MINIATURE-FLOWERED TUFTED PANSIES 
177 
long, with five narrow leaves about 21 
feet long, three of which appear at the 
base and two at the tip of the bulb. The 
semi-erect flower-spikes are a little 
shorter than the leaves, coming with 
them (upon the young growths) and 
bearing six to ten blooms each nearly 3 
inches across and their colour suggestive 
of the old willow-pattern plate. The 
sepals are about J inch wide, with 
the petals a trifle narrower and arranged 
vertically with the dorsal sepal. While 
young the segments are pale green spot- 
ted and splashed with pale china-blue, 
deepening towards the base. As the 
flowers age their ground colour whitens 
and the violet-blue shading softens. The 
outer surface of the petals has broken 
lines of pale violet running lengthwise 
on a whitish ground , and the sepals show 
a suffusion of the same colour. The 
lip is broadly rounded and ii inches 
in width, coloured intense violet in the 
centre and varied with small patches of 
white towards the edges which are 
narrowly fringed with white. The sharp- 
ly corrugated ridge at the base of the 
as 
also the short column, are of 
deep violet; the under side of the lip is 
whitish, spotted with bright violet in 
the centre. 
The plant should be grown in a well- 
drained pan, with a compost of peat, ! 
moss, and half-decayed oak-leaves in 
equal parts, and surfaced with moss. It 
thrives with the tender Cypripediums, 
and being in almost constant growth it : 
needs a moist atmosphere and a copious 
supply of water when the roots are most ; 
active. W. H. YOUNG. ; 
East Sheen. 
MINIATURE-FLOWERED 
TUFTED PANSIES. 
Except to the enthusiastic lover of the 
Tufted Pansy not much is known re- 
specting the beauty and charm of the 
newer miniature-flowered kinds. These 
originated in the garden of the late Dr. 
Chas. Stuart, M.D., of Chirnside, Ber- 
wickshire, who in walking round his 
seed-beds in 1887 found what he had 
long sought — a pure-white rayless self. 
This chance seedling he named 
and for this reason plants of the minia- 
ture-flowered typeare often called" Vio- 
lettas." This beautiful plant has given 
us quite an interesting series of rayless 
flowers, several of which share the dainty 
form and refined characteristics of the 
parent. The majority however are larger 
and in consequencebetter fitted for mas- 
sing in beds and borders. From the 
many crosses since made by other raisers 
beautiful sweet-scented kinds have been 
obtained, and the most recent show con- 
siderable advance. 
Interest in the Violettas is less general 
than their beauty deserves, and this is 
mainly due to lack of enterprise in the 
trade. The growth of these miniature- 
flowered kinds is so slow as compared 
with the ordinary Tufted Pansies that, 
from a business standpoint, they are not 
yet a success . The plants do not increase 
fast enough to suit the trade growers, 
and the young plants are so small when 
first sent out that purchasers are apt to 
be dissatisfied. It should therefore be 
understood by all who think of grow- 
ing them, that the plants are specially 
adapted for rock or alpine gardens, and 
that instead of getting leggy as so many 
