922 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



VIOLA. 



crimson, and various other shades, but 

 not so dense as the centre blotch. Some 

 fancy Pansies are flaked or parti-coloured, 

 but all good ones are showy and beautiful 

 beyond the imagination of those who 

 have only seen common strains. Named 

 Pansies come fairly true from seed, but 

 any particular variety must be increased 

 by cuttings. When any plant shows good 

 flowers, the best way is to pinch the bloom- 

 buds off as they come, feed the plant well 

 with dressings of leaf-mould pricked in 

 about the roots, and peg the first shoots 

 down so as to leave the crown of the plant 

 exposed for fresh healthy shoots to rise 

 from. A few shoots should be taken off 

 when they have made three or four pairs 

 of leaves, and be planted in light soil, sand, 

 and leaf-mould, under a hand-glass, and 

 kept moist and shaded. The pegged- 

 down stems will produce shoots which may 

 be taken off in the same way ; and when 

 well rooted treated as seedlings. 



A good plant combines a profusion of 

 fine flowers with a dwarf, stocky habit, 

 and the plant when in bloom is a 

 round green bush, with the flowers about 

 \ in. clear of the leaves. It is useless to 

 save seed before a stock of first-class 

 plants is obtained. July is early enough 

 to sow the seed in the south of England, 

 but farther north it may be sown earlier, 

 until in Scotland it should be sown in 

 the spring. 



TUFTED PANSIES. These are hybrids 

 of Pansies and alpine Violets. The term 

 " tufted " has been very properly used to 

 distinguish plants of a spreading habit, 

 like Pinks, Aubrietia, and Alpine Violets, 

 from plants with simple erect stems, like, 

 say, the Stock, Lupine, and Aster. Some- 

 times the two forms of habit occur in the 

 same family ; for instance, there are 

 Violas that are tufted and Violas that are 

 not the German, French, and other 

 Pansies in our gardens do not spread at 

 the root as the tufted Pansies do. Plants 

 of this " tufted " habit are often a mass of 

 delicate rootlets even above the ground, 

 so that they are easily increased. Hence 

 when older Pansies die after flowering, 

 those crossed with the alpine species 

 remain, like true perennials, and are easily 

 increased. The term Pansies is a good 

 one in all ways. Without an English 

 name, we shall always have confusion 

 with the Latin name for the name of wild 

 species. To all of these belongs the old 

 Latin name of the genus Viola. It is 

 now agreed by botanists that all cross- 

 bred garden plants including tufted 

 Pansies, of course should have popular 

 English, and not Latin, names. " Bedding 



Violas" is a vulgar compound of bad 

 English and Latin ; whereas "tufted 

 Pansies " is a good English name with a 

 clear meaning. The Garden, i6th Jan. 

 1892. 



These are the flowers hitherto generally 

 known as Violas and bedding Pansies, 

 and Dr. Stuart, who has raised some of 

 the best of them, says : " Botanically, 

 Violets, Pansies, and Heart's-ease are all 

 the same. Tufted Pansies are crosses 

 from the garden Pansy and Viola cornuta, 

 the latter being the seed-bearer. Pollen 

 from V. cornuta applied to the Pansy pro- 

 duces a common enough form of bedding 

 Pansy never the tufty root-growth ob- 

 tained when the cross is the other way. 

 I have proved this by actual hand-cross- 

 ing. Most strains of tufted Pansies are 

 bred the wrong way, and lack the tufty 

 root which makes the Violetta strain per- 

 ennial." 



Having settled the name, the next thing 

 we have to do is select some of the most 

 beautiful of these charming flowers, which 

 are certainly more valuable for our flower 

 gardens than the ordinary Pansy, fine as 

 these are. They are so because the colours 

 are simple and generally pure and true, 

 and because they are most effective when 

 used in groups, and then they are per- 

 ennial, and may be easily increased and 

 kept true. 



The new race of Tufted Pansies raised 

 by Dr. Stuart, of which Violetta was the 

 first, is a precious addition to this 

 large family, because the flowers are 

 pure in colour and so sweetly scented. 

 The older tufted Pansies were welcome, 

 but all of them had wiry streaks about the 

 eye, not a serious detraction, but it is a 

 gain to have kinds that are quite rayless, 

 as are all of Dr. Stuart's. Violetta the 

 first has small flowers, but all the later 

 varieties have large flowers, and in other 

 respects are fully equal to the older sorts, 

 more tufted in habit, and better garden- 

 plants in every way. Among the best 

 kinds are Blue Gown, Duncan, Favourite, 

 Lucy Franklin, Rolph, Seagull, Skipjack, 

 Swan, Sylvia, The Czar, White Beauty, 

 and William Tell. These are some of 

 the most beautiful flowers ever seen. The 

 best kinds with white flowers are Blanche, 

 Countess of Hopetoun, Dr. Sculthorpe 

 (in which the top petals are prettily 

 flushed), Marchioness of Tweeddale (with 

 a delicate bluish shade), Masterpiece, 

 and Mrs. Gray. Near these creamy- 

 whites come a group of creamy or pale 

 yellow-coloured kinds, such as Ardwell 

 Gem, Devonshire Cream, Golden Queen, 

 and Lemon Queen. Among yellows there 



