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and the lower is broader and keeled, paler and veined with dark 
purple stripes, the base projecting to form a spur, in which a 
fragrant honey is found. The stamens are five, the two lower 
ones spurred, and all bear an orange-colored prolongation beyond 
the anthers, which project and surround the green club-shaped 
stigma, with a very small central stigmatic surface. The ovary 
is'superior, one-called, three-angled, three-parted when ripe and 
bears the seeds in three rows on the walls. The five sepals also 
are unequal, thickened at base and auricled. The peculiar 
structure of the stamens and the fact that two of them have 
claws extending down into the honey-bearing spur are evidently 
aids in the fertilization by insects, and many of the violets are 
known to hybridize. 
Viola pedata was named by Linnaeus in 1753 in his Species 
Plantarum but it was first described and figured by Plukenet in 
1691 as “Viola virginiana tricolor, foliis multifidis, cauliculo 
aphylla.” In the vicinity of Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania, the form known as bicolor, in which the two upper 
petals are dark purple, is more common. About one hundred 
and fifty species of violets are known from all the temperate 
parts of the globe. A few occur at high altitudes in the tropics. 
The Violaceae comprise fifteen genera and three hundred species, 
widely distributed; some of them are trees. 
ELizaBETH G. BRITTON. 
BOTANICAL EXPLORATION IN PINAR 
DEL RIO, CUBA.* 
Dr. N. L. Britton, DiRECTOR-IN-CHIEF. 
Sir: Embarking from New York, Saturday, November 11, 
1911, I arrived in Havana the following Wednesday and reached 
the quaint old town of Guaneon November 17. A wind and rain- 
storm, which the Cubans call a “cyclone,” continued for three 
days, causing much loss throughout the western part of the 
province, by destroying the young tobacco plantations and flood- 
* The work here described was made possible by the liberality of Mr. Ogden 
Mills. 
