194 BRAINERD: CAULESCENT VIOLETS OF SOUTHEASTERN U.S. 
VIOLA ERIOCARPA Schwein., according to present rules of 
nomenclature, must displace V. scabriuscula, only mentioned by 
Schweinitz as a name that he had discarded.* Its specific dis- 
tinctness from V. pubescens has been questioned from the first. 
But if one had to deal only with the most pronounced forms of 
each, he would, I think, be quite ready to recognize two species. 
In regions where both occur the two types run together, as do 
V. fimbriatula and V. sagittata. Each species through hybridism 
seems to borrow at times one or more characters from the other, 
presenting them in a compromise or in an unmodified form. In 
the rich dry deciduous forests of the North one usually gets the 
pure forms of V. pubescens. South of Virginia it occurs rarely, 
if at all, though specimens of V. tripartita glaberrima Harper have 
been often distributed as V. pubescens. Accordingly, in North 
Carolina and in that latitude westward as far as Oklahoma, one 
finds the genuine V. eriocarpa of Schweinitz. It differs from V. 
pubescens Ait. in being nearly glabrous throughout except for its 
densely woolly capsules, in having several spreading stems (shorter 
and more leafy) and one to three radical leaves from one rootstock, 
and in growing in open thickets and rich meadow bottoms. This 
typical form is seen occasionally northward, especially in the 
Mississippi Valley; but the intergradient forms are more common. 
VIOLA CANADENSIS L. is found in the uplands of the southern 
Alleghanies, and as far south as Tuscaloosa, Alabama, usually with 
shorter stems and smaller leaves and flowers than it has northward. 
The capsules have been described as glabrous in all the manuals; 
but they are often downy or densely puberulent, a fact that did 
not escape the careful observation of Schweinitz, who says: ‘‘Cap- 
sula leviter pubescente.”’ 
The second section of our stemmed violets is marked by a 
slender style not enlarged upward, and by green stipules with sharp 
often bristly teeth. In the South it is represented by four species. 
VIOLA STRIATA Ait. is easily recognized by its white or cream- 
colored flowers, which appear in early spring, often when the stems 
*In the Elliott herbarium at Charleston, S. C., is a specimen labeled ‘‘ Viola 
eriocarapa m{ihij"’ in the handwriting of Schweinitz. It agrees well with his de. 
scription, and may serve for all practical purposes as his type. 
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