392 FLOWERS. Chap. X. 



man, energetically coiriinenced 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, cultivated 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, irregular flowers of the 

 wild pansy, and the beautiful, flat, symmetrical, circular, velvet- 

 like flowers, more than two inches in diameter, magnificently and 

 variously coloured, which are exhibited at our shows. But when I 

 came to enquire 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 1 -* are 

 descended from several wild stocks, namely, V. tricolor, lutea, 

 g andifiora, amcena, and altaica, more or less intercrossed. And 

 when I looked to botanical works to ascertain whether these forms 

 ought to be ranked as species, I found equal doubt and confusion. 

 - ■ i 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 

 1 with V. lutea. I ena* 85 is now looked at by all 



sts as a natural variety of V. grandiftora ; and this and V. 

 I to be identical with V. lutta. The latter 

 and V. tricolor (including its admitted variety V.arvensis\ are 

 ranked as distinct sp< ci< - by Babington, and likewise by M. Gay, 186 

 who has paid particular attention to the genus; but the specific 

 distinction between V. lutta and tricolor is chiefly grounded on the 

 one being strictly and the other not strictly perennial, 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, 181 say- that, '"while 

 passes into )'. m the one side, it approximates 



so much towards V. lutea and V. Curlisii on the other side, that a 

 distinction becoi ly more easy between them." 



Hence, after having carefully compared numerous varieties, 1 



183 London's * Gardener's Magazine,' ,86 Quoted from ' Annates des Sci- 

 vol. xi. 18 S5. p. 427 ; also ' Journal ences,' in the Compan ; on to the -but. 

 of Horticulture,' April 14, 18o3, p. Mag.,' vol. i. J835, p. 159. 



275. . lb: 'Cybele Britannica,' vol. i. p. 



184 L ' r*6 Magazine,' 17 . 5 also Dr. Herbert on the 

 v. 1. \ vol. ix. p. 68 . changes of colour in transplanted spe- 



' v r .'. L Smith, 'K:._ and "n trie natural variations 



»*ol. i. p. 30 !. H. C. W i: grandiflora, in 'Transact, hort 



. 1847, p. 181. Soc' vol. Lv. p. 19. 



