§ 2. Leaf-bearing throughout from an annual, biennial, or sometimes short-lived perennial root; the stipules large, leaf-like and lyrate-pinnatifid.
V. trícolor, L. (Pansy. Heart's-ease.) Stem angled and branched; leaves roundish, or the upper oval and the lowest heart-shaped, crenate or entire; petals variable in color or variegated (yellow, whitish, violet-blue and purple);—in var. arvénsis shorter or little longer than the calyx.—Dry or sandy soil, N. Y. to Iowa, Kan., and southward; the variety sometimes seeming like a native plant. April–Sept. (Nat. from Eu.)
2. SÒLEA, Spreng., in part. Green Violet.
Sepals not prolonged at the base. Petals nearly equal in length, but the lower one larger and gibbous or saccate at the base, more notched than the others at the apex. Stamens completely united into a sheath enclosing the ovary, and bearing a broad gland on the lower side. Style hooked at the summit.—A homely perennial herb, with stems leafy to the top, and 1–3 small greenish-white flowers in the axils, on short recurved pedicels. (Named in honor of W. Sole, author of an essay on the British Mints.)
1. S. cóncolor, Ging. Plant 1–2° high; leaves oblong, pointed at both ends, entire; pod 1´ long.—Woods, N. Y. to Kan., and southward. June.
3. IONÍDIUM, Vent.
Sepals not prolonged at base. Petals very unequal, the two upper shorter, the lower longest and largest, concave at base, contracted in the middle. Filaments distinct, the two lower with a scale-like gland or spur at base; anthers merely connivent.—Perennials, branching and leafy, with alternate and opposite leaves, and small axillary flowers. (Name from ἴον, violet, and εἶδος, appearance.)
1. I. polygalæfòlium, Vent. Stems low, from a woody base; leaves linear to oblanceolate, or the lower obovate, entire, the stipules leaf-like or small or none; flowers solitary, nodding, 2´´ long, white. (I. lineare, Torr.)—Kan. and southwestward.
Order 15. CARYOPHYLLÀCEÆ. (Pink Family.)
Herbs, with opposite entire leaves, symmetrical 4–5-merous flowers, with or without petals, the distinct stamens no more than twice the number of the sepals, either hypogynous or perigynous, styles 2–5 (or rarely united into one); seeds several or usually many, attached to the base or to the central column of the 1-celled (rarely 3–5-celled) pod, with a slender embryo coiled or curved around the outside of mealy albumen, in Dianthus nearly straight.—Bland herbs; the stems usually swollen at the joints; uppermost leaves rarely alternate. Leaves often united at the base. Calyx persistent. Styles stigmatic along the inside. Seeds amphitropous or campylotropous.