CLASS V. ORDER I. 99 



Root creeping and fibrous. Leaves lanceolate, varying in 

 width, smooth, crenate, somewhat obtuse. Petioles semicylin- 

 dric, variable in length. Scape tetragonous with two acute 

 bractes near the middle. Calyx mostly acute. Petals white, 

 greenish at base, the lower and sometimes the two lateral ones 

 striate with purple, the two lateral ones bearded or smooth. — 

 Common in wet meadows. — May. — Perennial. 

 Viola blanda. Willd. Sweet scented white Violet. 



Stemless ; root creeping ; leaves heart shaped and 

 ovate, smooth ; flowers white. 



Root fibrous and in the older plants creeping ; leaves smooth 

 and crenate, sometimes broad heart shaped with a deep sinus, at 

 others ovate with the base truncate or acute. Petioles semicy- 

 lindrical. Scape and bractes as in the preceding species. The 

 flowers exactly resemble those of the former species, both be- 

 ing found smooth and bearded. Both are somewhat fragrant, 

 the blanda most distinctly so. — Meadows. — May. — Perennial. 



These two violets, with almost every intermediate form of 

 the leaf, grow together abundantly in wet, open situations about 

 this city. I am not without suspicion, that they are all descend- 

 ants of one species. 



ters used by botanists to distinguish the species, are most of therat 

 more liable to variation, than in other plants. For example, the 

 width of the leaves and the form of their base are often liable to 

 vary ; the cucullation, or rolling in, is a character common to most 

 of the genus ; the pubescence depends greatly upon soil ; the beard- 

 ing of the petals is uncertain ; the comparative length of the stalks is 

 fallacious, being influenced by situation and earliness of flowering, so 

 that the same violet growing in the water shall have a petiole twice 

 as long as the leaf, while in drier ground it shall be shorter than the 

 leaf; the scapes also being longer or shorter than the leaves, as they 

 appear early or late. On these accounts much care is requisite in 

 admitting, as distinct species, those which are not sufficiently con^ 

 stant, independently of accidental influences, to be entitled to a 

 distinctive character. 



