HAIRY VIOLET 13 



spring (usually infertile) and autumn, the latter cleistogamic and fertile 

 though apetalous. One difference is the marked absence of scent, but 

 as it is not so usually a woodland or shade species this is the more 

 readily to be explained. The spur is long and hooked and two 

 anther-spurs are lance-shaped. 



The seeds of the Hairy Violet are dispersed by the plant's own 

 agency, the flower-stalks hanging down when the capsule is ripe, and 

 the seeds are sown in the ground around the parent plant. The seeds 

 are also dispersed by ants. The capsule opens by three valves. 



Hairy Violet is a sand-loving plant, requiring a sand soil with a 

 very little humus, in this differing from V. odorata. 



Puccinia viola, Urocystis viola, Peronospora effusa, Thielavia basi- 

 cola are fungal parasites. 



The Lepidoptera Argynnis paphia (Silver-washed Fritillary), A. 

 adippe (High-brown Fritillary), and A. aglaia (Dark-green Fritillary) 

 feed on it. 



The specific Latin name hirla means hairy, alluding to the hairy 

 leaves, stem, or leaf-stalk. 



In Viola odorata numerous stolons or soboles are thrown out which 

 trail over the surface and root at intervals. In V. hirta they are not 

 prostrate, and do not root at intervals. The roots of both are covered 

 with tubercles when advanced. The leaf -stalks are smooth in V. 

 odorata, hairy in V. hirta, and give it quite a downy, silvery appear- 

 ance. The leaves are much alike, and V. odorata has hairs below, but 

 they are more numerous in V. hirta. The leaf of the Sweet Violet is 

 glossy above, and the leaves are longer, not so heart-shaped. In 

 V. odorata the bracts or leaflike organs are above the scape, in V. 

 hirta below. The Hairy Violet flowers a week later than V. odorata, 

 and the flowers are not so deep a blue, nor do they smell. They both 

 produce barren spring and fertile autumn flowers. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



43. Viola hirta, L. Stoles absent or short, bracts below the 

 middle of flower-stalk, leaves hairy, cordate, petioles with spreading 

 hairs, flowers light blue, scentless, spur linear. 



1 These are pink, fleshy, swollen, and when the flower-stalk lengthens it may bury the ripened capsule 

 in the loose soil. The pendent capsules are due to the practically non-existent stem (which is very short), 

 so that they are not raised up. 



