BRAINERD: CAULESCENT VIOLETS OF SOUTHEASTERN U. S. 195 
are but half grown and decumbent. In summer when fully de- 
veloped the plants may attain a height of six decimeters, and 
present a very different aspect. Even Schweinitz was betrayed 
into describing as a new species, V. repens,* a form found only “on 
the rocks of the Saura mountains.’ It was apparently seen only 
in May, as he says, “‘capsula non observata.”’ This error should 
be placed side by side with his protest against regarding V. 
clandestina Pursh as the summer state of V. rotundifolia Michx.; 
the former with the latter, he says, “‘can have no affinity what- 
ever’ !t These errors would hardly deserve notice, had there not 
been in recent years so many similar instances, in which the 
protean forms of a violet have been described under several specific 
names. 
VIOLA CONSPERSA Reichenb. isa third stemmed violet occurring 
southward only in the Appalachian uplands. The list is long of 
the various names under which it has passed. In the Britton 
and Brown Illustrated Flora it is described as V. labradorica 
Schrank, 1818. But this boreal plant seems distinct, being much 
smaller, bearing only one or two deep violet flowers on a stem, 
having rounded leaves and narrow stipules; the most southerly 
stations are the high mountains of New York and New England. 
Schweinitz, who received the Labrador plant from a missionary 
friend, named it Viola punctata,t unaware of the name Schrank 
had given it four years before. The common species of the northern 
United States Schweinitz recognizes as V. wliginosa Muhl.; but 
that name had been previously used by Schrader. 
The oldest available name is that of Reichenbach, in his 
Iconographia botanica, seu Plantae criticae 1: 44. pl. 52. f. 108. 
1823. Both the description and the colored plate indicate the 
species unmistakably. The type specimen was sent Reichenbach 
by Dr. Torrey from New York under the name V. asartfolia, a 
nomen nodum of Muhlenberg’s Catalogue, doubtless intended for 
the species in question. But in 1814 Pursh had published as V. 
asarifolia a plant from the mountains of North Carolina, now 
identified with V. sororia Willd. Knowing only V. asarifolia 
*Loc. cit. 70. 
Loc. cit. 63. 
tLoc. cit. 67. 
