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THE LADIES’ FLOWER GARDEN 
three lower ones yellow; the centre one being broader than the others, and streaked with dark brown. What 
appear to be the leaves, consist each of one long real leaf, and two deeply cut stipules. The stamens are very 
curiously formed; they have no filaments, but two of them have long tails, and they are all bordered by a fringe of 
hairs. The style is short, fleshy, and funnel-shaped; and at the top there is a hole, to which there is a small 
lip. The seed-pod is oblong, and when ripe, it splits into three parts to discharge the seeds. The root is carrot¬ 
shaped ; and if eaten, it acts as an emetic. 
This heartsease, notwithstanding its curious internal construction, is so small, so simple, and apparently so 
unpretending, that it is scarcely possible to imagine that the large and magnificent flowers now called Hearts¬ 
eases by florists, can have sprung from it. “ The cultivated heartsease,” Mr. Gorrie tells us, “ should have large 
and round petals, the flower forming nearly a circle, not much undulated ; the colours distinct and permanent ; 
the eye rather small, and not deeply pencilled ; the flower-stalk strong and straight; and the stigma filling the 
open part of the eye.” ( Gard . Mag. viii. p. 575.) Though this change is entirely the result of cultivation, it 
must not be supposed that the mere circumstance of transplanting a wild heartsease into rich garden soil, and 
carefully watering it, &c., will at once change it into a florist’s flower. This is only the first step. Seeds are 
taken from a plant thus improved, and grown with great care; and the largest and finest of the seedlings thus 
raised, are selected to yield seed in their turn. Sometimes hybrids are raised by fecundating the stigma of one 
kind by the pollen of another ; and these plants generally possess, in a great degree, the qualities of both parents. 
Viola grandijlora is frequently used for producing hybrids with the common heartsease ; and this species has very 
large flowers, which peculiarity is preserved in all its seedlings. V. amoena is another parent, with very large 
flowers, the upper petals of which are of dark purple, and the lower ones of a paler bluish tinge; and all the 
hybrids raised partly from it, preserve these peculiarities more or less. The descendants of the common hearts¬ 
ease, have dark purple and bright yellow flowers; and those of V. lutea are generally nearly all yellow, with 
blackish, branched radiating lines. The hybrids raised from V. altaica are of a very pale, yellowish hue; and the 
petals are generally somewhat undulated at the margin : those from V. rothomagensis or hispida are of a pale 
bluish lilac, and those from V. bicolor are white, slightly veined with purple, and tinged with yellow at the base. 
All these kinds, of course, vary very much ; as these hybrids are made parents, in their turn, of what may be 
called sub-hybrids, and these again of others. The number of varieties of heartsease, it will thus be seen, may 
be said to be unlimited. There are now above a thousand named sorts ; and more are being raised every year. 
The variety of forms and colours which appear in the plants raised from seed, is indeed so great, that few 
floricultural pursuits can be more interesting, than to sow a bed of pansies, and watch when they come up for 
the new varieties that may be worth saving. Mr. Wells of Itedleaf has a garden set apart for experiments of 
this kind; and a year or two ago, he described to us with so much vividness the pleasure he took in looking over 
his beds for new kinds, that he made us long for a garden with sufficient space to follow his example. Even at 
Bayswater, however, in the gardens of our neighbour, Mr. Hopgood, who raises heartseases for sale, we have seen 
almost innumerable varieties. During the year 1838, we saw them splendidly in flower from March to October ; 
and we observed that some few flowers, here and there, lingered through the winter of 1838-39. 
Geography and History. —The heartsease is a native of nearly all Europe and North America. It grows 
always in sandy loam, and generally in the headlands, and under the hedges in cultivated fields. A curious 
anecdote related of the first American botanist Bertram, bears reference to this habitat of the plant. Bertram 
