-^I^-. 



rr^'r^^^^ ^jftmm^ ^.r""™""^ 



\* r^^^l JTTTTTTTMTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTJTTTTTTTTTTTTyrTTTTTTT-TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTf fOlLA Pi 



"' ' : !^\lhTfW^ 





-TTTT 











.;M 



^ klAAXX All 111 IXlAjJ 



Chapter IV. 



Order IV.— VIOLARIE.E. (The Violet Pamily.) 



Chakactke of the Order. — Herbs or shrubs, with 

 alternate stipulate leaves. Flowers, regular or irregular. 

 Sepals, 5, imbricate. Petals, 5, imbricate. Stamens, 5, 

 hyjjogynous; anthers sessile, or on short filaments, often 

 united, the connective usually expanded upwards, or provided 



with an appendage at the bai'k or both. Ovary with 2-5 

 parietal placentas, and one style. Fruit, a capside or berry. 

 Knibrvo axile in llcshv albumen. — Handhook of New Zealand 

 Floi-ii, ]:. IC. 



Description of the Order. — 



[1)ELY distributed through tropical and temperate regions, tliis ordei' 

 contains between tAvo and three liundred known species, dispersed over 

 nearly all j^arts of the globe, and distributed into twenty-one genera, 

 forming four tribes. The New Zealand genera consist of: — (1). Viola, 

 \l, herbs with trailing stems or short woody stocks ; (2.) Melicytts, 

 shrubs with short petioled tootlu^d leaves ; and (3.) Hymexaxthera, 

 woody shrubs with alternate leaves and small axillary flowers. 



GENUS I. 

 VIOLA {LiiiH.) The Violet. 



Generic Cuaraciee. — Herbs with trailing stems or 

 short, woody stocks. Leaves alternate, jietioled, stipulate. 

 Flowers irregular. Sepals 5, produced at the base. Petals 

 unequal, spreading, lowermost often larger, spurred or gibbous 



at the base. Anthers u, I'uuuective. Hal, produced into a thin 

 membrane ; the lower often spurred. Style, capitate. Cap- 

 sule, 3-valved, with a parietal placenta on each valve. — Uand- 

 book of NeiB Zealand Flora, p. 16. 



Description, etc. — A large British and widely diffused genus in all temperate 

 climates, of Avhich several species produce Uvo forms of flowers. The British species 



