Plate 350. 

 VIOLA PEDATA. 



The caprices of fasliion arc oftentimes productive of strange 

 consequences. The efforts of the pre-Haffaelite school in giving 

 an artistic value to red hair liave made tliat which was formerly, 

 if not considered a defect, at least but little regarded, become 

 tlic rage, and everytliing was done to produce that which was 

 formerly despised. lu the same way in the realms of Flora ; 

 many a plant that has heretofore "bloomed unseen, and wasted 

 its sweetness on tlu> desert air," lias been invested with an im- 

 portance wliicli their intrinsic worth and beauty would never 

 have gained for them. 



This has been notably the case with some members of the 

 family of ^'iola ; for example, more was said and written last 

 year upon the claims of Hula corn ii fa as an edging plant tluiii 

 al)i)ut any other plant of the season. No lady could have been 

 more anxious to declare that she had just exactly that golden 

 tint of hair whicli constituted tlie painter's ideal of beauty, than 

 was this and tliat writer to show that liis strain of Viola conit(f(( 

 was exactly the true one, and the Aery tint that was required. 

 Having tried it somewhat extensively, we can bear witness to 

 its good efF(>ct, especially as an edging to il/yvs. Pollock Pelar- 

 gonium, and its very great duration of l)lo()ming, from May to 

 October, gives it a value Avhich many ollu-r edging plants are 

 deficient in. 



Anotiier member of the f\imily is tlie plant whicli we now 

 figure, and for whicli we arc indebted to the Messrs. Backhouse 

 and Son, of York, and whose description of it is as follows: — 

 " By far the most beautiful of any of the American "Molas 

 which we have seen, and liitlierto very rare in tliis country. 

 The leaves are deeply divideil, like the foot of a bird, and the 



