VIOLA. 



dainty, heart -shaped, silver leaves, purpled underneath, and hugging 

 the ground ; while, above, its violets rise on taller sterns in spring. 



V. hirta. — The English scentless violet is not nearly enough used 

 in the garden. In all its many forms V. hirta is quite distinct, and 

 quite beautiful, with its peculiar leaves, elongate and narrowly heart- 

 shaped and hairy, and its abundance of violets well above them in 

 crowds in spring. There is an albino of the type, and the species 

 varies on the one hand into the development called V. sciaphila y 

 which more affects the woodland, and is very nearly hairless, with 

 large, ample foliage and flowers, and V. Thomasiana of high downs and 

 open ground, which is minutely small and neat in every part, with almost 

 triangular little hairy leaves, and sweetish violets of lilac or rose or 

 mauve-purple. Between the two and into the type there are many 

 gradations ; one of the values of the species, for a sunny and unthought- 

 of place, is that it never runs and ramps, but sits secure in its tidy 

 clump. 



V. Homemannii= V. canina stricta,, q.v. 



V. incognita. — The unknown violet is an American woodlander 

 that deserves no closer intimacy, any more than do V. fimbriatula, 

 V. sagittata, V. emarginata, and V. renifolia. 



V. ircutiana has tufts of leaves like those of a common Daisy, and 

 violets of red or pale purple colouring. 



V. Jooi is a lilac -pinkish-flowered little violet from the limestones 

 of Transylvania, standing close to V. prionantha. 



V. Jordani. See under V. canina. 



V. labradorica, Schrank (for which hi so many lists V. conspersa 

 does duty), is a dwarfer species, and almost hairless, with the blades 

 of the leaves hairyish on their upper face, and the leaves them- 

 selves always blunt instead of tapering to a point. As a rule its 

 violets are of deep purple, and it haunts cool places through North 

 America. (Allow, in these notes, for the inveterate variableness of 

 all violets.) 



V. lactea is a pallid form of Viola canina. 



V. lanceolata is a form of V. adunca. 



V. land folia (7. lusitanica). See under V. canina. 



V. Lapeyrousei. See under V. cenisia. 



V. latiuscula springs in open places of the rich, dry woods of North 

 America. The earlier leaves of the tufts are rounded -heart -shaped, 

 but the later ones are much bigger, about 4 inches across, very broad, 

 and then running to a quick, sharp point. Its violets are large, and 

 noble in their imperial colour. 



V. libanotica is like a smaller version of V. hirta. 



455 



