193 



Far apart as they are phylogenetically, they resembled each other 

 in still other ways besides habitat and time of flowering. The 

 flowers of both were about the same distance from the ground 

 (four or five inches), borne singly on erect scapes, and, what is 

 more remarkable, colored almost exactly alike. Most persons in 

 the Eastern United States are familiar with the appearance of 

 Viola pedata. In the his, likewise, the petals are pale-blue for 

 the greater part, and white toward their bases. The yellow an- 

 thers of the violet are matched by yellow crests on the petals of 

 the iris ; and the whole aspect of the two plants is so similar 

 that it is difficult to distinguish them at a few rods distance. 

 Stranger still, the two deep-purple petals occasionally seen in 

 Viola pedata have a counterpart in an occasional streak of similar 

 color at the tips of the petals of Iris vcnia. 



The points of similarity between these two species are too 

 numerous and striking to be considered merely fortuitous, and 

 yet when we attempt to explain them we are confronted at once 

 with the difficulty of distinguishing between cause and effect. 

 There can be little doubt that both plants are pollinated by the 

 same insects (though direct evidence on this point is lacking), 

 and any complete explanation of the phenomena noted will 

 probably have to take this into consideration. Viola pedata, it 

 should be observed, is one of the few violets which have no 

 cleistogamous flowers and therefore presumably depends entirely 

 on insects for pollination. 



Analogous resemblances in the same general region are not 

 wanting. For instance, Lonicera sempervirens, Bignonia crucigera, 

 Spigelia marilandica and Aesculus Pavia, which grow on bluffs 

 in various parts of Georgia and Alabama, all bloom in late spring 

 and have red flowers about two inches long, more or less yellow- 

 ish at their extremities.* Illicium floridanum has nearly the same 

 habitat and time of flowering and its flowers are of the same color 

 but differently shaped. Roland M. Harper. 



Fasciations in Arisaema, Rudbeckia, and Viola. — An in- 

 teresting case of fasciation in Arisaema triphyllum was brought 

 *See Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 17 : 105. 1906. [Ined.] 



