Part II. VIOLA, 357 



VIOLA CKLC&:rA.'I!A..— Spurred Violet. 



This plant comes very near the well-known Viola cornuta in the 

 flower, including the spur, but is easily known by the stipules, 

 which are deeply divided into three lobes at the top, whereas in 

 V. cornuta they are broad, leafy, and toothed. The stipule of 

 V. calcarata is never toothed, nor wide like a leaf, and the 

 plant is even more readily known by its habit of increasing by 

 runners under the earth, somewhat after the manner of Campa- 

 nula pulla, instead of forming strong leafy tufts like V. cor- 

 nuta. It is a very pretty plant on the Alps, usually in very high 

 situations, amidst very dwarf flowers, sometimes so plentiful 

 that its large purple flowers form sheets of colour, the leaves 

 being scarcely seen amidst the other dwarf plants that form the 

 turf I have not seen it in cultivation, but have no doubt it 

 would form as charming a plant in the rock-garden as it does in 

 its native wilds. There is a yellow variety, ^frtwa iy. Zoysii), 



VIOLA COENTrTA.— //bmerf Pansy. 



This fine Pyrenean and Alpine Violet is now to be seen in 

 almost every flower-garden, its pale blue or mauve-coloured and 

 sweet-scented flowers, so abundantly produced, making it very 

 valuable in lines, borders, and mixtures. It has been cultivated 

 for ages in our gardens as a rockwork and border plant, but its 

 value as a continuous bloomer, and consequent capacity for 

 bedding, only came to be noticed a couple of years ago. Gene- 

 rally speaking, it does poorly on dry soils and in warm dis- 

 tricts, and exceedingly well in wet places. I have rarely seen 

 anything to equal its appearance in the cold wet climate of 

 East Lancashire, while it looks poor indeed in many gardens 

 in the South. In long lines or ribbons, or large beds, it looks 

 very pretty, the colour being of a quiet though decided tone, but 

 it is in mixtures that it will prove truly beautiful. One of the 

 most beautiful bits of colouring I have ever seen was produced 

 by a mixture of Beaton's variegated Nosegay Geranium and 

 Viola cornuta. In many cold and stormy districts, the blue 

 Lobelia, so fine in the South, grows quite to grass instead of 

 flower ; that which spoils the Lobelia will highly improve this 

 Violet. It is quite easily propagated by division, cuttings, or 

 seeds. 



