:114 



XATUUAL UrsTOIlY OF PLANTS. 



themselves, prolonged below, beneath their insertion, into a sort 

 of membranous plate. Two of them are anterior, two lateral, and 

 the fifth posterior, disposed in the bud in quincuncial pignora- 

 tion. The corolla, very irregular, is polypetalous, and the pieces of 



Viola odorata. 



Fig. 363. 

 Flower. 



Fig. 364. 

 Diagram. 



Fig. 365. 

 Sect, of flower (f ). 



Fig. 366. 

 Flower with perianth 

 taken away (*). 



three kinds. The two posterior of one kind, symmetrical to each 

 other, differ in form, and often in colour, 1 from the lateral ones. 

 These covered by the two posterior sepals in prasfloration, are also 

 symmetrical to each other ; they envelop in the bud the anterior 

 sepal which alone is regular, formed of two equal halves, and which, 

 instead of being flattened in its whole length like the others, dilates 

 a little above its insertion into a hollow spur, more or less wide 

 and arched, making a prominence in the interval of the two ante- 

 rior sepals (fig. 364). The androceum is formed of five alterni- 

 petalous stamens. Each is composed of a two-celled introrse anther, 

 dehiscing by two longitudinal clefts/ surmounted by a membranous 

 prolongation of the connective, and of a very short filament broad 

 and flattened. But while in the t|iree posterior stamens the fila- 

 ment bears no projection, in the two others the anterior edge is 

 dilated into a kind of open spur, glandular at the apex, and descend- 



1 Generally darker than the other petals, an I 

 of an even colour, while the anterior and lateral 

 petals often paler, of the same colour as each 

 other, or but slightly different, are frequently 

 spotted with purple more or less dark upon a 

 light whitish or yellow ground. 



8 The pollen is ellipsoidal, with three furrows, 



and in water spherical depressed with three 

 bands without papillae (V. lijlora, odorata), or 

 in the form of quadrangular or pentangular 

 prisms (V. tricolor), "with folds upon the 

 angles, transparent; in water, ellipsoidal with 

 four or five bands, upon which are large papillae." 

 (II. Mohl, in Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 2, iii. 32S)). 



