VIOLAS OR TUFTED PANSIES 19 



now of Edinburgh, who have long been associated with 

 Viola culture. 



The late Dr. Charles Stuart of Chirnside, Berwickshire, 

 was all his life an ardent florist and a successful raiser of 

 Polyanthi, Aquilegias (Aquilegia Stuartii), and Violas. In 

 a volume on Pansies and Violas published in 1898 by 

 Messrs. Dobbie & Co., Dr. Stuart gave a short account of 

 his experience as a raiser, which is here reproduced : 



A FEW NOTES ON VIOLAS OR 

 TUFTED PANSIES 



"In 1874 I took pollen from a garden Pansy named 

 Blue King, a bedding variety then in fashion, and applied 

 it to the pistil of Viola cornuta, a Pyrenean species. There 

 was a podful of seed, which produced twelve plants, which 

 were well taken care of. The next season they flowered 

 and were all blue in colour, but with a good tufted habit. 

 I again took pollen from a pink garden Pansy and fertilised 

 the flowers of my first cross, with a limited success. The 

 seed from this cross gave me more variety in colour of 

 flower, and the same tufted habit of growth, which evi- 

 dently came from the Viola cornuta influence. The best 

 of this cross were propagated and grown, some of the 

 plants being sent to the Royal Horticultural Society's 

 Gardens at Chiswick for trial, after an invitation to all 



