3>6o ALPINE FLOWERS. • Part 11. 



strong, healthy, free-flowering plants are also easily raised froffl 

 seed ; and this is also better sown as soon as convenient after 

 being gathered. 



The Neapolitan Violet, a much admired variety of the Sweet 

 Violet, is a little tenderer, and is usually grown in frames in 

 winter.- Mr, Barnes recommends the following mode of culture 

 as the best. The plants, after flowering in spring, about the be- 

 ginning of April, are encouraged to throw out runners by spread- 

 ing some open sandy soil between the old plants, and afterwards 

 giving a good watering if the weather be dry ; a few weeks 

 afterwards the strongest and healthiest of these runners are se- 

 lected and planted on well prepared ground in a north or shady 

 aspect ; during summer the ground is kept clear from weeds, 

 all side runners are cut off, and they are thoroughly watered 

 should drought set in. By October these have formed strong 

 plants, and they are then transferred to cold frames or pits in 

 a sunny position, the plants being carefully taken up with balls, 

 and placed in the pits so that they nearly touch each other. When 

 it is desired to have the blooms early, or to force them, eighteen 

 inches of slightly fermenting material are placed in the bottom 

 of a turf pit, on that six or eight inches of sweet fibrous loam, 

 in which the plants are placed. In fine weather the lights are 

 always taken off, and as much air as possible given at other 

 times. 



The Sweet Violet varies a great deal ; thus we have the single 

 white and single rose, double white and double rose, the small 

 Russian, the Czar, a very large and sweet variety ; the Queen of 

 Violets, with flowers almost as large as those of the double 

 white Cherry ; and the perpetual-blooming Violet, well known 

 in France as the Violette des quatre saisons. This last differs 

 but slightly from the common Sweet Violet, but is valuable for 

 flowering long and continuously in autumn, winter, and spring. 

 It is the variety used by the cultivators round Paris. 



VIOLA -p-E'DA'SK.— Bird-foot Violet. 



Thi: most beautiful of the American Violets, with handsome 

 flowers, an inch across, pale or deep lilac, purple or blue, the two 

 upper petals sometimes deep violet, and velvety like a Pansy ; 

 the leaves deeply divided, like the foot of a bird, and the plant 

 very dwarf and compact in habit. In a wild state it inhabits 



