1 6 PANSY, VIOLA AND VIOLET 



little chance amongst the titanic specimens of the coarse 

 exhibition kinds. 



The latter, unlike their small brethren, make large 

 plants to send out, as the cuttings are always so much 

 more lanky ; and this fact leads the novice to think that 

 the lanky and large plants are much better and more 

 forward than the "Sylvia" or "Cornuta" type. But 

 this, of course, is not the case. In some instances, these 

 large varieties have early blooms which not seldom are 

 their best, for, as the plant commences to grow and lateral 

 growths begin to appear, the main stem gets more lanky, 

 and at last topples over on to its side. Very few flowers 

 are then produced, and these of poor quality, and the plant 

 is not infrequently bereft of flowers until the shoots that 

 are evolved at the base of the plant have grown suffici- 

 ently well to produce flowers. This stage is, perhaps, 

 the happiest part of the existence of plants of this type, 

 for these growths get more elongated as time proceeds, 

 and the strength of the plant is given out in producing 

 rank growth. The best method to adopt when this 

 happens, is to cut off all the long growths ; this will 

 enable the plant to break away into growth again, and 

 produce more flowers. 



It will thus be seen, that although the flowers are of 

 immense size when the plants are taken care of, there 

 are times when great difficulty is experienced in obtaining 

 even passable blooms. The great thing when grown 

 for exhibition, which is in reality the only useful sphere 

 of the type under notice, is to time the growth of the 

 plants, so that when the show is about to take place they 

 are in just that state to produce blooms of a quality to 

 succeed. 



The habit of this ungainly type of plant resembles the 

 growth of the Fancy Pansy rather than that of the true 

 " Tufted Pansy," and it may confidently be assumed by 

 anyone that it therefore shares the likes and dislikes of 



