VIOLA. 



V. altaica, but has yellow pansies of half the size with longer spurs. 

 It differs, on the other hand, from V. calcarata in having the spur no 

 longer than the petals, while the leaves are also narrower. It is an 

 alpine development on Scardus and Olympus ; each main branch of 

 Viola has its main habit at each elevation, shading into many develop- 

 ments in different countries and ranges, all appearing to emerge from 

 some far-off and vanished original ; thus, in the lowlands, V. tricolor 

 shifts and eddies like Proteus ; at alpine elevations V. calcarata is the 

 type of many ; and in the last and highest places of all, Mammola 

 rupina is the type of more, in East and West alike, but only in the 

 Old World. 



V. comollia is one of these, and the most distinct and brilliant. 

 It is unfortunately a very rare plant indeed, confined to one or two 

 screes in the Orobian Alps, where it runs about among the stones 

 after the fashion of V. cenisia, but that its leaves are elliptic or rounded, 

 and perfectly untoothed, while the nobly large flowers are sweetly 

 fragrant, and of a flaming vinous rose, more rich than even in V. 

 bosniaca, with the same opaque reverse of nankeen yellow to the 

 petals. It will take the same treatment as V. cenisia in cultivation, 

 but its rarity and preciousness are such that any nurseryman who 

 steals into possession of a piece divides it up as minutely as if it were 

 unicorn's horn, so that never does the buyer get hold of a fragment 

 with any strength in it left to live. And it is not always easy, in any 

 case, to make even full-rooted plants of the high-alpine stone-pansies 

 feel at home : if they are rootless there is no chance at all. 



V. conspersa (V. labradorica of lists) makes a leafy-stemmed, long- 

 armed plant in cool places, emitting in summer a quantity of pale 

 violets on stems from the axils of the straying sprays, above rounded, 

 scalloped leaves. It is also known as V. Muehlenbergii (Torr.). 



V. cornuta replaces V. calcarata in the Pyrenees, but otherwise is 

 only known about Grammont in Savoy, until we get to English 

 borders, where this star-flowered alpine Pansy is one of the best- 

 known in the whole race, forming rich masses of blossom on their long 

 stems all the summer in a blaze. There are many varieties, some with 

 white flowers, and one, " George Wermig," with dark violet ones ; 

 then there is the whole race of Tufted Pansies, which are the children 

 of V. cornuta by V. tricolor ; there is a neat thing called V. florariensis, 

 too, which blooms all the year round, with large lilac pansies, and is 

 a hybrid between V. cornuta and V. rotJiomagensis ; and finally, in 

 these later days, there is a yearly growing procession of intermediates 

 between V. cornuta and V. gracilis. Indeed, if these pansies and 

 violets are grown in any garden, it is nevor safe to weed even the 



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