VIOLACEiE. 13 



the apes, with the stigmatic portion oa the rim on the under side. 

 Capsule opening loculicidally with a spring into 3 valves. Seeds 

 roundish-ovoid, with a hard and generally shining testa, and a 

 short dilated strophiole-like funiculus. 



Annual or perennial herhs, or sometimes undershrubs, with 

 alternate leaves and small or foliaceous stipules. Peduncles 

 axillary, 1- (very rarely 2-) flowered. Flowers inclined, blue, 

 pm'ple, white, yellow, or variegated with these colours. 



The word Violet is derived from a Greek word lor (ion). The ancients held a 

 legend that Violets were the first food of the cow lo, one of Jupiter's mistresses. 



Sub-Genus I.— KOMINIUM. Gr. & Godr. 



Lateral petals forming a less angle with the lowest petal than 

 with the upper ones. Style usually clavate and curved, with the 

 stigma on the inner side, or (more rarely) dilated and excavated 

 so as to form an oblique disk at the apex. 



Herbs with or without distinct stems. Stipules scarcely leaf- 

 like. Petalous flowers produced in spring or early summer, and 

 often barren; the seed being produced from apetalous flowers, 

 which appear later in the season. 



SFECIES I.— VIOLA PALUSTRIS. Linn. 



Plate CLXX. 



Eeich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. III. Viol. Tab. II. Fig. 4491. 



E-ootstock creeping, rather thick, scaly, producing radical 

 leaves and leafless pedimcles. Scions few, short, slender. Leaves 

 glabrous, on long stalks, nearly round or roundish-reniform, deeply 

 heart-shaped at the base, rounded or with a very obtuse angle at 

 the apex, faintly crenate. Stipules sub-membranous, broadly lan- 

 ceolate, fringed with glandular hair-like processes. Style nearly 

 straight, thickened towards the apex, where it is dilated into an 

 obliquely truncate disk, and produced into a short beak on the 

 upper side. Capsule oblong-ovoid, somewhat 3-sided, glabrous. 



In spongy bogs, or more rarely in swampy woods. Common in 

 the North ; but rare or local in the South, although generally dis- 

 tributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Spring and (apetalous 

 flowers) Summer. 



Rootstock white, somewhat fleshy, extensively creeping, emit- 

 ting a few white leafless stolons, and producing at the apex a tuft 



