FLORISTS' FLOWEKS. 



193 I 



qualities of the medicine were also extended to it, 

 and the name of Heartsease ; and, as the Wallflower 

 and the Pansy were both comprehended among the 

 Violets, the name of Heartsease seems to have been 

 transferred from the former to the species of the 

 latter now called so. Pansy is undoubtedly from the 

 French pensee, "thought." Manj- will remember poor 

 OpheHa's melancholy gift, "There is Pansies, that's 

 for thoughts." There is no plant, perhaps, that has 

 obtained so many names and curious sobriquets. 



The Heartsease is considered to be indigenous to 

 this country. An ancient writer states that the 

 Pansy is found growing in a wild state on Mount 

 Baldus in Italy ; and Lobel says that it grows wild 

 in Languedoc, in France. It is also said to grow wild 

 in Japan. Nevertheless, it is generally considered to 

 be a native of England, at the first found growing 

 upon the tops of high hills. Gerarde states that in 

 his time he had not seen it so growing, from which it 

 appears that the plant was not at that period very 

 general in this country, in a wild state, if even a 

 native. 



The Heartsease is one of the most popular flowers 

 in our gardens. It ornaments those of the rich and 

 poor alike. We have turned to an illustrated gar- 

 dening work, published fifty years ago, to take note 

 of some of the best varieties of Pansies cultivated 

 in those days. Though thought a great deal of at 

 that time, they are represented by what we should 

 consider poor, thin, ungainly, and weakly- coloured 

 flowers, that would now be looked upon as weeds. 

 But the work of improving the Pansy was only 

 commencing in those days. Since then, under the 

 fostering care of the florists, wonders have been 

 performed ; and the Pansies of the present day are 

 as really perfect as one can well imagine them to be. 



There are three sections of Pansies. First come 

 the English or show varieties, which are divided into 

 White grounds. Yellow grounds, and Selfs. In the 

 White grounds there is a large, dense, central dark 

 blotch round the eye ; then a ring of white, cream, or 

 straw-colour, denominated the ground ; and this is 

 edged with blue, purple, or plum, or purple-maroon. 

 The Yellow grounds have pale or deep gold grounds 

 in the place of the white, and are belted or margined 

 with bronze, reddish -bronze, and velvety maroon. 

 The SeKs are either white, primrose, yellow, blue, 

 maroon, or black ; but the blue Selfs are generally 

 regarded as bedding Pansies ; all the varieties of this 

 class have been raised in the United Kingdom, and 

 especially in Scotland, where the Pansy has long 

 been a foremost florist's flower. 



Next come the Fancy or, as they used formerly to 

 be called, Belgian Pansies. They are generally of 

 strong growth, very large in size, and extremely rich 

 in colour, partaking of curiously blended shades of 



37 



white, purple, gold, crimson, inauve, blue, orange, red, 

 and various tints. It is not to be v,^ondered at that 

 they are so popular, and especially in spring and 

 autumn, when the weather is cooler and moister, for 

 it is then the rich colours shine out with exceeding 

 beauty. These Fancy Pansies appear to have origi- 

 nated in France or Belgium thirty years or more ago. 

 Then they came into the hands of the' English florists, 

 by whom they have been greatly improved, and in 

 Scotland especially, very fine varieties are usually 

 raised. Continental florists have not been backward 

 in the work, and though their sti'ains are inferior to 

 those found in this country, they yet contain many 

 fine varieties, especially of a striped character. 



Then there are what are called Bedding Pansies 

 anrl Violas. These are generally of hardy, stocky, 

 freb-brfcouching growth, the flowers in most cases 

 self-coloured, and they are very useful in the flower 

 garden during sjDi-ing and summer. For some time 

 there appeared to be an intelligible distinction be- 

 tween Bedding Pansies and Bedding Violas ; but 

 they have now grown so much the one into the 

 other, that it is difficult to say what are Pansies and 

 what Violas. Violas have been bred up from such 

 species as V. cormita and V. lutea, and the former 

 with its pretty mauve flowers is still grown in many 

 gardens, where it is very effective. Bedding Violas 

 are generally of dwarf, close, bushy, free-branching 

 growth, continuous in bloom, standuig hot weather 

 well, and having small well-formed flowers, in most 

 cases self-coloured, without central blotches, and 

 being produced with remarkable freedom. 



Pansies and Violas of all sections are readily 

 produced from seeds, and they can be sown at any 

 time of the year. It is a good plan to sow some 

 seed early in spring, and some more about June, 

 which win give two crops of flowers in a season. 

 We sow our seeds in pans of light soil, thinly, and 

 only just covering them, and then place them in a 

 cold frame, where the seeds soon germinate, and the 

 plants grow on into size. As the well-being of the 

 plants, after they are planted out to flower, depends 

 much on their being well-rooted, we adopt the plan 

 of pricking off the young seedlings into other boxes 

 three inches apart, and when they have made nice 

 balls of roots, with the soil adhering, plant them 

 out in a well-prej)ared bed in the open groimd when 

 the weather is dull and showery. The Pansy and 

 Viola alike throw out many thread-like roots which 

 penetrate a good distance into the soil in search 

 of food. Therefore the soil should be deep, free, and 

 gritty, so that the roots can travel freely in it. Grit 

 is essential to the well-being of the Pansy ; road sand 

 and sweepings, horse-droppings, decayed vegetable 

 soil, refuse turves, sandy loam, coarse sand, gravel 

 siftings, are aU favourable to the good de^'clopment 



