35 8 ALPINE FLOWERS. Part II. 



VIOLA 1X5TE&..— Mountain Violet. 



This is one of our native Violets classed by Bentham as a 

 variety of V. tricolor, but considered distinct by other botanists, 

 and certainly quite distinct enough for garden purposes. Being 

 called lutea, one is surprised to find the flowers of nearly every 

 wild plant of it a fine purple, with a yellow spot at the base of 

 the lower petal. Both forms make very pretty rockwork orna- 

 ments, but the yellow one has lately become deservedly popular 

 as a dwarf bedding and edging plant, and it is also a first-class 

 plant for the front margin of the mixed border. In cultivation 

 the yellow form is a very neat and compact plant, rising from 

 two to six inches high, and flowering abundantly from the month 

 of April onwards. The flowers are of a peculiarly rich and 

 handsome yellow, the three lower petals striped with thin lines 

 of rich black. It possesses first-class qualities as a bedding 

 plant, and is' less uncertain in its growth on the majority of soils 

 than V. cornuta, while it is dwarf, neat, and of a colour much 

 to be desired for the flower-garden. Hitherto we have had no 

 very dwarf yellow plant that could be depended upon, or was at 

 all satisfactory. The Calceolaria, which is of greater height, 

 has of late become most precarious on many soils, so much so 

 that many have given up its culture to a great extent ; and 

 therefore this Viola is all the more acceptable to flower-gar- 

 deners. Much dwarfer and more compact than V. cornuta, it 

 may be planted in front of it with the best taste. More tasteful 

 uses than that, however, must soon be found for it in the margin- 

 ing of choice beds, in forming low and rich mixtures with bright- 

 leaved plants like Amaranthus or Coleus kept very dwarf, and in 

 not a few other ways which wiU in due time suggest themselves 

 to the flower-gardening reader. 



VIOLA OOORhlSK.— Sweet Violet. 



This well-known plant is in a wild state widely spread over 

 Europe and Russian Asia, and common in various parts of 

 Britain, but best known from its occurring in almost every 

 garden, and from enormous quantities of it being sold in London, 

 Paris, and many other cities. It is as needless to describe 

 it as the Daisy ; besides, its delicious odour distinguishes it im- 

 mediately from the numerous- other Violets. It is too well known 



