176 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



wild Pansies appear under the same " critical " name. This, for instance, 

 is particularly conspicuous in the case of Viola agrestis Jord., for many of 

 the plants so named bear not the slightest resemblance to Jordan's figure 

 (Obs. Pt. 2). So hopeless a mass of confusion was most destructive of 

 any ideas of distinctness in these plants. 



Observations in the field were then continued in many parts of 

 England, with the result that the original scepticism, so greatly 

 strengthened by the study of herbarium material, became shaken and 

 finally gave way to a conviction that we have indeed, without the smallest 



Fig. 53. — Viola Lloydii Jord. 

 1 Flower ; 2, a lower leaf ; 3, an upper leaf ; 4, 5, stipules. (Natural size.) 



doubt, a considerable number of totally distinct Pansies. This conviction 

 was the result of observations which may be summarized very briefly 

 as follows : 



Under the same conditions and side by side two or more forms may 

 grow, e.g. V. agrestis Jord. and V. Lloydii Jord., at Norton ; V. poly chroma 

 Kerner and V. Lloydii Jord., at Eyam ; V. Lloydii Jord. and V. derelicta 

 Jord., at Linacre ; V. ruralis Jord. and V. agrestis Jord., at Spital. 

 Moreover, the distinguishing characters are constant under very different 

 conditions. For example, V. ruralis Jord., a plant of rich soils, when 

 grown in almost pure sand on the sandhills at Wallasey kept its general 

 habit and in no way became merged in V. Curtisii Forster, the typical 



