VIOLA 



VIOLA AND PANSY OBDEB 



VIOLA 233 



pure white flowers {alha), and another 

 rarely seen with rose-coloured ones 

 [rubra). 



Culture So. as above. Easily increased 

 by seeds or division of the roots. 



V. tricolor {Heartsease and Pansy). 

 This is the wild plant from which the 

 well-known Heartsease and Pansy are 

 supposed to have originated, although 

 some believe that these popular flowers 

 are descended from V. altaica. The wild 

 Pansy is a native of the pastures, banks 

 and waste places in the British Islands, 

 and is also found in such diverse places 

 as Arctic Europe, N. Africa, N. and W. 

 Asia to Siberia and N.W. India. Stems 

 4-8 in. high, branched, erect or ascend- 

 ing, angled, flexuous. Leaves, with long 

 stalks, ovate oblong or lance-shaped, ere- 

 nate, 1-1^ in. long, lyrate, coarsely and 

 remotely crenate-serrate ; stipules very 

 large, pinnatifid ; lobes spreatoig like a 

 fan, linear or oblong obtuse, the middle one 

 largest. Flowers from May to September, 

 i-X^ in. across, with purple, whitish, or 

 golden-yellow petals, sometimes parti- 

 coloured; spur thick, blunt; stigma 

 capitate, hollowed. The variety a/i-vensis 

 has white or yellowish flowers, petals 

 usually shorter than the sepals ; Curtisi 

 has a branching rootstock, with runners, 

 and blue, purple, or yellow flowers, with 

 spreading petals ; and lutea (known as 

 the Mountain Vine) has a branched 

 rootstock, short stem with underground 

 runners, and blue, purple, or yellow 

 flowers, with spreading petals much 

 longer than the sepals. 



Culture <tc. as below. 



HYBRID PANSIES 



The natural species and its varieties are 

 utterly eclipsed by the vast number of beau- 

 tiful forms which have been raised from 

 them by British and Continental garden- 

 ers. , Among the numerous cvdtivated 

 varieties are many in which the flowers 

 have only one — or almost one colour, 

 chiefly white, yellow, rose, copper, viglet, 

 blue in various shades, chestnut, purple, 

 intense velvety black &c. Others, and 

 more numerous, have various colours on 

 white or yellow grounds ; others again 

 have copper, old gold, or bronzy flowers 

 with various shades. Then there are 

 veined, striped, blotched, variegated, 

 flamed, bordered and zoned flowers, 

 washed and shaded with various colours 

 in all sorts of ways, sometimes giving the 



flowers a most singular appearance. 

 Indeed the range and combination of 

 colour in Pansies is truly infinite, and 

 where seedlings are raised regularly every 

 year, new combinations, colours, and 

 developments take place. 



Pansies have come under the arbitrary 

 rule of the florist, and he has divided 

 them into three main sections as 

 follows : — 



(1) English or Show Varieties. — 

 These are subdivided into white grounds, 

 yellow grounds, and selfs. The flowers 

 of ' white ground ' Pansies have a large 

 dense, dark blotch in the centre, with a 

 ring or band of white, cream or straw 

 colour around it, and this ring may be 

 edged with blue, or various shades of 

 purple. In the 'yellow grounds,' the 

 ring is a pale or deep gold colour edged 

 with various shades of bronze, maroon 

 &c. The ' selfs ' must be clear decided 

 colours, of one shade, and should have 

 a dark well-defined blotch under the 

 eye or centre. 



(2) Belgian or Fancy Varieties. — 

 These are usually very large and richly 

 coloured, and should have a deep coloured 

 blotch covering almost the whole of the 

 bottom petal or lip and contiguous parts 

 of the side petals. The remaining 

 portion of the flower may be any of the 

 numerous shades referred to, but should 

 always be so pale that the colour of the 

 lower petal is much denser and decidedly 

 conspicuous in comparison. 



(3) Tufted Pansies is the modern 

 name, and certainly an appropriate 



, one, for Bedding Pansies and Violas, and 

 many simply call them Violas — a pretty 

 name. They are hybrids between V. 

 cornuta and various garden-pansies, V. 

 comuta being the seed bearer. If the 

 reverse cross is made, a more or less 

 ordinary Pansy will result. 



Violas or Tufted Pansies generally 

 have a dwarf, close, bushy habit, and 

 beautiful flowers — usually self-coloured — 

 much smaller than the ordinary Pansy. 

 In beds by themselves, or associated with 

 other plants as a kind of floral carpet, 

 Violas make a charming picture. 



Culture and Propagation. — Pansies 

 germinate readily from seeds, and may 

 be sown in the open border or in shallow 

 pans or boxes in July and August, in rich 

 sandy soil with plenty of leaf mould in 

 it. In the open border the seedlings 

 may be thinned to about 6 in. apart, and 



