VIOLACE^E. (VIOLET FAMILY.) 79 



- - Stigma small, naked, often beaked or pointed. 



* Rootstoclc fleshy and thickened, never flliform nor producing runners ; flowers 

 violet or purple (rarely white) ; lateral petals bearded. 



2. V. pedatifida, G. Don. Leaves all palmately or pedately 5 - 7-parted ; 

 divisions 2 -3-cleft ; lobes linear ; otherwise like n. 3. (V. delphinifolia, Nutt.) 

 Kich prairies, or more often in dry poor land, 111. to Kan. and Minn. 



3. V. palmata, L. (COMMON BLUE V.) Glabrous to villous-pubescent ; 

 early leaves roundish-cordate or reniform and merely crenate, the sides rolled 

 in ward when young, the later very various, palmately or pedately or has- 

 tately lobed or parted, the segments obovate to linear. (V. cucullata, var. 

 palmata, Gray.) Moist or dryish, especially sterile, ground ; very common. 



Var. CUCUllata, Gray. Later leaves merely crenate, not lobed. (V. eu- 

 cullata, Ait.) Low grounds; common everywhere. Both forms are very 

 variable in the size and shape of the leaves and sepals, and in the size and 

 color of the flowers, which are deep or pale violet-blue or purple, sometimes 

 white or variegated with white. 



4. V. sagittata, Ait. (ARROW*LEAVED V.) Smoothish or hairy ; leaves 

 on short and margined, or the later often on long and naked petioles, varying 

 from oblong-heart-shaped to halberd-shaped, arrow-shaped, oblong-lanceolate 

 or ovate, denticulate, sometimes cut-toothed near the base, the lateral or occa- 

 sionally all the (rather large purple-blue) petals bearded; spur short and 

 thick; stigma beaked. Dry or moist sandy places, New Eng. to Minn., and 

 southward. Some forms pass into the last. 



*+ ** Rootstocks long and flliform, extensively creeping. 

 Flowers blue or purple. 



5. V. Selkirk!!, Pursh. (GREAT-SPURRED V.) Small and delicate; 

 the filiform rootstock fibrose-rooted, no runners above ground , smooth, ex- 

 cept the round-heart-shaped crenate leaves, which are minutely hairy on the 

 upper surface and have a deep narrowed sinus ; spur very large, thickened at 

 the end, almost as long as the beardless pale violet petals. Damp and shady 

 soil, N. Maine to W. Mass., central N. Y., L. Superior (Robbins), and north- 

 ward ; rare. Scapes and petioles 1 - 2', the leaf | - 1 ' long, thin ; the spur 3" 

 long. (Eu.) 



6. V. pallistris, L. (MARSH V.) Smooth; leaves round-heart-shaped 

 and kidney-form, slightly crenate; flowers (small) pale lilac with purple 

 streaks, nearly beardless ; spur very short and obtuse. Alpine summits of 

 the White Mountains, N. H., and high northward. June. (Eu.) 



V. ODORATA, L. (SWEET VIOLET), cultivated in gardens, from Europe, 

 belongs near this group, and is sparingly spontaneous in some places. 



= = Flowers white (small, short-spurred), mostly with brown-purple veins ; lateral 

 petals bearded or beardless. Species apparently confluent. 



7. V. blanda, Willd. (SWEET WHITE V.) Commonly glabrous ; leaves 

 round-heart-shaped or kidney-form ; petals mostly beardless, the lower strongly 

 veined. Damp places, everywhere. Flowers faintly sweet-scented. 



Var. palustriformis, Gray. The larger form; upper surface of the 

 leaves sparsely and finely hairy ; petals 5" long, oftener bearded, less dis- 

 tinctly veined. Shaded mossy ground, N. Eng. to Del., and westward 



