74 PANSY, VIOLA AND VIOLET 



Another way is to slightly and carefully pull down 

 the bottom petal of the seed-bearing flower, and to 

 insert along the inside of its channel-like formation the 

 lower petal from the pollen-bearing flower, so that the 

 stigma rests upon the petal so inserted, holding it in 

 position. In this way some pollen grains will be intro- 

 duced into the stigma, and fertilisation take place. 



Careful growers place a small muslin bag over flowers 

 fertilised in this way, in order to prevent the ingress of 

 insects, which might possibly spoil the hybridiser's plans. 



A bright day should, if possible, be chosen for the 

 operation of cross-fertilisation, and care should be taken 

 to see that the flowers used are quite fresh, and have 

 also reached maturity. 



Seed pods should be left upon the plant until they are 

 as ripe as possible; that is to say, just prior to bursting 

 point ; a safe time to pick them off being when the pod 

 stands straight out in line with the flower stem. The best 

 plan is to pick the whole stem and not merely the pod. 

 These should be placed in muslin bags and hung up in a 

 warm or dry situation. In a week or so some of the 

 pods will have burst, and when this has taken place 

 throughout the whole series of pods, the seeds should 

 be sifted and placed in a tin, and kept in dry quarters 

 until required for sowing. 



There are several of the viola species which have not 

 been used for cross-fertilisation purposes, and who 

 knows if a number of experiments be made in this direc- 

 tion, whether yet another type of the Pansy awaits us ? 

 There is plenty of scope for work in this direction. 



As TO SPORTS 



There are many Violas, and Pansies too, which during 

 the flowering season lose their colour, or " sport," and 

 are frequently quite out of character, especially in hot 

 weather, and during periods of drought. 



