DECBMBBR 



3 



1898. 



GARDENERS' 



MAGAZINE. 



Pansies Prim. 



783 



is my second plant to represent the genus Viola. It is one of 

 THE fi a st favourites in our English gardens, and its quaint beauty has 

 the olaes ^ names. Canon Ellacombe and " Plant Lore n must 

 ^ he my authority for these. The Anglo-Saxon name of ban wort, or 

 ** ain * rannot now be satisfactorily explained, nor can the common 



hnnewori, ^ „ +u^„^i, Qkni, a , *~ 



The "Midsummer Night's Dream " has the pansy under 

 Says Oberon :— 



f'pansy or pawnee, though Shakespeare was quick to seize upon 

 ** a, ? CS «. pansies for thoughts." Heartsease was once the name of the 



na Our poet's names for the pansy are Love in Idleness and 

 ^allnovvci* r . M — . - ■*" r " * * — " - 



Cupid's flower, 

 both names 



« Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell ; 

 It fell upon a little Western flower, 

 Before milk white, now purple with love's wound, 

 And maidens call it Love in Idleness. 

 Fetch me that flower ! the herb I showed thee once, 

 The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid 

 Will make it, man or woman, madly dote 

 Upon the next live creature that it sees." 



The name Love in Idleness is still used in Warwickshire. It signifies 

 1 vein vain, as in Chaucer: "If God ne kepe not the citee in ydel 

 aketh he that keptit it/' Other names are Herb Trinity, Three Faces 

 Under a Hood, Fancy Flamy, Kiss Me or Cuddle Me to You, Tickle my 

 Fancy, Kiss Me ere I Rise, Jump up and Kiss Me, Kiss Me at the 

 Garden Gale, Pink of my John, Tittle my Fancy, 

 descriptions/ 1 violets dim/'" 



1 836, and the flower is styled Herba trinitatis. A year later Ruellius calls 

 it Fensea Gerarde terms it Viola tricolor, and so does Parkinson, who 

 ngures both the single and double forms. In 1583 Clusius states V. lutea 

 to be cultivated ; m 1700 Miller .describes the same flower as V. calcarata 

 in error. Following Darwin's account, Dr. Wittacck states the native 

 species to have been collected and careful selections made in the gardens 

 ot Lady Bennet, Lady Monke, and Lady Gambier. The hybrids were 

 derived from V. tricolor, V. lutea and its van grandiflora. Fortunately, 

 these crosses proved also fertile, so that by 1835, as Darwin stated, four 

 hundred varieties were on sale. 



The species V. altaica was introduced in 1816, but is so rare and 

 unlike the present-day pansies that it would seem to have played but 

 little part in their production. In 1834 Paxton defined the perfect pansy 

 ot the present day as "having flowers well raised above the foliage • 

 smooth petalled, flat, unfringed, of lasting colour, and with small eye." 

 Later, the florists said it must be circular. Ten pounds at this time was 

 refused for a seedling of Metropolitan. Five shillings was the common 

 price of a plant. The popularity increased so far that in 1841 the 

 Hammersmith Heartsease Society was founded, and in 1845 the Scottish 

 Fansy Society. Meanwhile, in France, a new race of pansies, the 

 1 nmardeau, fancy or continental variety, was produced as a sort of pro- 

 test against the circular British show form. In 1861 the habit of the 

 pansy received attention ; V. tricolor is but an annual, and its progeny 



mc *i me "^i V ™ d a SlnjiIar brief > if bri # ht > carcen This defect was remedied 

 The two floral ™ y 7 1 Messrs - Gn eveand W. Dean, who crossed V. lutea with the show 



Milton uses 



pansies prim," one by Shakespeare, the other 

 !y Spenser, may be taken, I think, as the shortest, yet sweetest and truest 

 in the language. 



"The pansy heartsease maidens call," writes Drayton, 

 it for Eve's couch and Sabrina's wreath, while "the white pink, the 

 pansie freaked with jet, and the glowing violet " are mourning flowers for 

 Lycidas. Rapin calls it "Jove's own flower, in which three colours meet, 

 To rival violets, though without their sweet." 



