170 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



inch long, yellow, about one-fourth of an inch broad or slightly less; petals 

 five, obovatc-oblong ; stamens numerous, nine to eighteen in number; 

 sepals blunt. Fruit a small, ovoid, smooth and one-seeded capsule. 



In sandy pine barrens and sandy shores along the coast, New Bruns- 

 wick to Virginia and inland on sand hills and lake and river shores, west 

 to Manitoba and North Dakota. Flowering from May to July. 



Violet Family 



\' i o 1 a c e a e 



Because of their abundance and beauty, the violets take rank with the 

 favorites among our native flowers. Our species of violets are all low 

 herbs, either leafy-stemmed or stemless, that is, the leaves and flowers arising 

 directly from the rootstock. The flowers possess five stamens, the two 

 lowest with appendages that project into the spur or nectar sac of the lower 

 and odd petal. Only these two stamens are developed in the apetalous 

 flowers which come after the petaliferous flowers in most stemless species 

 except the Bird's-foot Violet. The petaliferous flowers are somewhat 

 irregular, the lower petal extended into a spur or sac back of the flower, the 

 lateral petals usually narrower than the two upper petals, and usually only 

 the spur and lateral petals adorned at the base in some species with hairs. 



Allied species of some groups freely hybridize when growing together. 

 The hybrids commonly display characters niore or less intermediate to those 

 of the parent species, and show marked vegetative vigor, but very often 

 also impaired fertility. These violets of hybrid origin are frequently unlike 

 the inother plant and unlike one another, reverting variously in succeeding 

 generations to the characters of the two original species. 



Two cultivated species of violets are common in the east, and some- 

 times escape from cultivation. They are the English, Marsh or Sweet 

 Violet (Viola o d o r a t a Linnaeus ) , and the Pansy or Heartsease 

 (Viola tricolor Linnaeus) with variously colored flowers. The 

 original form, and the one which the cultivated forms revert to sooner or 

 later, has violet or purple flowers. The large Garden Pansy is the product 



