chap, yiil] iieart's-ease. 225 



1812, the present Lady Monck, then Lady 

 Mary Bennet, had a small flower-garden en- 

 tirely planted with heart's-eases in the garden 

 of her father, the late Earl of Tankerville, at 

 Walton-upon-Thames. The young lady natu- 

 rally wished to get as many different sorts into 

 her garden as possible; and, at her desire, the 

 gardener, Mr. Richardson, raised as many new 

 kinds as he could from seed. From this small 

 beginning the present passion for heart's-eases 

 took its rise. Mr. Richardson, astonished at 

 the great variety and beauty of his seedlings, 

 showed them to Mr. Lee of the Hammersmith 

 Nursery. Mr. Lee instantly saw the advan- 

 tages to be derived from the culture of the 

 plant; other nurserymen followed his example, 

 and in a few years the heart' s-ease took its 

 place as a florists' flower. The heart's-ease 

 mania was at its height from 1835 to 1838; 

 but since that time it has appeared somewhat 

 on the decline. The most splendid flowers 

 grown for exhibition are generally hybrids, 

 which possess, in a great degree, the qualities 

 of both parents. Thus, though almost every 

 heart's-ease has sprung partly from the wild 

 kind (Viola tricolor), its other parent may be 

 traced by its general appearance. The very 

 large dark purple and yellow flowers are de- 

 scended from Viola grandiflora, a species with 

 large yellowish flowers; other large flow T ers, 

 with dark purple upper petals, and the lower 

 ones of a bluish tinge, are descended from V. 

 amcena; and the offspring of V. lutea are 

 nearly all yellow, strongly marked with very 

 dark branched lines. The hybrids raised partly 



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