964 BICKNELL: VIOLA OBLIQUA HILL AND OTHER VIOLETS 
leaves, obtuse and of less pronounced crenation, and more striking 
flowers of deeper hue and bluer tone of color. Of late years 
much has been made of this larger violet, and forms which cluster 
about it, under the designation Viola papilionacea Pursh. 
Let us digress upon this rather ostentatious newcomer among 
our named violets. For myself I have never quite succeeded in 
finding out what was the touchstone of ‘‘ Viola papilionacea.” 
Nor does there appear to be perfect accord among its sponsors 
as to its exact credentials. Mr. Pollard in first taking up 
the name* introduced us to a wholly glabrous plant, describing 
accurately the fine violet to which we have just adverted. But 
the specimens he put out} were at some discord with his description, 
showing us a violet having a characteristic pubescence on the 
petioles. Inrespect of this pubescence the specimens coincide with 
Doctor Greene’s understanding of ‘‘ papilionacea’’t and with the 
admirable drawing of Mr. Holm which supplements his description. 
Mr. Stone, both by description and illustration, reports the plant as 
bearing pubescence on the petioles.§ Mr. House as well.||_ Doc- 
tor Brainerd, on the other hand, although taking a broader treat- 
ment, seems more in accord with Mr. Pollard in his description of 
a wholly glabrous plant** as also is Doctor Dowell}}—something 
like an even division between the smooths and the roughs. All 
this is not making too much of a little pubescence, for the glabrous 
and the pubescent plants differ by far more than this one character. 
And the strain of discrepancy running through the discussions of 
* papilionacea ”’ is reason enough why this conjectural species has 
not been received by all of us with any such compelling sense of 
recognition as, for instance, all felt towards “ Viola cucullata’”’ - 
the instant that Doctor Greene gave us the cue. 
The glabrous ‘‘ papilionacea”’ is found on grassy banks or at 
the borders of meadows along descending places from woodlands 
ar a Re ee 
= iat aentrg 26: 136. 1 
Tt North Am. Violaceae. Determined rat distributed by Prof. Edward L. 
Greene ee Mr. Charles Louis Pollard, No. 
} Pittonia 4: 140-141. 1900. 
§ Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 55: 670-671. 
|| Bull. Torrey Club 32: 258. 1905. 
** Rhodora 6: 15. 1904; Bull. Torrey Clu’ 3 :500. Ioto. 
tf Bull. Torrey Club 37: 164. 1910. 
1904. 
