312 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
It is well flowered in pans in the Alpine House 
at Kew, with twenty to thirty flowers on one 
tuft ; and it has also flowered well in the rock- 
garden there. Though most of our plants are 
imported, it is easy to raise seedlings, some 
of which may even flower in their first sea- 
son, though more usually in the second and 
third years. Seed is not freely produced how- 
ever, many of the flowers being sterile. Cut- 
tings of the side-shoots which sometimes 
break from the main stem, will also root in 
sandy soil under glass. Coarse-growing spuri- 
ous forms of Viola pedata are often met with, 
and the weedy Viola pinnata of Canadian woods 
also does duty for it upon occasion. 
The best of these is bicolor — 
Varieties. shown in our engraving. It is 
a floral gem rare in its wild 
state, and even more diflicult to grow than 
the common form. It is found sparingly in 
the eastern States and more frequently further 
west, particularly in Colorado. It is some- 
what tender with us, the damp of our winters 
being against it, so that even in the south it 
needs the shelter of a tilted pane of glass, and 
is best in a cool frame, flowering some weeks 
earlier than pedata itself. The flowers which 
are very beautiful, measure an inch or more 
across, the two upper petals being a rich 
velvet-purple and the lower parts a soft blue 
or mauve. The blending of these colours is 
exceedingly efl^ective. There is a scarce white 
variety, alba^ and many unnamed shades of 
colour, as well as a pretty fragrant form of the 
common kind which is not often seen in this 
country. B. 
FRITILLARIA DISCOLOR.* 
First shown before the Royal Horti- 
cultural Society nearly 20 years ago 
under the name Korolkowia discolor., 
this plant was again exhibited by Miss 
Willmott in March last as a Fritillaria. 
It is indeed a distinct wild form of F. 
Sewer zowi., the plant found by Gen. 
Korolkow in the mountains of Turke- 
stan more than 40 years ago, its name 
being afterwards changed by Regel to 
that in honour of its finder ; but while 
this plant and its varieties differ widely 
from most of the Fritillaries, they are 
so closely allied to them that few present- 
day botanists maintain the distinction. 
Unlike almost anything else, the strange 
blend of colours in the flowers and the 
strongly glaucous leaves combine to 
make it a striking if not a beautiful 
plant, with stout leafy stems of 12 to 
1 5 inches, and somewhat suggestive of 
a small Crown Imperial (F.imperialis). 
The flowers appear in early spring and 
are at their best in the plant figured, 
dingy variations being not uncommon. 
F. Sewerzowi^ of which this is the best 
form, is very variable in colour, the dull 
yellow-green flowers of some varieties 
being hardly distinguishable from the 
leaves, whereas in others bronze, pur- 
ple, and dull yellow tints occur. In 
the form discolor dark brownish-pur- 
ple blotches — just seen on the inside of 
one of the upper flowers — are a marked 
feature ; also the more intense grey- 
green of the foliage. 
The plants shown by Miss Willmott 
were in pots, and this is the best way 
of growing them, for (though from an 
elevation of several thousand feet in a 
cold region) they are not hardy in this 
country, failing in heavy soils where 
the tubers often rot during winter, and 
the stems apt to be cut by frost just 
when coming into bloom. Under glass, 
whether in a greenhouse or a cold 
frame, they are safe, and bloom from 
the middle of March. In wet soils the 
tubers are best lifted and stored after 
flowering. 
* With coloured plate from a drawing by the late H. G. Moon. 
