32 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



been produced by crossing and in other ways. As to the value 

 of such forms, a prominent nurseryman whO' has had a number 

 of sticcesses in this hue, writes that a single novelty, the May- 

 flower tomato, brought him in $500, a new garden pea brought 

 $200 and the dealer who bought it added $100 more for the 

 privilege of naming it. Another pea, called the market garden 

 pea, brought nearly as much. It is said that Burbank got his 

 start in his chosen work by means of the Burbank potato^ which 

 he sold for $500. Of course the dealers why buy such novel- 

 ties expect to get their money back by selling the new plants 

 at an advance in price. Almost every plant catalogue that ap- 

 pears has one or more pages devoted to novelties of this kind. 

 When Pringle's American Triumph oats came out, one dealer 

 by rapidly accumulating stock sold more than a thousand 

 bushels at an advanced price, in Europe. 



New Form of Yellow Violet. — The violets have been 

 pretty well dissected during the past decade. The 6th edition 

 of ''Gray's Manual" listed nineteen species and six varieties; 

 the recent edition of the 'TUustrated Flora" includes forty-nine 

 species and no varieties, these latter having apparently all been 

 promoted to specific rank. One form seems to have been 

 missed, however. We have received from Miss Nell McMur- 

 ray. New Washington, Pa., a form of the stemmed yellow 

 violet in which the leaves are completely sessile. The species 

 of which this is an interesting form or variety, is the one 

 formerly called P^iola pubescens var. scabriusciila but which 

 more recently has been known as V. scabriuscida. W^e say "has 

 been known" for we are now asked to call the plant Viola 

 crio'carpa. The new form might be called V. criocarpa var. 

 sessilis. The name makes a handle to the plant, as it were, and 

 will do very well for future scientists to wrangle over, so we 

 will just tuck it away in this paragraph for the delectation of 

 the next generation of name tinkerers. The plants are much like 

 ordinary yellow violets except for the rather spoon-shaped 

 leaves which clasp the stems so closel}^ as to seem almost 

 perfoliate. 



