8 PITTONIA. 
flowering plants of what we were calling V. amena, this re- 
markably contorted corolla impressed me at once as exceed- 
ingly characteristic; and, now that I possess Le Conte's un- 
published plate, I perceive just this floral character to have 
been fully appreciated, and well brought out by him. 
It has been supposed by some, particularly by Asa Gray, 
that Pursh's V. clandestina was the same as Le Conte's V. 
amena; but Le Conte, who knew Pursh and his violets very 
well, knew better. I am in possession of evidence quite con- 
clusive that Pursh's V. clandestina is V. rotundifolia ; and 
even Pursh said plainly enough that he had such a suspicion 
himself. 
Although the V. blanda var. palustriformis of Gray is by 
that author made to include our V. alsophila, nevertheless 
the type of that variety is a rather high northern plant with 
very broad and obtuse leaves, quite resembling those of the 
European V. palustris, to which latter V. alsophila makes no 
manner of approach. 
V. SEMPERVIRENS.  V.sarmentosa, Dougl.in Hook. Fl. i. 
80; the name preoccupied in the V. sarmentosa of Bieber- 
stein, Fl. Tauro-Caucas. i.172 (1808). The plant of Douglas 
is not only one of the most beautiful of American yellow- 
flowered violets, it appears to be our only species whose 
leaves are coriaceous and evergreen. This character has 
never before been clearly indicated; but it has been famil- 
iarly known to me for twenty years. I stated the fact, but 
perhaps indistinctly, in the Bay-Region Manual. 
