104 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



The History of the Cultivated Pansy. 



BY THEO. HOLM, BROOKLAND, D. C. 



The history of our cultivated plants 

 is a most difficult task to deal with, 

 but is quite interesting" and highly in- 

 structive. One has to study the geo- 

 graphical distribution of the species in 

 a wild stage, and the history of its 

 cultivation. The literature is copious, 

 but, nevertheless, there are many in- 

 stances, where wc do not get all the 

 information which we desire ; as a 

 matter of fact several of these plants 

 are no longer known to occur as "wild," 

 and there are very many that have 

 been cultivated for so many years, that 

 the year or first place of cultivation 

 cannot be traced. We all know that 

 the old Chinese and Egyptians .grew 

 cereals, vegetables and flowers, many 

 of which are still in existence, but their 

 native home is frequently yet unknown. 



However, the origin and cultivation 

 of our pansy does not date back that 

 far, and the earliest record we have is 

 from the sixteenth century, or to be 

 exact from the year 1542, when a Ger- 

 man botanist Leonhart Fuchs men- 

 tioned that the wild pansy was planted 

 in gardens on account of its pretty 

 flowers. This wild pansy was the 

 European Viola tricolor L., and its 

 popular name was at that time "Dvey- 

 faltigkeytblumlin" with the Germans, 

 and "pensee" with the French, but the 

 name under which it was best known 

 was however "herba trinitatis," refer- 

 ring to its three-colored petals. In 

 England the wild pansy (V. tricolor) 

 was cultivated during the last part of 

 the same century under the popular 

 names, "Hartes ease,'' "Paunsie," and 

 "Three faces in a hood.'' It is now in- 

 teresting to see that the English hor- 







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or--. 



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FIG. 1. VIOLA TRICOLOR 



FIG. 2. VIOLA CALCARATA 



