62 X. VIOLAEIEiE. 



Seeds with a fleshy albumen ; embryo axile, usually straight, the cotyledons 

 usually broad and flat, the radicle next the hilum. — Herbs or shrubs. Leaves 

 usually alternate, simple, and rarely lobed or cut, with lateral stipules. Flowers 

 axillary, solitary, or in cymes or panicles, very rarely in racemes. Pedicels 

 usually with 2 bracteoles. Capsules often opening elastically. 



An Order generally dispersed over the globe. The two Queensland genera have a very wide 

 geographical range. 

 Herbs or undershrubs, with very irregular flowers. Fruit capsular. 



Sepals produced into a small appendage, or at least a protuberance below their 



insertion. Lower petal spurred or saccate 1. Viola. 



Sepals not produced at the base. Lower petal saccate or gibbons at the base . 2. Ionidium. 



1. VIOLA, Linn. 



(Derived from its Greek name.) 



Sepals produced into a small appendage or protuberance below the insertion. 

 Petals spreading, the lowest usually larger, spurred or saccate at the base. 

 Anthers nearly sessile, the connectives flat, produced into a membranous 

 appendage beyond the cells, those of the 2 lower anthers usually bearing a small 

 dorsal reflexed protuberance or spur. Style variously thickened or dilated at the 

 top, straight with a terminal stigma, or incurved with the stigma in front. 

 Capsule opening elastically in 3 valves. Seeds ovoid -globular with a erustaceous 

 testa. — Herbs, with the stipules usually foliaceous and persistent. Peduncles 

 axillary, 1-flowered. Most species, besides the perfect flowers, produce later in 

 the season small apetalous but very prolific flowers. 



A very large genus, most of the species natives of the temperate regions of the northehi hemi- 

 sphere, or of the high mountains of South America, with a very few dispersed over Africa, 

 Australia, and New Zealand. The Australian species are either quite endemic or extend only to 

 Norfolk Island and New Zealand. They are aU perennials. — Benth. 



Stemless, with a tufted or creeping rhizome. 



Leaves lanceolate, oblong, or scarcely ovate. No stolons. Stipules 

 adnate 1. V. betoniccefolia. 



Leaves nearly orbicular. Stolons creeping. Spur reduced to a slight 

 protuberance. Stipules free 2. V. hederacea. 



1. V. betonicaefolia (Betony-leaved), Sm,; DC. Prod. i. 294; Betith. Fl. 

 Amtr. i. 99. Glabrous or pubescent, stemless, and without stolons, and often 

 tufted, the stock either ending underneath abruptly, with thick spreading fibres, 

 or tapering into a horizontal or descending root. Leaves radical, from lanceolate 

 to oblong or nearly ovate, mostly obtuse, and 1 to l|in. long, entire or slightly 

 crenate, truncate or slightly cordate, rarely narrowed at the base, with the long 

 petiole usually dilated at the top. Stipules linear, adnate to the petiole. Scapes 

 of the perfect flowers usually considerably longer than the leaves, with the 

 subulate bracts below the middle. Flowers violet, rather large. Sepals 

 lanceolate, acute, 2| to nearly 3 lines long, with short blunt basal appendages. 

 Lateral petals usually copiously bearded inside, the upper ones less so, the lowest 

 not at all ; spur broad and obtuse, much shorter than the sepals. Style thickened 

 upwards, concave at the top, not winged. Apetalous flowers on very short 

 scapes.— Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. i. 27 ; F. v. M. PI. Vict. i. 64 ; V. phyteumcefolia and 

 V. loTigiscapa, DC. in Herb. Lamb., from the char, in G. Don, Gen. Syst. i. 322. 



Hab.: Near Brisbane. 



Received also from Norfolk Island, Sackhouse, and the species is nearly allied to V. Patrinii, 

 DC, which is common in India, eastern Siberia, and China, and only appears to differ from V, 

 betoniccefoUa in the rather longer spur and the style usually broadly winged, 



