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GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



The Modern Violet ( Violaceae) Its History and Culture 



CHARLES MILBURN 



ylOLACEAi is a beautiful and wtll-known family, 

 the flowers of which are among the most attrac- 

 tive subjects of our rock and Alpine gardens, and 

 is found in manj- paits of Europe, the Alps, Sweden, the 

 Pyrenees, and our own United States. 



From the violet, most of the wild flowers of northern 

 England derive their beauty and delicate fragrance. No 

 family has given us anything more valuable than the 

 garden pansies and Violas or tufted pansies [Viola Intca) 

 found along the hedgerows and pastures of northern 

 England and Scotland. 



Viola tricoior, a native of the Old World, is the wild 

 species from which the many varieties of pansies and 

 violets seem to have been developed, and the most beauti- 

 ful of them all is the large single violet, Princess of Wales. 



A successful grower of violets must given the careful 

 attention necessary, as the erratic climatic conditions of 

 this section are very trying for the plants. The soil 

 should consist of moderately sandy loam, with some clay, 

 preferably from an old pasture, and stacked in a compost 

 heap with well rotted manure, mixed in the proportion of 

 one part manure to four parts soil. Before putting in the 

 houses or frames, the soil is thoroughly worked over with 

 about twenty-five pounds of unslacked lime added to the 

 soil for three hundred plants. They can be planted in 

 solid beds or raised benches, or in frames. The writer has 

 used all these methods with success, both in the North 

 and in the vicinity of Washington, D. C. 



Violets are propagated by division of the crowns, and 

 by offshoots or runners, which are rooted in sand. These 

 runners or cuttings are taken in late Winter or early 

 Spring, without disturbing the old plants. At the end of 

 the flowering season, usually around April 15, the old 

 plants may be split into several pieces, with roots at- 

 tached, and planted into small pots. The rooted plants 

 are planted in the garden in May about eight inches apart 

 in ten-inch rows for double violets ; single Princess of 

 Wales, twelve inches apart in twelve-inch or eighteen-inch 

 rows. Abundant water is needed in the growing season. 

 The runners are cut oft', not torn, and every effort made 

 to secure strong, healthy plants by Fall. 



Some varieties require a heavier soil tlrin nthers. and 

 a thin mulch of fine, well-rotted cow manure may be 

 given in August. The plants are syringed through Sutn- 

 mer and early Fall, as a deterrent to red spider, but bv 

 the middle of October this must be avoided. 



Constant work is needed in keeping the beds clean ; 

 weeds, dead leaves, and abortive flowers are all removed, 

 and burned, for their presence invites disease. Runners 

 and dead leaves are always cut off: to tear off. invites 

 fungi tn work on the lacerated tissue. 



-About the middle of October the plants are lifted care- 

 fully, and planted in the greenhouse or frames, as the 

 case may be, and carefully, watered and cultivated, hut 

 thev should never be sprayed overhead in cloudy weather. 



Frame culture consists of lifting the plants that have 

 been grown outdoors, around the 15th of October or 1st 

 of November, to the frames twelve inches bv twelve inches 

 apart, for Princess of Wales, and cultivating as long as 

 fine open weather continues. Around December 1, manure 

 should be banked around the frames, and double sash 

 glass iilaced over them for the Winter, which will keep 

 them at the proper temperature of forty or forty-two de- 

 grees in zero weather. Thev .should have abundant ven- 

 tilation and water on all bright days. .\s the sun begins 



to gain in strength towards Spring, the grower will be 

 rewarded with very fine large fragrant flowers about an 

 inch across, which should be picked daily, until they be- 

 come exhausted in late Spring. 



Eternal vigilance, good judgment, and an open loca- 

 tion, where the plants can get plenty of ventilation (they 

 are cool weather plants), are the factors for success in 

 violet culture, but weak or diseased parent stock will 

 nullify the most intelligent work. Men of experience ac- 

 quire a knowledge of the plant that cannot be obtained 

 from books, and thus appear to have some secret that is, 

 after all, only accpired by hard work and close observa- 

 tion. Violets must be picked fresh daily, as they are 

 evanescent. 



The varieties of the sweet violet (Viola odorata) are 

 very numerous. There is a single white, a single rose, 

 a double white (the Czar, a very large and sweet variety, 

 much grown in England), the Queen of Violets, La 

 France, California. Loxonne, Princess of Wales, Belle de 

 Chatenay, Lady Hume Campbell, Marie Louise, Swanley 

 White, Gov. Herrick, Victoria Regina, etc., and a per- 

 petual blooming violet, well known in France as La 

 Violette des Quatre Saisons. This variety differs from 

 the true violet or sweet violet, but is valuable for its long 

 season. It is the variety used by gardeners around Paris, 

 which is grow'n on a vast scale, many acres being covered 

 by these flowers, which are also shipped to Covent Gar- 

 den, London, and from there to all parts of England. 



Marie Louise is a very good kind, and a great advance 

 upon the old Neapolitan, but Princess of Wales, a fine 

 single, with an exquisite fragrance, surpasses them all. 



Other species are Viola pedata (Bird's Foot Violet), 

 the most beautiful of our own American violets. 



Viola reniformc (New Holland Violet), a native of 

 Australia, with white flowers about two inches high. 



Viola rothomagcnsis (Rouen Violet), with purple and 

 white flowers, a native of Sicily. 



Viola tricolor .(Heart's Ease) is known as the pansy, 

 with its many colors and combinations of colors, which 

 in all probability descended from Viola altaica. 



C)ne of the most common weeds of Scotland is the 

 wild violet {hUea). 



Viola biHora (Two Flowered Yellow Violet) is found 

 in the Alps, and is useful in rockgardens. 



Viola calcarata (Spurred Violet) is also an Alpine 

 plant, with white, lilac and yellow flowers. 



Viola cornnta (Horned Pansy) is now a favorite in 

 England, which has several named varieties. 



Viola- ciicullata is our own American violet, which re- 

 sembles the common violet without fragrance. 



Other species are gracilis, lutea, Munbyaiia, valderia. 



Grown under glass, violets are often injured by a small 

 maggot, that causes the edges of the leaves to curl and 

 turn yellow and die. The adult is a very minute fly, re- 

 sembling a mosquito. Pick oft' and destroy the infected 

 leaves, and fumigate with hydrocyanic acid gas. Other 

 troublesome pests are black fly, green fly, gall fly, violet 

 saw fly, greenhouse leaf tyer, and red spider. An an- 

 thracnose and a root-rot, especially destructive to young 

 plants transplanted in hot weather, is controlled by steril- 

 ization of the soil, and by using a solution of formal- 

 dehvde. 



