178 JOUENAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



What has been the origin of the various species, an account of which 

 is now to be given, does not greatly concern us here. They may be 

 mutational in origin, but I do not believe that they are now being formed 

 by frequent and repeated mutation. 



Quite apart from the inherent interest of the study of any constituent 

 group of our native Flora, this method of study is of particular value in 

 the case of such plants as the Pansies, when we recollect that our garden 

 Pansies in all probability sprang from hybrids artificially induced between 

 the larger wild species of the North of England. It is the object of the 

 present paper to show what was the raw material upon which the first 

 introducers of the Pansies as garden flowers could work. 



The British Pansies may be divided into four main groups. 



In the first group are placed the Pansies of the cultivated fields. 

 These are generally annual plants, very leafy and with a large number of 



u 



Fig. 64. — Viola alpesteis Jord. 



I 



1 and 1a, Flower ; 2, lower leaf ; 3, intermediate leaf ; 3a, upper leaf ; 4, occa- 

 sional forms of stipule; 5, stipule from intermediate leaf; 6, stipule from 

 upper leaf. (Natural size.) 



flowers. They possess large and usually somewhat pinnately lobed 

 stipules with a mid-lobe showing a general similarity to the leaf. The 

 corolla-spur is short, not surpassing the appendages of the sepals, and is 

 usually rather stout. Many of these plants are small-flowered, with petals 

 but little longer than the sepals (or even much shorter) and the sepals are 

 usually broad. Of these plants may be mentioned V. agrestis Jord., 

 V. ruralis Jord., V. derclicta Jord., V. segetalis Jord., and V. subtilis 

 Jord. These, on account of their small and unattractive flowers may be 

 neglected in a search for the origin of the cultivated Pansy. 



Others of this class, however, have large and very beautiful flowers. 

 1". Lloydii Jord. (figs. 53, 54) is a large plant with blue and white (some- 

 times yellow) flowers ; the upper leaves are long and the stipules have a 

 large, rather slender middle-lobe without much dentatiou, while the 

 lateral lobes are smaller and more slender, and spring chiefly from near 

 the base of the middle-lobe. This plant is common in many parts of 



