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SEED-THROWING OF VIOLA .- The article of R. G. Leavitt on "Seed
Dispersal of Viola rotundifolia" in the September RHODORA I read
with much interest. When I began to cultivate plants in a botanic
garden some twenty-five years ago, I thought it would be very nice
to have as many kinds of violets as I could get, growing close together
in one group. All went well for about three years when I found my
plants hopelessly mixed, because the seeds were shot several feet
from the parent plants. For a long time I have planted the violets
each in a separate place about the garden to enable me to keep them -
pure. The best shooter of the lot is Viola alpestris, which frequently
scatters its seeds ten feet in either direction .- W. J. BEAL, Agricultural College, Michigan.