CRITICAL NOTES on CERTAIN VIOLETS. 
_ . With that which for a hundred years and more has been 
- received as typical Viola pedata, that is, the plant with all five 
_ petals of one color, I was for many years familiar; but until 
_ this season I had never seen that much more beautiful 
_ pansy-like thing which passes for V. pedata, var. bicolor. In 
- the vicinity of Washington the plant last named is plentiful. 
~ It has from the first seemed to me to differ from the north- 
- ern plant with pale blue flowers in other respects besides the 
- color of the petals; and, in looking up its history as a sup- 
~ posed variety of V. pedata, it has become clear beyond the 
- possibility of any doubt that this pansy-flowered violet of 
- Maryland and Virginia is the yery type of Linnzus’ Viola 
. pedata. While this plant was known and much admired in 
European gardens in Linnzus' lifetime, there is no evidence 
_ that the more plain and less attractive plant, now long mis- 
- taken for the true V. pedata, appeared even in England any 
earlier than the year 1789, at which time it was figured in 
the Botanical Magazine. "The editor of the journal unwisely 
cited, in connection with his new figure, all the Linnean 
. Synonymy and descriptions; and it does not appear that 
- since 1789 any one has questioned that all which Curtis 
P gives is correct. On the contrary, from that date forward 
the plant of the pale blue flowers there figured has been 
- freely assumed to be the real V. pedata, while the true thing 
_ has been variously estimated as a new variety of it, or as a 
distinct species. Pursh, it is said by Rafinesque, called it 
V. pedata, var. bicolor. Rafinesque;himself gave it, as a pro- 
. posed new species, the name V. atropurpurea, and Loddiges 
: Prrronia, vol. III. Pages 33-40 issued 16 May, 1896. 
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