in Europe, Siberia, and North America; the woody species, of 

 which the Hawaiian forms are representative, are mainly natives 

 of tropical America. The Violas are leafy-stemrhed or stemless 

 herbs, or small shrubs; the Hawaiian species sometimes reach a 

 height of 6 feet. The leaves are alternate, with persistent stip- 

 ules. ]\Iost species produce t^vo sets of flowers. The early 

 set is sho^^-}^ petaliferous, often fragrant, and usually sterile. 

 This is succeeded by a set of cleistogamous flowers that are 

 usually without petals, and never expand, but bear abundant 

 seed. These small apetalous cleistogamous flowers are very 

 fertile and quite diverse in structure, and are of great taxonomic 

 value. The 5 imbricate, persistent sepals are generalh' produced 

 at the base below their insertion. The 5 petals are unequal, the 

 lowest one spurred, forming a nectar sac. The 5 stamens are 

 hypog>mous, alternate with the petals, and on short filaments or 

 subsessile. They closely surround the ovary, with their con- 

 nective prolonged beyond the apex ; the 2 lowest with appendages 

 that project into the spur. In the cleistogamous flowers these 

 two stamens alone develop. 



The ovary is simple, i -celled, with 3 parietal placentae. The 

 capsule is 3-valved, loculicidal,and opens elastically when mature. 

 The valves spring back and at the same time fold on the middle, 

 so that the seeds are forcibly ejected. The seeds are anatropous, 

 with a hard testa and copious albumen ; ovoid-globose ; embryo 

 straight, axile ; cotyledons flat. 



It is well known that allied species of Viola hybridize freely 

 when growing together, and it is possible that some of the 

 Hawaiian forms have originated in this way. The hybrids 

 commonly display characters which are more or less intermediate 

 to those of the parent species. The off"spring of the hybrids are 

 frequently much unlike the parent stock and unlike each other, 

 and revert to the characters of the two original species. 



The Hawaiian Violas, like those of other parts of the world, 

 contain an alkaloid which possesses emetic and laxative proper- 

 ties. Several species were used medicinally by the primitive 

 Hawaiians for skin diseases, as emetics, etc. 



The endemic genus Isodendriofi is distinguished from Viola 



