Viola.] violacejE. 53 



Var. a. Not common. About the ruins of Quarr abbey, sparingly, Miss Anne 

 Salter!!! Abundant at Steephill with var. fi., and in Pelham woods, sometimes 

 with lilac blossoms, A. Hambrough, Esq. Near Carisbrooke, Miss Wise. In the 

 Tulip-meadow near Hardingshute farm, and hedgebanks of the fields adjoining, 

 in plenty. 



Var. &. The more frequent form in this island. Common about Ryde, at 

 Quarr abbey, &c., mostly without any tuft or line of hairs on the lateral petals. 

 Abundant at Steephill (also the beardless var.) About Newchurch. Abundant 

 on the N. side of Shorwell, about North Court, &c. In the thicket at the top of 

 Alvington-manor chalk-pit. Close to the Forest Barn between Skinner's hill 

 and Queen Bower, also, according to report, with pink blossoms by the roadside 

 between Newchurch and Newport, E. Vernon, Esq. 



Root or rather rhizome creeping, much branched and fibrous below, scaly above, 

 emitting long horizontal stolons that take root at intervals and shoot up into fresh 

 plants. Leaves springing from the crown of the caudex, roundish heart-shaped, 

 obtuse or slightly pointed, somewhat shining, evenly and bluntly crenate, more or 

 less clothed with fine erect pubescence, most copious in the young state, when 

 older becoming for the most part nearly glabrous. Petioles very long, semicylin- 

 drical, grooved above, downy with short deflexed hairs, or like the leaves 

 themselves nearly glabrous, with a basal pair of large, pale, lanceolate, 

 acute, entire or somewhat toothed, free stipules fringed with distant glandular 

 points. Peduncles solitary, from the busoms of the leaf-stalks, 3 or 4 inches 

 long, obsoletely quadrangular, channelled, smooth or slightly hairy, the hairs 

 patent or deflexed ; having a pair of narrow, acute, erect, opposite or sometimes 

 rather distant bracts, usually situated a little above the middle of the peduncle, 

 never I believe in this species below the centre, and occasionally much higher up, 

 their edges slightly fringed, toothed or serrate. Flowers drooping from the 

 deflexion of their peduncles at top, similar in size and appearance to those of the 

 last species, but of a deeper more purplish blue, and giving their name to that 

 peculiar tint, often varying in ^. to lilac or white ; in all the varieties for the most 

 part delicately fragrant, or occasionally (as in specimens before me from Steep- 

 hill) from local peculiarities nearly scentless. Sepals oblong, very obtuse, 

 obscurely 3-nerved, smooth, with narrow membranous borders, their tips mostly a 

 little recurved. Petals streaked in the purple var. towards the base with darker 

 lines, quite plain in the white, rounded, entire, the lower one only emarginate, in 

 both varieties either with, or (as in those of each kind before me) without any tuft 

 or line of pellucid hairs on the lateral petals towards the claw, though said to be 

 more frequently present than wanting ; spur (nectarium) short, very obtuse and 

 inflated. Anthers nearly sessile, converging but not united, with orange-coloured 

 scariose points, the two undermost with a broad, vertically compressed, fleshy 

 appendage from the back of each, with thickened diverging green tips, enclosed 

 by the spur. Ovarium conical, hispido-pilose, with several prominent ridges. 

 Style suddenly contracted a very little above the origin, then enlarging upwards 

 to a nearly uniform thickness, as far as the acute, beak-like, horizontal or some- 

 what deflexed stigma. 



As in the last species, some of the later flowers seem more or less imperfect or 

 apetalous. Independent of the delightful perfume of this humble flower, that ere 

 the swallow comes 



" takes the winds of March with beauty,'' 



discovering its name and retreat to the most unlettered admirer of Nature, before 

 our science 



" Ranged the wild rosy things in learned orders. 

 And fiU'd with Greek the garden's blushing borders." 



Other marks sufficiently distinguish it from the preceding. 



3. Y.palustris, L. Marsh Violet. Stemless, leaves roundish 

 or cordato-reniform crenato- serrate quite glabrous, sepals blunt- 

 ish, bracts placed about the middle of the peduncles, styles dilated 



