 
equally confident that it is not the V. dentata of Pursh. In other 
words, LeConte confused three distinct things: V. sagittata, var. 
emarginata Nuttall, V. dentata Pursh, and a hybrid of V. cucullata 
with V. fimbriatula. But the error of LeConte was due in part 
to the earlier errors of Pursh. This pioneer of North American 
botany knew plants in the field better than in the printed pages 
of European authors. It is generally acknowledged that his Viola 
primulifolia—‘pubescent, flowers blue, sepals ciliate, on dry hills; 
Canada to Virginia’’—is V. fimbriatula, the form with uncut basal 
lobes; and one who reads carefully his descriptions will, I think, 
be further convinced that his Viola sagittata—'‘pubescent, leaves 
incised at the base, peduncles /onger than the leaves: on dry hills; 
New England to Virginia’’—is also V. fimbriatula, the form with 
coarsely toothed basal lobes; and that his Viola dentata—‘‘gla- 
hrous, leaves subhastately large-toothed below, peduncles shorter 
than the leaves; in wet meadows and woods; Pennsylvania’’— 
is simply V. sagittata Aiton. Having misapplied the name V. 
sagittata, Pursh had to coin a new name for the plant of Aiton. 
VIOLA SEPTEMLOBA LeConte is very abundant in the pine 
barrens of the coastal plains from South Carolina to Mississippi; 
it was well described by its author 85 years ago, and for 25 years 
found a place in Eaton’s Botany, the most widely used manual 
of that period. Yet subsequently for half a century it suffered a 
well-nigh total eclipse; until in 1903 it reappeared to the scientific 
world in Mr. Pollard’s account of the southern violets in Dr. 
‘Small’s manual. It has been often confused with V. Brittoniana, 
a cut-leaved species of the same group and of similar habitat. 
But they differ strikingly in at least two respects: (1) The seeds 
of V. Brittoniana are buff and 1.6 mm. long; those of V. septem- 
loba are dark brown and 2 mm. long. On weighing 200 seeds of 
* Pittonia 3: 256; Bot. Gaz. 26: 340. 1898. 
Blas eee ee of Viola dentata Pursh is: ‘‘V. glabra; foliis oblongis acutis 
hastato grandi-dentatis, pedunculis foliis ilgeeieee 
calycis laciniis linearibus, petalis 3. inferioribus basi barbatis.’’ Fl. Am 
172. 382 
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