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GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



Early Spring Pansies 



RF.FEREXCE is made in the article on the pansies, 

 translated from the German by F. B. M. to I'iola 

 tricolor which "through the course of many cen- 

 turies."' etc., etc. Assuredly the author was writing for 

 the edification of the German people and maybe he meant 

 to imply that the Fatherland was responsible for the 

 modern pansy. 



.As a matter of fact, it was not until 1813 or 1814 that 

 Lord Gambier and Thompson, his gardener, started out 

 to improve the wild V. tricolor of Britain. Thomjjson 

 carried on for thirty years, but it was not until 1830 that 

 the regular blotched pan.sy was evolved. It was in the 

 earl\- 30's that the English pansy, as it was then, was 

 introduced into France and lielgium, where the growers, 

 heeding not the English ideal of the show types, de- 

 veloped what we now call fancy pansies. Probably the 

 German fanciers did not take up the pansies until around 

 the 50's, for the Belgian strain did not get back into 

 England till 18.^8. 



As to the violas, it is common news that these have held 

 a leading |K)sition as bedders in Great Britain for the 

 past 30 years or more ; in fact, James Grieve was working 

 with r. Intra and other species way back in 1860, and 

 around that time V. conutta came in for a boom, espe- 

 cially when the variety '"Perfection"' appeared in 1870 or 

 earlier. Dr. Stuart introduced the rayless violas in the 

 early 80's, these being from f^. cornuta x Pansy "Blue 

 King." Grieve did an immen.se amount of work with 

 violas, all of which possessed V . cornuta blood. 



These hybrids, of course, are larger and rounder than 

 the cornuta type; in fact, they rival pansies for size and 

 form. While some have the habit of pansies, the real 

 bedding violas are compact, hence the name, tufted 

 pansies. There are hundreds of varieties and the sales in 

 England and Scotland total millions annually, all being 

 propagated from cuttings. 



Regarding the true ]' . cornuta type, "George Wermig,"" 

 T think, was never anything more than nkl "Perfection." 

 "Papilio" is not as good as "Lord Nelson," but all retain 

 the smaller foliage and compact habit of the si>ecies. For 

 compactness, however, the strain, odinirohilis. is better, 

 altbiiugh the flower stems are shorter. 



.\s to earliness, even a native .American can smile at 

 the thought of V. cornuta and its varieties l)eing earlier 

 than the pansy developed from /'. tricolor, or the tro|)ical 

 viola. In P2ngland, it is common to find violas llowering 

 before the Winter is over and pansies sown in late July 

 in New Jersey will, in an open season, often he llowering 

 before Chri.stmas. Last year one grower lificij hundreds 

 and sold them before Christmas, but J', cornuta ])roper 

 certainly will not llowcr in anything like the same ])eriod. 



Judging bv the name, the so-called German cornuta 

 sorts are nothing more than W'inter blooming pansies 

 offered here. These so-called Winter ])ansies, grown 

 under the same conditions outdoors, will, 1 find, bloom a 

 little earlier than the ordinary sorts in the Spring. I was 

 aware they originated in Germany, although some arc 

 apt to think they originated in .America, but I certainh 

 did nf)t know they claimed special rc'l.ilionship to / '. 

 cornuta. If they have that rclationshi]), they are little 

 better than mongrelized pansies and if /'. cornuta is con- 

 nected with them, it has been eclipsed by the pansy par- 

 entage, both in the way of habit and flower. None of 

 them come anyways true to color and they vary in form. 

 The only bint that V. cornuta is in them is their ability 

 to bloom. T have a few. "W'inter Sun," ".March Wizard ' 

 and "Mars" CCelestial), on my rock work which have 



bloomed from A])ril till the present time. Straggly now, 

 of course, but to compare them with the really good 

 pansies is farcical. Under .glass, they do, I believe, yield 

 a crop in Winter, but that phase of growing pansies does 

 not really interest me. As I am mighty particular as to 

 the class of pansy which I grow, I certainly won't worry 

 about the so-called Spring sorts, not while I can have 

 real pansies and real violas. — T. \. Weston. 



SCENTED MUSK 



P LORUM .\.M.\TOR appears to claim that the scent- 

 less miisk is an improbability, and that what was 

 formerly scented nuist of necessity be scented now. I 

 am not faiuiliar with any other plant formerly scented 

 but now scentless, but I may mention that it is generally 

 admitted that many modern roses, sweet peas and car- 

 nations are deficient in perfume compared with earlier 

 forms. Cross breeding and striving after size and torm 

 is supposedly responsible, but with musk, no such offence 

 I;as ever been committed. The perfume has simply van- 

 ished, and whether one raises seedlings or propagates 

 by division, the results appear to be the same. — T. .\. W. 



THINGS AND THOUGHTS OF THE GARDEN 



(Continued from page 328) 



l>eaiU\ in trees and shrubs in Winter, and the deciduous 

 ones which are so largely ignored at that time have 

 many points of beauty which we would be well re])ai(l lor 

 appreciating. 



^ :!; ^ 



\'ery common expressions are heard to the effect 

 that a heavy fall of snow "is as good as a dose of fer- 

 tilizer," and" the "snow is the poor man"s fertilizer" wdien 

 it comes in Spring. That there is some value to both 

 snow and rain water has been proved by 1"". T. Shutt. 

 chemist of the Dominion of Canada in a recent repin-t 

 issued. The experiments were limited to determining 

 the amount of free ammonia, albuminoid, and nitrons and 

 nitric nitrogen. During the year seventy-nine samples 

 of rain and twenty-five of snow were analyzed. The total 

 precipitation amounted to 844 mm., of which .^94 lum. 

 were rain ;ind 250 mm. were snow (10 mm. of snow 

 equals 1 nnu. of water). The total amount of nitrogen 

 a])plied by these precipitations were 7,971 kilograms per 

 hectare (a kilogram equals 2 lb. 3 oz., and a hectare 

 equals 11,960.33 square yards). It was found that the 

 total amount of nitrogen supplied by rain and snow over 

 a period of ten years averaged 7,375 kilograms ])er hec- 

 tare annually. This goes to prove that there is some 

 fertilizing value in rain and snow, and jierhaps accounts 

 for the fact that many skilled gniwers always cnii)ha- 

 sized the value of rain water for such plants as ericas, 

 exacris and orchids as giving them just the necessary 

 plant food desired. 



Li-;irn ihc^c two things. — never be disconr;iged lu'cause 

 giKid things get im .so slowly here, and never f;iil daily 

 to (In that good which lies next to your hand. Do not 

 be in a hurry, but be diligent. I'lnter into the sublime 

 patience of the Lord. He charitable in view of it. Ciod 

 can .-ilViird to wait: why cannot we, since we have lliiu 

 tn fall b.uk ti|)onr-' Let Patience h;ive her ])erfecl work, 

 .•md bring forth her celestial fruits. Trust to ( lod to 

 weave \-(ini- lillle thread into a web, lb(inL;h the ]i;ilt(M-ns 

 show it iiiii \rt. (li-.oKci-: M.xcDon.m o. 



