i,
|! point, folded in on each side at the base, so as to make it appear
hollow or cucullate, pennately nerved, and numerously
veined, rugged, notched at the edges with numerous broad
shallow notches, pubescent, of a pale green colour. Petioles
rather long, flattened but prominently ribbed on the upper
side, slightly winged by the sides, keeled underneath, clothed
with a short close pubescence. Stipules long, lanceolate,
tapering to a long slender point, fringed with long hairs.
Peduncle quadrangular, channelled down the back, bearing
a pair of opposite bractes about the middle. Bractes lanceolate,
taper-pointed, and fringed like the stipules. Flower
terminal, nodding, of a pale blue, white below the centre,
delightfully fragrant. Calyx deeply 5-cleft, the segments
oblong, obtuse. Petals 5, the upper part pale blue, the
lower part white : two upper ones, and the side ones, oblong
or cuneate obtuse ; the lower one shorter, broader, and
slightly retuse at the point. Spur about half the length of
the calyx, hooked a little at the point. Stamens 5, the three
upper ones sessile, the two lower ones on long crooked filaments
that extend down the spur: anthers two-celled, with
a brown membranaceous scale on their point. Ovarium
pubescent. Style slender at the base, thickening upwards,
bent at the point. Stigma hooked.
Our drawing of this interesting addition to our Sweet
Violets, was taken at the Chelsea Botanical Garden, last
Spring. Its flowers are very fragrant, and produced in
great profusion ; and the plant is readily increased by parting
the roots, or by seeds. We observed what we considered
the same species in theNursery of Messrs. Allen and Rogers.
It is a native of orchards in the Ukraine, and in hedge-rows
about Charkow. Distinguished from V. odorata by its paler
green herbage, and by its larger and paler flowers, with the
four upper petals longer and narrower, and the lowermost
broader and more distinctly emarginate. The stipules are
also narrower.
Viola, tov, in Greek, was the favourite flow'er of the
Athenians, and was our V. odorata. The name is of uncertain
derivation, but it has given rise to the name of a peculiar
colour, prevailing in the flowers of this genus.
1. Calyx. 2. Lower petal,
ditto. 5 . .Stamens. 6. l*istil.
3. One o f llic upper petals. 4. O n e o f the lateral
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