Plate 241. 
HYBRID PANSIES. 
Our plate represents a group of very handsome seedling Pansies which have been 
originated by Mr. Hooper, of the Yine Nursery, Widcombe Hill, Bath, a most successful 
cultivator and exhibitor of these richly-tinted velvety flowers. In variety and soft richness 
of colouring the Pansy has a rival in the Auricula, but as a continuous blooming florists’ 
flower we have none which continues in beauty so long as does this ever-charming flower. 
The Pansy is one of the most modern of all the more popular favourites of the florist and 
amateur gardener, having, it is said, been raised early in the present century by hybridising 
the wild Viola tricolor of our corn-fields with the Tartarian V. altiaca ; and since the horned 
violet V. cornuta has been cultivated as a flower-garden ornament, further crosses have been 
effected between it and some of the Pansies proper, as also between Pansies and the large 
yellow upland violet V. lutea grandiflora , the result being useful races of free-flowering 
perpetual-blooming sorts, well adapted for flower-garden arrangements during the spring and 
summer months. Scarcely any flowers are more variable when raised from seed than 
Pansies, and the modern races of “ bedding ” violas, and few things would give more 
pleasure to a real flower lover than a seed bed of these plants. Named sorts and good 
seedling varieties are propagated by cuttings inserted on a cool shady border during the 
summer, and covered by a bell-glass or hand-lights. Our plate is the best description we 
can now give of Mr. Hooper’s lovely flowers. 
Plate 242. 
RHODODENDRON TAYLORI. 
The variety of Rhododendron, represented in our plate, is a good representative of 
a race of very beautiful and free-blooming varieties, which have been obtained in the 
Yeitchian collection, and exhibited at the principal metropolitan from time to time, as they 
have attained perfection They owe their origin to the careful hybridising of R. javanicum , 
R. jasminiflorum , R. Lobbii, and R. Brookei; and some of the later varieties are derivative 
hybrids, the result of cross breeding between the above-named species and the hybrids £< R. 
Princess Royal” and R. “ Princess Helena.” The following varieties have been exhibited 
and certificated as useful decorative plants : 
Princess Royal, 
Prince Leopold, 
Princess of Wales, 
Queen Yictoria, 
Princess Fredericka, 
Duchess of Edinburgh, 
Duchess of Teck, 
Duke of Edinburgh, 
Prince George, 
Maiden’s Blush. 
R. Taylori, the variety now figured for the first time, is quite distinct from its 
predecessors, and is characterised by a free habit of growth and a profuse blooming habit, 
the flower being of a soft salmon-rose colour, shading into the clear ivory-white tube. This 
variety is named after Mr. G. Taylor, whose services have been for many years possessed 
by Messrs. Yeitch and Son, and to whose skill as an hybridist no better testimony is needed 
than this lovely race of hybrid greenhouse Rhododendrons. Apart from the recommenda¬ 
tions of free growth, evergreen habit, and easy culture, these plants possess the charm of 
variety of colour in a superlative degree, varying from pure white through all the most 
delicate shades of lilac, rosy-pink, coral, buff, orange red, yellow, and vermilion, to the 
brightest crimson scarlet. 
