368 



FLOWERS. 



Chap, x 



Pansy or Heartsease ( Viola tricolor, &c.). — The history of this flower seem 

 to be pretty well known ; it was grown in Evelyn's garden in 1687 • but 

 the varieties were not attended to till 1810-1812, when Lady Monke to 

 gether with Mr. Lee the well-known nurseryman, energetically commenced 

 their culture ; and in the course of a few years twenty varieties could be 

 purchased. 183 At about the same period, namely in 1813 or 1814, Lord 

 Gambier collected some wild plants, and his gardener, Mr. Thomson, cul- 

 tivated them together with some common garden varieties, and soon effected 

 a great improvement. The first great change was the conversion of the 

 dark lines in the centre of the flower into a dark eye or centre, which 

 at that period had never been seen, but is now considered one of the chief 

 requisites of a first-rate flower. In 1835 a book entirely devoted to this 

 flower was published, and four hundred named varieties were on sale 

 From these circumstances this plant seemed to me worth studying, more 

 especially from the great contrast between the small, dull, elongated, irre- 

 gular flowers of the wild pansy, and the beautiful, flat, symmetrical 

 circular, velvet-like flowers, more than two inches in diameter, mag- 

 nificently and variously coloured, which are exhibited at our shows. 

 But when I came to inquire more closely, I found that, though the varieties 

 were so modern, yet that much confusion and doubt prevailed about their 

 parentage. Florists believe that the varieties 184 are descended from several 

 wild stocks, namely, V. tricolor, lutea, grandiflora, "amcena, and Altaica 

 more or less intercrossed. And when I looked to botanical works to ascer- 

 tain whether these forms ought to be ranked as species, I found equal 

 doubt and confusion. Viola Altaica seems to be a distinct form, but 

 what part it has played in the origin of our varieties I know not /it is 

 said to have been crossed with V. lutea. Viola amcena 185 is now looked at 

 by all botanists as a natural variety of V. grandiflora ; and this and V. sude- 

 tica have been proved to be identical with V. lutea. The latter and V. tricolor 

 (including its admitted variety V. arvensis) are ranked as distinct species by 

 Babington; and likewise by M. Gay, 186 who has paid particular attention 

 to the genus; but the specific distinction between V. lutea and tricolor is 

 chiefly grounded on the one being strictly and the other not strictly per- 

 ennial, as well as on some other slight and unimportant differences in the 

 form of the stem and stipules. Bentham unites these two forms; and a 

 high authority on such matters, Mr. H. C. Watson, 187 says that, "while 

 V tricolor passes into V. arvensis on the one side, it approximates so much 

 towards V. lutea and V. Ourtisii on the other side, that a distinction becomes 

 scarcely more easy between them." 



183 Loudon's ' Gardener's Magazine,' 

 vol. xi. 1835, p. 427 ; also ' Journal of 

 Horticulture,' April 14, 1863, p. 275. 



184 Loudon's ' Gardener's Magazine,' 

 vol. viii. p. 575; vol. ix. p. 689. 



185 Sir J. E. Smith, ' English Flora,' 

 vol. i. p. 306. H. C. Watson, < Cybele 

 Britannica,' vol. i. 1847, p. 181. 



... 186 Quoted from 'Annales des Sci- 



Bot. 



ences,' in the Companion to the 

 Mag.,' vol. i. 1835, p. 159. 



18 7 ' Cybele Britannica,' vol. i. p. 173. 

 See also Dr. Herbert on the changes of 

 colour in transplanted specimens, and 

 on the natural variations of V. grandi- 

 flora, in ' Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. iv. 

 p. 19. 





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