28 DICOTYLEDONOFS^. 



12. P. BoYKmii. Stem branching. Leaves verticillate by fours or ffves^ 

 obovate, lanceolate. Flowers in dense tapering spikes, pedicillate ; wings ob- 

 oyate; petals obovate scarcely as long as the wing; crest minute, "^^ecf 

 hirsute, with appressed hairs, 



©. June — September. Middle Georgia. 12-18 inches. 



13. P. Chapmanii Stem glabrous, branching from the base or summit. 

 Leaves numerous, linear, subulate. J'Zow.'ers in a loose spike ; wings with a 

 short claw, the posterior sepal very broad, obtuse ; scarcely any crest ; limb 

 of the petals distinct. Seed, black, hairy ; lobes of the caruncle Bmall. 



Rose color. ©• Florida. 12-15 inches. 



14. P. PoLYGAMA. Stem glabrous, angled, branching from the base, na- 

 raerous. Leaves sessile, oblong, linear, mucronate. Flovyers pedunculate, 

 in loose racemes; wings with short claws; keel 3-lobed, middle lobe fimbri- 

 ate. Radical racemes destitute of corolla or wings. 



Purple or reddish-purple. J*. Dry lands, common. 6-12 inches. 



{d.) Flowers in loose racemes ; heel not cristate. Caruncle without appendages. 



15. P. Grandifloka. Stem erect, pubescent, branching. Leaves oblong- 

 lanceolate acute, pubescent, strongly veined. Flowers 12-18, the lowest 

 more remote; pedicels recurved after flowering; wings large, nearly round, 

 covering the other pans of the flower, w hen first expanded red, afterwards 

 green. SeecZ villous. 



Red. %. May to Aug. S. C. & Georgia. Dry soils. &-12 inches. 



(e ) Flowers few, axillary or terminals 



16. P. Paucifolia. Stem simple, erect, naked at the base, leafy at the 

 summit, rising from a branching rhizoma. Leaves clustered, ovate, petioled. 

 jFZoicers generally terminal, by threes, larger than those of any other species ; 

 keel fimbriate ; wings, obovate, attenuate at the base. Lateral petals united 

 with the keel nearly to the summit. 



Purple. %. May — July. Mountains. 3-4 inches. 



Reinarks — The P. Senega or Seneca snake root is the only plant of this order ap- 

 propriated lo any use, in this country: although several of the species are beautiful 

 flowers, and would make ornaments of tlie flower garden. The root of; the Senega is 

 extensively used as a medicine, and possesses valuable properties, among the most im- 

 portant is its action as an expectorant ; on this account it enters into the composition of 

 most medicines for coughs, croup, asthma, and affections of the lungs. It; is entirely 

 an American medicine, being first used in Virginia. It is cathartic and is used in com- 

 bination with other medicines, for this property. 



Order XVI. VIOLACE^. 



Sepals 5, persistent, aestivation imbricate, usually auricled, 

 or elongated at the base. Petals 5, hypogynous, marcescent 

 or deciduous, with an oblique, convolute aestivation, one spur- 

 red at the base, generally unequal. Stamens 5, Q\ternate with 

 the petals ; anthers adnate, bilocular ; filaments extending 

 beyond the anthers, two of them appendaged at the base. 

 Ovary 1 -celled, with 3-parietal placentEe ; capsule many seed- 

 ed, with a loculicidal dehiscense. Seeds anatropous, with a 

 conspicuous chalaza. Herbaceous plants. 



Genus I. VIOLA. 



Sepals 5, unequal, auricled at the base. Petals 5, irreg- 

 ular, with a horn at the base of one of them. Stamens 5 ; 

 anthers cohering, the two lower ones with appendages on the 



