Endo oo 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION, 
the Annales des Sctences Naturelles, may 
not be unacceptable to those Botanists of 
our country, who desire to know the opi- 
nions of a very accurate observer, on the 
subject of the limits of these two species. 
“Viola tricolor, L.—Most authors con- 
sider this plant as either annual or bien- 
nial; but it is monocarpous only in sandy 
or cultivated soil. Schlechtendahl has al- 
y made this observation on the V. 
tricolor of the neighbourhood of Berlin, 
(FI. Berol. 1. p. 135.), and I myself pos- 
Sess specimens of the variety alpestris, 
native of the Pyrenées and the Mountains 
of the Lozére, where the root bears the 
remains of old stems, which evidently 
prove a former flowering-season. I am, 
however, far from supposing that the plant 
is perennial, even in heavy soil, but it is 
p. 123), 
terms perennant in 'ppoditiof E peren- 
nial, and which flower, at least, two suc- 
cessive years, without being of unlimited 
duration. Such are Cerastium triviale, 
Diplotazis viminea, Herniaria hirsuta 
and glabra, Sagina procumbens, &c. The 
Viola tricolor is also peculiar in its stems, 
in its stipules, and its flowers. The for- 
mer are angular, generally few in number, 
Simple, erect, elongated, many-flowered, 
with intermediate joints often much longer 
than the leaves. "The blossoms vary to an 
extraordinary degree, both in size and co- 
lour: but, amidst all these variations, the 
Spur is always short, scarcely exceeding 
the calycine — in length. Th 
leaves, which are co nstantly crenulated, 
are either notched into a heart-shape at 
the base, or lengthened more or less gra- 
dually into a petiole; they are either re- 
niform, oval or oblong, or even lanceolate, 
and these several modifications may be 
observed on the same stalk, the shorter 
forms growing on the lower part of the 
plant, and the more elongated ones on the 
[c 
< ppor pe The inferior stipules are very 
or even exactly similar 
) 
od the deaf, (V. Kitaibeliana, R. & S. 
ones, on the contrary, are al- 
‘ways oblong and deeply laciniated on both Ki 
159 
sides, towards the leaf, with one or two 
linear lobes, upright or but little ex- 
panded, the superior oné always much 
exceeded by the top of the stipule, the 
inferior one always more or less distant 
from the base of this same stipule ; on the 
exterior side of five or six lobes, some- 
times reduced to three or four, the supe- 
rior one linear, upright or but little ex- 
panded, always exceeded by the top of the 
stipule, the others gradually a little shorter 
and narrower, but much expanded, the 
inferior one always well marked, always 
subulate and reflected, always setting off 
from the very base of the stipule. As for 
the summit of the stipule, (the terminal 
lobe,) it is always spathulate ; and more 
or less similar to the leaf, though never 
notched into a heart-shape at the base; it 
is frequently marked by two or four 
notches; and is never found perfec 
entire, but in the upper stipules of the 
dwarf varieties. All these lobes are united 
by a large membrane, and it may be said, 
in few words, that the stipule is spathulate, 
with a base which is enlarged and pinnati- 
fid on the exterior side, and with diverging 
lobes. Such is the Viola tricolor, which 
is common in the Pyrenées, and which in 
the plains, begins to flower so early as € 
month of March." 
“Viola grandiflora, L. his lt d has 
been described by Linneus (Mant. Prim. 
p. 120) in a very characteristic manner, 
and stated to be a native of the Alps and 
Pyrenées; and those authors, who, on the 
faith of the Linnean Herbarium, have re- 
garded the V. grandiflora as a synonym 
of V. Altaica, can surely never have read 
the article to which I allude. It is de- 
scribed under the name of V. grandiflora 
in Vill. Dauph., in De Cand. Fl. Fr. and 
Gaud. Fl. Helv.—1t is also the V. lutea, 
De Cand. Fl. Fr. Suppl., of Mert. and 
Koch, Deutsch. Fl, and probably of the 
English authors. ikewise it is the V. 
Calaminaria, Lig., the V. Sudetica, Willd. 
and of Enum. Ging. in De Cand. Prodr. 
—4he V. Villarsiana, Rem. and Schult. 
rene Veg. the V. lutea, 3. grandiflora, 
. and the V. tricolor, Balb. Fl. 
