"OLD VIOLAS" ii 



Cliveden Dark Purple, and Cliveden White. What he 

 grew as Cliveden Blue was a distinctively blue flower 

 which, I was once informed, came originally from Russia, 

 and which is now in all probability lost to cultivation. He 

 also employed a fine white flower, named Great Eastern, 

 raised by Henry Hooper of Bath, a variety which re- 

 mained in cultivation many years ; and also that flower 

 which always possessed such a marked individuality of 

 its own, the old Magpie, the La Pie of the French. 

 Magpie is perhaps the oldest of the Violas, other than 

 true species, in cultivation ; but its origin has never been 

 traced beyond a cornfield in France, where it was said 

 to have been discovered growing wild. It was offered 

 for sale by the late Mr. John Salter at what was then 

 the Versailles Nursery, Hammersmith, in 1857, and since 

 then it has been known in England under several names, 

 such as Mazeppa, Paul Pry, and Wonderful. 



" I think it was the publicity given to Mr. Fleming's 

 use of the Pansy through the medium of the gardening 

 journals which induced Mr. James Grieve to commence 

 employing Viola lutea and other species as seed parents 

 as far back as 1859-60 ; and from what I can learn, 

 Mr. John Baxter, Daldowie, was at that time interesting 

 himself in a similar direction. One of Mr. Grieve's 

 bantlings Grievii was an excellent yellow bedder in 

 those days, and may be in cultivation still. 



