THE VIOLA AND PANSY FAMILY. 563 



and cross-breeding might make it a valuable plant for spring 

 bedding. When we remark the immense improvement effected 

 in the weedy-looking V. tricolor of our corn-fields, the amelio- 

 ration of many other wild European forms appears compara- 

 tively easy. 



Pansies. A well-known section of hardy, large-flowered 

 Violas, by some supposed to have originated from the com- 

 mon wild V. tricolor of our corn-fields, while others suppose 

 our garden Pansies to have sprung from V. tricolor crossed 

 or hybridised with Viola altaica, Tartarian Heart's-ease (see 

 'Bot. Mag.,' t. 1776). The credit of raising the first Pansy 

 is said to be due to Lady Mary Bennet (daughter of one 

 of the Earls of Tankerville) who had a garden at Walton- 

 on- Thames, and with the assistance of her gardener, Mr 

 Richardson, raised the Pansy some time about 1810 or 1812. 

 Pansies are easily reproduced by side-slips or cuttings of the 

 young growth taken off any time during the spring or sum- 

 mer months. They strike freely in the ordinary borders 

 or flower-beds, but require shade in hot weather. Where 

 they are to be propagated in quantity, a cold frame with a 

 northern aspect, or a border behind a north wall, is the best 

 position for them. New forms and colours are raised from 

 seed. Select the best-shaped and richest-coloured varieties 

 as seed -bearing plants. Cuttings of the solid young side- 

 shoots struck in August or September, and planted out in a 

 cold frame, will bloom the following April and May. The 

 earliest flowers say the first half-dozen borne by each plant 

 should be carefully impregnated with pollen from other good 

 flowers, using for the purpose a small camel's-hair pencil 

 slightly moistened, so as to hold the pollen readily. Some 

 growers, instead of fertilising the blooms artificially, admit air 

 freely on warm sunny days or save seed from open-air beds, 

 but in either case seed from the earliest and finest flowers 

 only should be saved. Where several varieties are grown in 

 the same frame or bed, they become self -crossed by the 

 wind or by insects, and seeds saved from self-fertilised flowers 

 produce a large number of good flowers, the best of which 

 may be perpetuated for exhibition or decorative purposes by 

 cuttings. These rich-coloured, velvety flowers may be bloomed 

 throughout a great part of the year by striking cuttings at 

 different times : thus autumn-struck cuttings flower in the 

 spring, and spring-struck cuttings bloom in the summer and 

 autumn months. Many of the other Violas might be crossed 

 with these lovely flowers, and in this way something new in 

 colour, habit, &c., might be obtained. 