The pansy violet, or heartsease, is a most variable plant, 1 . but easily dis- 

 tinguished from other violets by the branching stem, large leaf-like 

 stipules, and the purple, white, yellow, or tricoloured flowers with their 

 characteristic upper petals overlapping and coloured and broad lower 

 ones. Its habit of growth varies from that of a weak, almost annual 

 plant, as V. tricolor, to dense perennial tufts in alpine forms. It is 

 abundant, according to the " British Flora," throughout Europe and 

 Britain, being, like tobacco, "a weed of cultivation." The chief British 

 species are the field pansy, the garden pansy, and Viola lutea, with com- 

 pact foliage and richly-coloured flowers. The insect fertilisation of the 

 pansy is brought about in a most ingenious way. The visit is induced by 

 the attractive store of nectar provided by the flower. To reach it, the 

 insect, directed by the brilliant honey guide, or central eye, and supported 

 by the fringe of hairs surrounding the opening of the spur, inserts its 

 proboscis under the cone of anthers, and along the channel of the lower 

 petal, meeting and moving the style as it dives deeper into the spur in 

 search of nectar. Two results are generally brought about : The quick, 

 brushing action of the pollen-laden proboscis, on entering, opens a little 

 projecting lip upon the style, and deposits some grains within it, the 

 same quick brushing action, on retreating, closes up this lip, so that the 

 foreign pollen is now within the hollow style, and fresh pollen is placed 

 upon the departing insect from the flower whose anthers it has dislocated. 

 Bertram, the friend of Linnaeus, is said to have been won to botany by 

 the pulling of a pansy. He was a farmer, and while in the fields gathered 

 a flower at his feet. He pulled off its petals, and was so struck by the 

 grotesque likeness of the pistil and stamens to an animal with head and 



arms that he took the flower home and let its study decide the bent of his 

 mind. 



The origin of the pansy is very obscure. Charles Darwin in his 

 " \ ariation of Animals and Plants under Domestication," says finally, 

 after having very carefully compared numerous varieties, I gave up the 

 attempt as too difficult for anyone but a professed botanist." He noted, 

 however, that it was grown in Evelyn's garden in 1687, and that it was 

 cultivated in the gardens of the nobility from 18 10, that Lord Gambier 

 collected many wild ones, and with the aid of his gardener, Thompson, 



raised selected seedlings with the dark lines of the wild flowers converted from Violetta without any cross at all. 



■to a central blotch, and he contrasts the small dull elongated flowers, * t h accomplished, and there is no re; 



round wild witVt *v,~ ln^n u~'-u± 0+ cV.nurc /T* . t_ 1 



pansy of the day, to obtain a more perennial character in the progeny. 

 I he seedling Bluebell, kindly sent by Mr. R. Dean, splendidly shows this 

 character. His notes on "Old Violas," in the Viola Conference papers 

 for 1895, are very helpful in the history. Mr. James Grieve, of Edinburgh, 

 who was the raiser of most of the first violas or bedding pansies, has now 

 kindly sent me the following notes for this paper:— 



The viola of to-day has more of the fancy pansy blood in it, which is 

 to be regretted, as the fancy pansy, V. tricolor, is naturally an annual, 

 whereas the first violas were more of the perennial. In answer to the 

 question, What are the points cf a perfect viola in contrast to those of a 

 pansy? Messrs. Greeve replied, "As a bedding plant, the compact habit, 

 medium blooms of distinct and telling colour, profusion of blooms, and 

 a good constitution are the main points of the viola. Habit is not so 

 much taken into account in the competition viola, but size of bloom and 

 delicacy of colour. One of the main points of the pansy is size. To 

 meet the demands of the present day it cannot be too large, if well 

 balanced and not coarse. In shape a pansy should be as nearly circular 

 as possible. The blotches well formed and distinct, the margin or belting 

 to be as near as possible the same depth all round, a solid eye, without 

 the tendency in many varieties to run into the blotches. The petals to 

 be of good substance, with a rich velvety texture and bright colour. 

 Pansies for massing are practically merged with violas. A better name 

 for these latter, suggested by Mr. Kobinson, is that of tufted pansies. 

 They are all viola hybrids, and the distinction is one of origin and 

 habit only. 



