VIOLARIE^E 193 



VIOLARIE.E. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. i. 114. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovary is free and one-celled with typi- 

 cally three parietal placentas as in Viola. The ovules are 

 generally numerous, one to two as in Hymenanthera, Scyphel- 

 landra, and Isodendrion, anatropous and arranged along the 

 slender placentas. The fruit is a capsule and splits loculicidally, 

 more rarely septicidally, by as many valves as there are carpels. 

 In Leonia, Gloiospermum, Tetrathylacium, Melicytus, and 

 Hymenanthera it is however baccate and indehiscent. The 

 seeds are obovoid or subglobose and fixed to the placentas 

 by very short funicles ; the raphe is in some cases much 

 thickened and separates from the fruit when mature, form- 

 ing an arillus ; the testa is usually crustaceous, coriaceous, 

 and shining as in Viola itself, rarely membranous. The endo- 

 sperm is copious and fleshy except in the case of Corynostylis, 

 where it is reduced to a thin layer. The embryo as far as 

 observed is straight, central, somewhat club-shaped, nearly 

 equalling the endosperm in length ; the cotyledons are plano- 

 convex or flat, and generally moderately broad, longer or 

 shorter than the radicle and distant from the hilum. They 

 are unusually narrow in the species of Hymenanthera and 

 very short in the Sauvagesiese. 



Viola tricolor and V. sylvatica may be taken as typical of 

 the Order. They have obovoid, smooth seeds; and the cotyledons 

 of the latter before germination are oval, obtuse, entire, plano- 

 convex, and about the same length as the terete, obtuse radicle. 



Variations from the type occur in Corynostylis, with 

 flattened, rugose, nearly orbicular seeds ; they are flattened, 

 orbicular, and broadly winged in Anchietea ; flattened, winged, 

 and imbricate in Agation ; and small with an orbicular wing 

 and a membranous testa in Schuurmansia. They are globose 

 or nearly so in Paypayrola, Alsodeia, Leonia, Melicytus, 

 Tetrathylacium, Hymenanthera, and Scyphellandra. 



Several methods of dispersal of the seeds occur in this 

 Order. As already mentioned, some have winged seeds. I have 

 observed that ants sometimes carry the seeds of Viola into 



