68 VIOL ACE iE, cleome. 



VIOLA. 



C, platycarpa Torr. Bot. Wilkes 235, t. 2. Pubescent and glandular: 

 1-3 feet high: leaves 3-foliolate; leafletb broadly oblong to lanceolate, 6-8 

 lines long: flowers very showy, Krigbt yellow; sepals Jinear-setaceous, vil- 

 lous: petals broadly lanceolate, without claws : pods elliptical, 8-10 lines 

 long, stipe about as Ion? as the pod, equalling the pedicels; style slender, 

 about 3 lines long. Hillsides, John Da^ valley, Oregon to northern Cali- 

 fornia a'ld western"Nevada. 



Ordeb IX. VIOLA CEiE S. F. Gray Nat. Arr. ii, 667. 



Sepals 5, persistent, imbricated in the, bud. Petals 5, alter- 

 nate with the petals, hypo^yno^s, on short claws, commonly 

 unequal. Stamens 5, alternate with the petals, inserted on the 

 torus: anthers adnate, i^trorse 2-celled, opening longitudinally: 

 filaments broad, elong9,ted beyond the anthers, ovary I-celled, 

 3-valved, with 3 parietal placentae, several ovuled. Style 

 usually declined with an oblique cucuUate stigma. Seeds ana- 

 tropoiis with a straight embryo in the axis of fleshy albumen. 

 Ours are low herbs with watery somewhat acid juice, alternate 

 leaves with persistant stipules and axillary flowers. 



1 VIOLA Tourn. Inst. 419, t. 236 L. Gen. n. 1007. 



Perennial or annual herbs with alternate stipulate leaves and 

 mostly one-flowered axillary 2-bracteolate peduncles. Early flow- 

 ers usually showy and often infertile, the later ones often cleistog- 

 amous and more fertile. Sepals more or less auricled at base. 

 Petals unequal, the lower one produced at base into a nectarifer- 

 erous sac or spur, the others of about equal length. Filaments 

 very short or none : anthers connivent but distinct, at most 

 lightly coherent, the two anterior each with a dorsal appendage 

 or spur projecting into the spur or sac of the lower petal. Style ; 

 often flexuous below, enlarged .upward. Capsule usually ovoid, 

 crustaceous or coriaceous : valves several-seeded. Seeds obovoid 

 or globular, smooth. 



Ours are all perennial with part or all of the stipules more or 

 less sc£|,rious, never emulating the blade of the leaf . The two 

 upper petals turned backw;ard, and the lateral ones turned for- 

 ward, toward the lower one, or merely spreading. 



* Strictly acaulescent, the leaves and scapes directly from root- 

 stocks: gibbous-clavate with inflexed or truncate and beardless summit 

 and an introrsely beaked or short-pointed small proper stigma. 



■^- Ilootstock thick and comparatively short, never filiform or pro- 

 ducing runners qr stolons : spur of the corolla only saccate : cleistoga- 

 mous flowers abundant and short peduncled. 



V. cognata Greene Pitt, iii, 145. V. cucullaia of avthors as to our 

 plants. Acaulescent ; rootstocks short and thick : leaves long-petioled, 

 smooth or more or less pubescent, slightly fleshy, cordate with a broad 

 sinus, the earliest often reniform and the later acute or acuminate, cre- 

 nately toothed: scapes 2-10 Inches high, about equalling the leaves: pet- 

 als 5-8 lines long, blue or violet, all villoiis at base, tlie three lower very 

 strongly bo: spur only- saccate! 'styls smooth ; stigma small, beaked Of 



