VIOLETS AND PANSIES 
large trusses. Plants grown on singly in a greenhouse in a mixture of 
good loam, bone dust, and sand pressed firmly into the pots will form 
little shrubs in about two years, or they may be grown into little 
standards. In sub-tropical countries the Mignonette forms a large 
perennial bush. 
Description of A stem and branch of R. odorata. Fig. 1 is . an 
Plate 3i. enlarged flower; 2, a section of the same showing the ever- 
open capsule; 3, is the ripe capsule; 4, a seed, natural size, and enlarged; 
5, a seedling. 
VIOLETS AND PANSIES 
Natural Order Violacele. Genus Viola 
Viola (the old Latin name for the flower). A genus of about a hundred 
species of low herbs and a few shrubs. In most cases the leaves are all 
radical, but where a stem is present the leaves are alternate; the flowers 
produced from the axils on one-flowered (occasionally two-flowered) 
stalka The sepals, five in number, remaining attached to the seed-vessel, 
are nearly equal, their bases extended a little beyond their attachment 
to the receptacle. Petals five, unequal, erect or spreading, the lowest one 
largest (by the bending over of the tip of the stalk this appears to be 
the upper petal), spurred at base. Style swollen at the tip; stigma 
often cup-shaped. Seed-vessel three-valved^ elastic. The petals are 
often suppressed, and the calyx in such flowers remains closed, but 
the resulting capsules produce good seed. The species are distributed 
throughout the temperate regions of the globe. 
Seven species of Viola and several sub-species are 
indigenous to Britain, among them the Violet, V odorata ; 
it therefore appears to be very probable that the Sweet Violet would be 
among the plants to be found in the first gardens made in this country. 
Many species of Viola have been introduced from abroad, but most of 
these are of botanical rather than horticultural interest. V mavis, the 
Russian Violet, however, is commonly cultivated; it was introduced from 
Tauria nearly eighty years ago. V. blanda, which is only faintly sweet- 
scented, came from North America in the first years of the century. 
Others have'been introduced and cultivated on account of their large 
flowers in spite of their lack of sweet odour. Such a species is V. 
cucullata, from North America (1762). F. comvia, a native of the 
Pyrenees, introduced a hundred and twenty years ago, has been crossed 
with the sub-species lutea of our native F tricolor , and has produced 
