SOUTHERN COAST VIOLET 



Viola septemloba Le Conte 



This southern plant is one of our most showy violets, with larger 

 blossoms than most of its northern relatives. It grows in light, acid 

 soil, often in nearly pure sand, and is found in pine barrens from Mis- 

 sissippi and Florida northward to southeastern Virginia. The leaves 

 exhibit unusual variation in the number and shape of their lobes, so 

 that judging from leaf shape alone, one would often assume that sev- 

 eral species were represented in a single colony of the plants, were it 

 not for the fact that the form of flowers and seed pods is so uniform. 



The sketch was made from a specimen collected in North Carolina, 

 and brought into flower in the greenhouses of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture in Washington, District of Columbia. 



PLATE 142. 



