V. B. WITTROCK, DR ODLADE PENSÉERNAS HISTORIA. 75 



Co. declare that their Viola strida is an Indian species. In consequence of 

 this statement I wrote to the author of »The Flora of British India« Sir Joseph 

 Hooker concerning the matter and in reply he says »There is certainly no 

 Indian species remotely even allied to the cultivated Pansies». 



It has been mentioned above that a double pansy was known even to 

 Parkinson, the old English writer on horticulture (1629). In the present Cen- 

 tury double pansies have now and again made their appearance, among which 

 the most known is probably »Good Gracious», a variety which was cultivated 

 largely in Ireland and Great Britain in the middle of our Century, and »Lord 

 Waverley» from the Hale Farm Nurseries, near London, in 1876. 



In Germany the English pansies were introduced during the thirties, but 

 it was not until the fifties and sixties that the German pansy-raisers began to 

 produce new varieties. As an instance let me mention »Negerfürst», the pro- 

 duct in 1 86 1 of carefül choice made year after year by C. Schwanecke of 

 Oschersleben, and »Kaiser Wilhelm» introduced about 1872 by Chr. Lorentz 

 of Erfurt. At the present day the German cultivation of pansies ranks very 

 high among other nations. 



The northern limits of the pansy is attained in Norway, where it has been 

 cultivated wilh perfect success in several places in the arctic region, in East 

 Finmark, at 69 or 70 degrees N. latitude. — 



As the chief result of our investigations, we see that the pansies of the 

 present day form an aggregate of very difterent forms of plants produced by 

 hybridization between various species of the genus Viola (sect. Melanium). 

 Their original stock, so to speak, is V. tricolor L., but several other kindred 

 species of Viola have been grafted thereon, and one among them Viola lutea 

 Huds., to such a degree, that it has probably a larger share in the production 

 of the pansies of the present day than V. tricolor. Thus in their entirety they 

 cannot exactly be compared to what in systematic botany is termed species 

 or variety. They certainly should not be called by a name formed according 

 to the rules of binary nomenclature. If a general Latin name seems desirable, I 

 should propose Viola x kortenses grandiflorce, when » x » signifies the hybrid 

 nature of the forms belonging hereto; the word »hortenses» that they are garden 

 plants; and the word »grandiflora;», that they are large flowering, this to dis- 

 tinguish them from the small flowering garden Violas of the type of Viola 

 o dövat a L. 



On comparing the pansies of the present day with their wild ancestors, 

 we shall find that as regards form the most conspicuous characteristic of the 

 pansy flower is that its cross diameter is almost the same as its length dia- 

 meter, or that it is nearly circular, while in the parent species the flower is 

 constantly much longer than it is broad. The large cross diameter of the 

 pansy flowers is a consequence of an excessive development more especially 

 of the middle petals. It is not uncommon that these petals are the largest 

 of the flower, which is never the case with the parent species. 



As regards the spur, the pansies generally follow the short-spurred parent 

 species Viola tricolor L., V. lutea Huds., and V. altaica Ker. Only a very few 



