118 BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS 



stately in growth, with immense flowers of brilliant and varied 

 colours. They are magnificent spring-flowering border plants, and 

 special attention has been devoted to them in the bulb section. 



Violas. The Viola is an old flower, and yet a modern one 

 an apparent paradox that requires a word of explanation. When 

 we use the word Viola in a garden sense nowadays, we employ it 

 in reference to a plant which occupies as well defined a place in 

 gardens as Carnations and Dahlias. It is a modern plant, repre- 

 sented by numerous beautiful varieties, some of which are grown 

 in nearly every garden. The Viola, indeed, rides the wave of 

 popularity, and is likely to do so for many years, owing to its 

 outstanding merits. Some people call it the " tufted Pansy," and 

 the name is not inapt, inasmuch as the growth is tufty, and the 

 plants are at least as much Pansies as Violas. But Pansies play 

 a distinct part from Violas in gardens, and besides, it is inadvis- 

 able to use two words where one will suffice. How has the 

 modern Viola arisen? Undoubtedly by hybridisation between old 

 species and modern Pansies. The Pansy itself is, of course, a 

 Viola, V. tricolor. By uniting some of the small-flowered but 

 tufty-growing species of Viola such as alpina, with large-flowered, 

 but non-tufty, Pansies, the florists have raised this modern class 

 of garden Viola or tufted Pansy. The plants are distinguished 

 by dense, compact growth, relatively large flowers, rich and diversi- 

 fied colours, and great profusion and persistency in flowering. 

 Qualities like these were bound to make them popular garden 

 plants, and such they have become ; indeed, their rise in favour 

 during the last ten years of the nineteenth century, and the early 

 years of the twentieth, was one of the wonders of modern flower 

 gardening. 



The Violas are not suitable for making bold effects in borders, 

 but they are admirably adapted for forming carpets among tall 

 plants. They can be utilised for this purpose in herbaceous borders 

 and in Rose beds. Those who grow standard Roses in particular 



