TIOLACEiE. 



109 



and shape of the sepals and petals. In all the British species, except the 

 Pansy, the sliowy, perfect flowers seldom set their fruits. The capsules 

 and seeds are generally produced by minute flowers, almost without petals 

 or stamens, which appear later in the year. 



Sepals obtuse. Flowers and leaves apparently radical. Stem very short. 



Leaves glabrous, renifonn. Flowers small, eeentless !• Marsh V. 



Leaves more or less downy or hairy. 



Flowers sweet-scented. Lateral scions creeping 2. ^'eet I. 



Flowers scentless. No creeping scions. Leaves very hairy .... 3. Hairy v . 

 Sepals acute. Annual flowering branches more or less elongated. 



Stipules narrow, entire, eihate or toothed. Stigma hooked and pointed 4. Dog I . 

 Stipules deeply divided. Stigma thickened, with a tuft of hairs below it 5. Fansy V. 



The V. calcarata from the Alps, the V. cornuta from the Pyi-enees, and 

 occasionally a few other exotic species, may be met with in our gardens. 



1. Marsh Violet. Viola palustris, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 444.) 



The stock occasionally emits runners or scions, hke the suieet V., but it 

 is a smaller plant, and perfectly glabrous, except very rarely a few hau-s on 

 the peduncles. Leaves reniforni or orbicular, and cordate at tlie base, very 

 shghtly crenate. Flowers smaller than iu the sweet V., of a pale bhie, with 

 purple streaks, and quite scentless ; the sepals obtuse, the spur vei-y short. 

 Stigma broad, oblique. 



In marshy ground and bogs, widely distributed over northern and central 

 Europe, Eussian Asia, and North America. Abundant iu Scotland, but 

 decreasing southwards, and quite local in southern England. Common in 

 some parts of Ireland. Fl. spring and early summer ; the petalless JJoivers 

 in summer. 



2. Sweet Violet. Viola odorata, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 619.) 



Perennial stock short, but sometimes branched, knotted with the remains 

 of the old leaf-stalks and stipules, and usually emitting creepbig runners or 

 scions. Leaves in radical (or rather, terminal) tufts, broadly cordate, 

 rounded at the top, and crenate, downy or shortly hairy, with rather long 

 stalks. Stipules narrow-lanceolate or linear, and entire. Peduncles about 

 as long as the leaf-stalks, with a pair of small bracts about halfway up. 

 Flowers nodding, of the bluish-purple colour named after them, or white, 

 more or less sweet-scented. Sepals obtuse. Spur of the lower petal short. 

 Stigma pointed, horizontal or turned downwards. 



On banks, under hedges, in woods, and on the borders of meadows, widely 

 spread over Europe and Bussian Asia, extending northward to southern 

 Sweden. Common in many parts of Britain, although here and there large 

 districts are without it. Fl. early spring, or some garden varieties in ati- 

 tumn ; the small petalless flowers that produce the seeds inay be seen nearly 

 all summer. Some Continental botanists distinguish several species from 

 minute differences in the shape and hairs of the petals. 



3. Hairy Violet. ' Viola hirta, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 894.) 

 Very near the sweet V., and most probably a mere variety, seldom pro- 

 ducing runners, more hairy ui aU its parts, with narrower and less obtuse 

 leaves, and scentless flowers. 



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