VIOLACEjE. 



231 



lowest spurred at base. Stamens 5, with short and broad filaments 

 bearing the anthers on their inner face and connivent over the ovary. 

 Ovary superior, 1-celled, maturing into a 3-valved capsule with valves 

 placenta-bearing along the middle. Seeds rather large, with a hard 

 coat and straight embryo in fleshy endosperm. 



1. VIOLA L. Violet. 

 Perennial herbs with foliaceous persistent stipules and 1-flowered 

 axillary peduncles. Sepals unequal, produced below the point of 

 insertion into auricles, persistent. Stamens with broad connectives 

 which are prolonged beyond the anthers, the two lower bearing 

 spurs which project into the spur of the corolla. The valves of the 

 capsule bear the seeds along the middle, and after dehiscence fold 

 together firmly lengthwise and eject the seeds with violence. (Old 

 Latin name used by Virgil.) 



Leaves all undivided. 

 Flowers violet or purple; leaves broadly ovate, truncate or subcordate at 



base, obtuse at apex: var. adunca of 1. V. canina. 



Flowers white, or white and yellow and purple; leaves cordate- or 



triangular-ovate, more or less acute or pointed at apex 



2. V. oceilata. 



Flowers yellow. 



Stems erect, short; leaves often oblong; high montane.3. V. purpurea. 

 Stems erect, longer; leaves round-ovate with truncate base; low open 



hills 4. V. pedunculate.. 



Stems prostrate, stolon-like; leaves round-cordate, rounded at apex, 



glandular-dotted; Redwood belt 5. V. sarmentosa. 



Stems erect, long; leaves reniform-cordate, 1% to 3% in. broad; wet 



woods 6. V. glabella. 



Leaves divided; flowers yellow. 

 Acaulescent; leaves bipinnatifid into narrow segments. .7. V. Douglasii. 



Caulescent; leaves cleft or divided into few to several lobes 



8. V. lobata. 



1. V. canina L. var. adunca Gray. Dog Violet. Steins leafy, 

 2 to 4 in. high; leaves round-ovate to elliptic-ovate, the lower 

 inclining to be subcordate, obscurely crenate. ^ to lh in. long; stipules 

 more or less herbaceous and lacerate; petals violet, turning to red- 

 purple, 6 lines long or less, the lateral strongly bearded on the upper 

 side at base, the upper pair with a slight tuft in the middle at base; 

 spur much shorter or quite as long. 



Hilltops in the vicinity of the coast. Feb.-Apr. 



2. V. oceilata T. & G. Western* Heart's Ease. Caulescent, 

 the stems erect, 5 to 12 in. high, from creeping rootstocks; leaves 

 cordate- to triangular-ovate, crenate, acute or abruptly acuminate or 

 somewhat pointed at apex. 1 to 2£ in. long, the radical long-, the 

 cauline short-petioled; stipules small and scarious; pedicels mostly 

 shorter than the leaves; petals 5 to 7 lines long; two upper petals 

 white, violet-purple on the outside; the other petals white or yellow, 

 the lateral with a deep purple spot at base, the lower purple-veined 

 at base. 



Shady woods, Monterey and the Santa Cruz Mountains to Men- 

 docino Co.; not in the inner Coast Ranges. Mar.-June. 



