270 BICKNELL: VIOLA OBLIQUA HILL AND OTHER VIOLETS 
the woods. But I have never found it in a really wild state, that 
is to say, never far away from the habitations of man. It is of 
more gregarious habits than any of our wild species, often colonizing 
so thickly over wide spaces as to crowd out most other plants and, 
until taking its strong later growth, is low and somewhat spreading 
of leaf and peduncle, keeping close to the ground; not least to 
be noted is its relatively narrow range of variation, which is un- 
usual among the violets of its immediate relationship. It has been 
classed with ‘‘ papilionacea’’, although its nearest ally is doubtless 
Viola obliqua; but it is too signally different from that species to 
be forced upon it. Because hybridization may have at some 
period entered into the history of Viola laetecaerulea, of domestic 
tendencies, there might be reason for inquiring whether Viola 
domestica had not a like origin, but, if Viola obliqua is or was one 
parent, where is the other? 
Should the indications reported in this paper not be mistakenly 
understood the facts before us would be these: That the name 
Viola obliqua Hill belongs to the common and widely variable 
violet that we have been calling Viola affinis LeConte. That no 
such species exists as the supposed one we have been calling 
“Viola papilionacea,” this being a mixture, partly an accentuated 
phase of Viola obliqua, partly a hybrid of that species with our 
meadow violet, partly also a cross of Viola obliqua with Viola 
sororia and partly a well appointed violet, perhaps descended 
from such a cross, which may be called, pending proof, Viola 
laeteczerulea Greene. That the Viola cucullata of Aiton is a 
synonym of Viola obliqua Hill, and that our meadow violet that 
we have known as cucullata was first described by Pursh, receiving 
the inalienable name Viola papilionacea. That Viola domestica 
is, by attributes of form and habit, invested with a signal indi- 
viduality and that notwithstanding its domesticated nature the 
source of its origin does not yet appear. 
NEw YORK 
