FIFTY YEARS AMONG PANSIES AND VIOLAS. 



318 



1S61, when it was grown by Dow^nie, Laird, & Laing. I well remember 

 the first two varieties — Dandie Dinmont ' and ' Dii Hamil. ' Messrs. 

 Downie, Laird, & Laing showed them in the Experimental Gardens, 

 Edinburgh, at the Show' of the Royal Caledonian Society. I remember 

 them so well because they were shown in row^s of six blooms, one variety 

 alternating with the other. Many strange and forcible phrases were 

 used to condemn the newcomers by the old florists, but their novel 

 and gaudy colours and greater size of bloom wrought gradually into 

 the favour of at least the ladies, with the usual result that the men 

 had to follow suit. 



From a roughness almost like that of a Scotch terrier, the Fancy 

 Pansy was licked into shape, and by 1880 had almost eclipsed the 

 Show Pansy and become a universal favourite. 



The Fancy Pansies were bred entirely from the continental intro- 

 ductions. They were never crossed with the Show Pansy. That 

 would have made confusion worse confounded. The method adopted 

 in raising new varieties w^as simply to take seed from the best-formed 

 and gayest-coloured. 



From the very beginning of my career I have been specially 

 attracted to the Yiola, and began by crossing, wdien I was very young, 

 all the species I could obtain, including Viola lutea from the Pent- 

 land Hills, V. cornnta from the Pyrenees, V. stricta from India, 

 obtained through Miss Hope of Wardie, and V.. amoena from 

 Moffat. I started to cross-fertihze all these w-itli pollen of the Show 

 Pansy, and the results were highly satisfactory. I never got any good 

 results with the reverse cross. In these days there was a battle 

 between the so-called Bedding Pansies and the Violas (T use the word 

 Viola here in its modern application) and it is still going on. My 

 friend Mr. Cuthbertson may have something to say on this. To 

 illustrate the state of matters, forty years ago we had Bedding Pansies 

 (which were simply Show Pansies with good bedding habits), such as 



* Blue King,' ' Lilacina,' * Holyrood,' ' Tory,' and ' Regina ' (white), 

 and * Henderson's Golden Bedder,' and Violas, such as * Golden Gem,' 

 ' Alpha,' and * Grievei.' The march of development, so far as varieties 

 raised by me is concerned, is represented by * Sovereign,' ' Pilrig Park,' 

 ' Scotia,' ' Acme,' * Royalty,' * Edina,' ' Formosa,' * Virginahs,' 

 'Bulhon,' 'Dawn of Day,' * Merchiston Castle,' and I consider I 

 reached the high-water mark recently with ' Redbraes Yellow ' and 



* Redbraes White,' 'Royal Scot' and 'Redbraes Bronze.' 



In the beginning, as I have already said, my varieties were all 

 obtained by crossing the wild types with pollen from Show Pansies. 

 For example, 7. cornuta x ' Dux ' Show Pansy gave ' Vanguard ' 

 (purple); V. stricta (improved) x ' Sovereign ' gave ' Ariel ' and ' Bul- 

 lion ' ; V. cornuta improved (named ' Perfection ') x ' Sunray ' Fancy 

 Pansy gave ' Lilacina ' ; V. cornuta (' Perfection ') x ' Dux ' Show 

 Pansy gave ' Tory. ' 



All my recent varieties have been raised without the aid of cross- 

 fertihzation. I have simply saved seed from the best varieties existing 



