7. VIOLACEiE. 175 



Agi-arian region. Inferagiarian — MidagTarian zones. 



Descends to the coast level, in the Peninsuhi. 



Ascends to 100 or 200 yards, in England. 



Range of mean annual temperatvu'e 51 — 47. 



Denizen. Septal and Sylvestral. This is usually treat- 

 ed as a true native ; but, if I except the Isle of Wight, I 

 have never seen an unsuspicious-looking locality for it. By 

 far the gi'eater niunber which have come under my own 

 eyes were in the immediate vicinity of gardens or houses ; 

 several of them about old castles, abbeys, fann-houses, and 

 such-like places. I have seen it occasionally remote fi-om 

 houses or gardens, near the sides of streams which over- 

 flow then- banks. But in the coppices of the Isle of 

 Wight, I must allow, it has very much the look of a true 

 native. There is one such locality in Thames Ditton pa- 

 rish, SuiTey, except that it is restricted to two yards of 

 gioimd, which tlu'ows suspicion upon it. Mr. Newman 

 has obsened the white variety plentiflil in old copses 

 near Godalming. Though reported from Forfai'shii-e, hke 

 almost everything else, by the late George Don, the 

 V. odorata is wholly omitted from the Floras of Aberdeen 

 and Moray ; not appearing even as a naturalized or intro- 

 duced species. Dr. Bromiield writes, in reference to the 

 southern extremity of England, the Isle of Wight, " Not 

 many species are more common than this in our woods, 

 copses and banks. Some of our thickets are cai-petted 

 with it and V. hirta ; but the flowers ^vith us are usually 

 white or lilac, rarely of the true violet colom-." I know not 

 that any English botanist has taken up the same idea, but 

 it has been suggested by a good botanist of the continent, 

 that V. odorata and hirta aie truly a single species only. 

 On the whole, pei'haps, we may receive V. odorata as a na- 

 tive of some few of the most southern provinces, and as a 

 tolerably well naturalized plant northward to the Clyde and 



