British Violets. 
303 
is closely allied to V. ericetorum (=V. canina in Mrs. Gregory’s 
book), and may be a hybrid of V. ericetorum and V. stagnina. 
The chief scientific value of Mrs. Gregory’s monograph lies in 
the assistance it affords to students of variation. For example, five 
varieties and two formce of V. odorata are described, and nine 
varieties and three formce of the allied V. liirta. In addition, five 
hybrid-forms are delineated of the putative hybrid V. liirta x odorata. 
One of the latter is referred to V. collina, which is usually treated 
as a distinct species in continental floras. 
Botanists of Benthamian leanings will be shocked by such 
intensive treatment. However, most of the forms described by Mrs. 
Gregory certainly exist in nature; and the authoress has, in the 
reviewer’s opinion, done a real service in drawing attention to them. 
Botanists may say, if they choose, that the existence of all these 
intermediates prove that V. liirta and V. odorata are only extreme 
forms of a single species ; but this argument, if applied consistently, 
would result in such a wholesale reduction of species that the 
followers of Bentham would themselves shrink from accepting their 
own conclusions. In the present book, intermediates (many of 
which are most probably of hybrid-origin) are also described between 
V. odorata and V. liirta, V. cpipsila and V. palustris, V. riviniana and 
V. sylvestris ( =V. reichenbachiana), V. ericetorum and V. riviniana, 
V. riviniana and V. rupestris (including V. arenaria), V. ericetorum 
and V. stagnina, V. ericetorum and V. montana, V. ericetorum and 
V. lactea, V. lactea and V. riviniana, and V. montana and V. stagnina. 
Thus, if the existence of intermediates be deemed of sufficient 
importance to justify the reduction of species, we should be left 
with only three British violets, one including the present V. liirta 
and V. odorata, the second including V , epipsila and V. liirta, 
and the third including all the caulescent forms. This indeed 
would represent Bentham’s views of the British violets, except 
that he retained V. liirta and V. odorata as distinct species, 
and that in a late edition of his Handbook, he added V. arenaria 
as a distinct species. One unfortunate effect which the synthetic 
grouping of allied plants into aggregate species undoubtedly 
has is the obscuring the important biological fact that the majority 
of the smaller species remain distinct and without intermediates 
wherever they grow apart from their allies. Thus V. riviniana on 
the siliceous soils of the Pennines shows no signs of approaching 
V. sylvestris ; but in the woods on calcareous soils in southern 
England where both plants occur, it is not difficult to connect the 
two forms by a string of intermediate plants. Such facts—and 
they are commoner than botanists have been inclined to believe— 
suggest that the two very different phenomena of hybridisation and 
variation have been confused by botanists of the Victorian period. 
Doubtless the two phenomena are, from some points of view, very 
closely related ; but it seems obvious that, from other points of 
view, they must be kept separate and distinct. Mrs. Gregory’s book 
is valuable because it honestly makes the attempt to keep the two 
phenomena distinct; and it succeeds in this as well as any attempt 
which is not based on actual experimental work can succeed. 
Here it may be pointed out that the actual crossing of British 
violets is no easy task on account of the small size of the flowers; 
but, as cleistogamous flowers are of common occurrence, it should be 
