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VIOLA ODORATA. 
Sweet Violet.* 
Class Pentandria. — Order Monogynia. 
Nat. Ord. CAMPANACEiE, Linn. Cisti, Juss. 
Gen. Char. Calyx 5-cleft. Corolla 5-petalled, irregular, 
the upper petal spurred at the base. Anthers cohering. 
Capsule 3-valved, 1-celled. 
Spec. Char. Stem none. Scyons creeping. Leaves heart- 
shaped, smooth as well as the footstalks. Calyx obtuse. 
The genus Viola comprises a great number of species, more than 
forty of which are cultivated in our botanic gardens ;t these are 
chiefly natives of Europe and North America. The Viola Odorata is 
a perennial plant, indigenous to Britain, and very common to most 
parts of the country; in its wild state, it is usually met with on 
banks, under shady hedges, and in moist cool places, where it per- 
fumes the atmosphere with its fragrant odour, the sweetness of which 
has obtained for it the specific name of Odorata. This species of 
violet flowers in March, and continues blowing for many weeks; it 
has no stem, and rapidly increases by runners, which send out fibrous 
radicles 5 the leaves rise upon long petioles, they are heart-shaped, 
serrated, smooth on the upper surface, slightly wrinkled, and of a 
dark green colour ; the flowers stand a little higher than the leaves, 
upon long channelled footstalks, about the middle of which are 
placed a pair of small lanceolate bracteas ; the calyx is composed 
of five oblong acute pointed leaves ; the flowers are drooping, of a 
peculiar purple colour ; the corolla is composed of five unequal 
petals, the two lateral of which are opposite and somewhat bearded 
at Ihe base, the posterior one is slightly keeled, and has a horned 
nectarium ; the stamens are five, almost sessile, and terminate in a 
membranous expansion, that covers the upper part of the germen ; 
the germen is roundish, and curved with a falcated pistil. 
* Fig. a. The stamina, h. The pistilluin. c. The calyx, d. The pericarpium. e. A seed, 
t Hort. Cant. 
