REMARKS ON ACAULESCENT VIOLETS. 
I wish here to resume a discussion of certain East Ameri- 
can stemless violets which, begun in May last,’ was inter- 
rupted at the time by the public announcement of a paper 
to be read before the Biological Society of Washington, on 
the same topic, by my friend Mr. C. L. Pollard. As Mr. 
Pollard’s paper was issued in printed form soon after having 
been read,? I shall here make special reference to a number 
of its items; and I do so with all the more satisfaction since 
he and I had independently reached the same conclusions 
respecting the validity of several species long suppressed by 
recent authorities. 
The neighborhood of Washington is rich in violets; and, 
as the whole flora is about tbe same which extends from 
northern Pennsylvania and New Jersey to North Carolina, 
the ground is classic for violets, at least representatively ; 
for, not only was it from this region that all American spe- 
cies early cultivated in Europe and published by early Euro- 
pean botanists had been sent, it was upon this ground that 
all classic American authorities upon the genus—Pursh, 
Nuttall, Schweinitz, Muhlenberg and Le Conte—made their 
observations and were enabled to distinguish their species. 
Upon this territory, the following segregates from Gray’s 
confused Viola sagittata, indicated by Mr. Pollard, are per- 
fectly clear. 
V. ovara, Nutt. Fairly described by Nuttall, who, how- 
ever, was wont to misuse the term ovate. Le Conte, whose 
excellent description of the species leaves small room for 
MN f PER ee mem 
1See page 33 preceding. 
2 Proc. Biol. Soc. x. 85-92. 
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