194 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 



do not "ramble." These really were Virginian 

 stocks — ^but they came from the Mediterranean, and 

 not Virginia! Malcomia maritima is their polite 

 name. 



Then there was heart's-ease — that was the pansy — a 

 flower so long in cultivation that there is some doubt 

 as to what it did spring from, although Viola tricolor 

 IS supposed to be the wild form. Gerarde's descrip- 

 tion, written in 1587, is a better guide to the plants 

 which grew in old gardens, here or anywhere, than the 

 plants as we know them to-day. The "Hearts-ease or 

 Pansie . . . stalks are weak and tender," says 

 he, "whereupon grow floures in form and figure like 

 the Violet, and for the most part of the same bignesse, 

 of three sundry colours, whereof it tooke the syrname 

 Tricolor, that is to say, purple, yellow and white or 

 blew; by reason of the beauty and braverie of which 

 colours they are very pleasing to the eye, for smel 

 they have little or none at all." He tells, too, about 

 the upright pansy — Viola assurgens tricolor: its leaves 

 are "of a bleake or pale green colour, set upon slender, 

 upright stalks, cornered jointed or kneed a foot or 

 higher; whereupon grow very faire floures of three 

 colours, viz., of purple, blew and yellow in shape like 

 the common Hearts-ease, but greater and fairer; which 

 colours are so excellently and orderly placed, that they 

 bring great delight to the beholders, thou^ they have 



