104 VIOLA PEDATA. BIRDS-FOOT VIOLET. 



the lower portion dies away, just as we see it in the conn of a 

 gladiolus or similar bulb, and this leaves the bottom of the little 

 stem flat, or as if it were bitten off. Indeed, there is actually 

 little essential difference, beyond the shape, between a bulb, a 

 corm, and such a structure as this underground violet-stem. 

 Again, the flower is worthy of close study from its peculiar 

 stigma, which is large, compressed at the sides, and perforated, 

 and very unlike that of most Violets. It is, furthermore, very 

 interesting to study this species in connection with the question 

 of cleistogamous flowers, which, as the reader knows, are flowers 

 without petals, fertilized in the bud before the calyx opens, and 

 which follow, during the summer, the complete flowers with 

 petals which cease to appear after June. Nuttall and the earlier 

 botanists believed that all the North American species of Violets 

 produced these apetalous, " secretly fertilized " flowers, but the 

 writer of this has never found them on this species, though he 

 has on most of the others. It is quite likely they may appear in 

 some localities. Large numbers of the flowers give no seeds, 

 but on this and many other points additional observations are 

 much needed. 



Most Violets are fond of high elevations, but in the temperate 

 regions some are quite at home when near the level of the sea. 

 Our Bird's-Foot Violet is found in low yet dryish situations, 

 and seems rather to like to get up the hillsides. Mr. Shriver 

 tells us in the " Botanical Gazette," that at Wytheville, in Vir- 

 ginia, it is found in the Alleghanies a half-mile high. Its 

 geographical range commences in Canada and goes down to 

 Florida along the seaboard States, although Dr. Chapman inti- 

 mates that it has no great love for the warmer parts of the 

 South, but is found chiefly in the upper districts. It extends 

 west to Wisconsin, but is not found in great abundance till it 

 approaches the southern boundaries of the State. In Ohio, 

 Illinois, and Indiana it is frequently met with. 



Exi'LW VTION OF THE PLATE.— I. Part of a rout-stock, with leaves and flowers. — 2. Bou- 

 quet of varieties. 