During the year 1881 " Kayless * violas were introduced, but they did 

 not become widely known until Dr. Stuart, of Chirnside, raised his 

 beautiful Violetta. With the utmost kindness Dr. Stuart has sent me 

 this summary of his work. I gather from it that in 1874 he sent six 

 seedlings for exhibition before the Royal Horticultural Society, London, 

 produced by crossing Pyrenetn Viola cornuta with a blue bedding pansy, 

 and the resulting cross with a pink pansy. Six first-class certificates were 

 awarded for these plants on account of their fine habit, sweet perfume, 

 and abundant flowers. 



The suggestion of a florist friend that Dr. Stuart should attempt to 

 raise a rayless flower induced a continued search amongst the seed beds 

 for several years. In 1887 Violetta, a white rayless self, was discovered, 

 and the next step was to cross-fertilise the bedding pansy Countess of 

 Rosebery with pollen from Violetta, the beautiful Sylvia was the result. 

 Dwarf tufted forms can be alone obtained from crosses with dwarf alpine 

 species, which latter must be the seed bearer, or the produce will have 

 the bedding pansy character only. Dr. Stuart concludes by remarking 

 upon the grower's productions, who claims to have raised a true cross 

 between the sweet-scented violet and the pansy, u That they are all seed- 



The cross mentioned has 



bund wild, with the large bright circular specimens seen at shows, 

 nonsts, he states, believe these latter are descended from V. tricolor, 

 J lutea grandiflora, and V. altaica intercrossed. His keen observation 

 ade him remark the difference in the spurs of the flowers. Those from 

 we nursery, he states, were bent, while those obtained from another 

 jre straight, and he suggests this difference might give a clue to their 

 ^ntage. In "Some Notes on the Genus Viola," by Professor 

 nu mouse, given in the Viola Conference Report of 1895, it is stated further 

 t these " natural hybrids," cultivated pansies, probably arose in the 

 hist ng i° f these s P ecies in " les jardines des curieux," but that the 

 om nC v»- evidence is so vague that it is valueless. " The original species 

 com W< the P ans * es are derived is only to be found by careful 

 pansons between the seedling and its supposed parents, by 



aeain S1S 'J n wbicl ?> h Y selecting the seedlings most unlike their parents, 

 and again in turn, the tendency to reversion is used to its utmost 

 4e su ^ St by endeav °uring to build up the pansy again, by crossing 

 cultiviP!? parent forms, with a view to produce plants similar to the 

 forms of Variet >'- Tfa e results might never reveal the first of the many 

 fclation £ ansies > but they would certainly establish more distinctly the 

 »peri#?2 lp -? xlstin & between what we now have to regard as separate 

 Dr - Wlld ones -" 



kindly n acck > d ^ector of the Botanic Gardens, Stockholm, has most 

 fcn/ a n i rmitted me t0 use his viola studies : the careful notes, desenp- 



yet to be accomplished, and there is no reason why it should not be 

 effected." That Dr. Stuart has received the highest praise for his notable 



beautiful 



The rest of Dr. Wittacck's summary gives the results of his investi- 

 gations which briefly are that pansies are an aggregate of hybrids of 



vinla The original stock was V. tricolor ; others have been 



species 



They 



t be called 

 He draws 



show they have more of the \ . tricolor strain, 

 species, but rather violas x large-flowering garden pansies. 

 narticular attention to the change in outline and the length in the spur, 

 in addition to colour, blotch, and honey guide already mentioned. 



tu» r>rnhl<>ms for the future raiser are to make it more perennial. 



varieties, bcua, r\ m — : , * 



grow both with and without spurs 



permitted more 

 coupled with sk 



be 



garden pansies 



True- seeded 

 Wild pansies 

 icht also be 



u* mixtion of giving pleasure to millions by caring for, improving, ana 

 LlSfnT^sfic forms of those lovely plants which Nature, even m 

 the North, so generously offers us 



-.bech 



The popularity and importance of the pansy is well seen in the state 



nt of Messrs. Bath, of the , 



nast four years the average acreage of pansies grown has been 

 F or the P^ T ' h e 'consist chiefly of the giant Trimardeau and Krnpress 



ons anrl uc 10 use nis vlola studies : me careiui nines, uw^r -u^,,* f or tV These consisn.».«;..j »• 



aluabU \*T ny be autiful drawings from Nature make them a most aooui l est number of parties 



e Edition to the history of pansies. The earliest drawing is dated pansies. 



