Augait 17, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
141 
rogue the “weather,” to loose methods of culture, or to mongrel 
varieties, remains to be discovered and admitted. 
So generally low has the average quality of Melons fallen that 
I think I may challenge any person whose duty it has been to 
taste, say, a hundred Melons this year for the purpose of awarding 
prizes, if he can say that he has found ten out of that number 
worth taking home as a treat to his friends ? This was not always 
so. Melons were even better in the old “ dung bed ” days than 
many are now from modern structures. I mean the fruits as 
represented at exhibitions, for we may hope that high-class Melons 
are grown which do not find their way to shows. With those we 
have nothing to do ; but exhibited Melons are, for the time being, 
public property, and sent to be criticised. Under this, in the bulk, 
they fail. Few, indeed, are really good, some are moderate, and 
many bad—-absolutely bad, and no other word can truthfully 
express their condition. What are they grown for ? To what is 
this great degeneration to be attributed ?— The Other Judge. 
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE PANSY. 
When Mr. James Simkins determined to bring out his Pansy 
book for the encouragement of amateur cultivators, he asked me 
to write a history of the florists’ Pansy from its earliest stage of 
improvement from the wild Pansy of the field. I did so, to the 
best of my ability, in the first edition of the work, published in 
1889, giving coloured illustrations of some of our first Pansies of 
more than half a century since. I also wished to place on record 
the fact that Mr. Thompson, then gardener to Lord Gambler, 
Iver, near Uxbridge, was the first to take the Pansy in band, at the 
instigation of his employer and his daughter, who took to their 
gardener some plants of the wild Pansy found growing in the 
fields on the estate. 
In a letter from a very able and esteemed correspondent of the 
Journal received by me, he refers to a conversation betwixt 
himself and Mr. Sweet, also one of your contributors, to the effect 
that Mr. Sweet has had conversations with old florists about 
Kilbarchan as to Pansies being grown in that locality as early as 
1812 or 1813, and that the improvement in the Pansy might have 
been carried on simultaneously in England and Scotland. The date 
when Mr. Thompson first took the wild Pansy in hand was 1813 
or 1814, and those who wish for the information I gave as to its 
earliest history can find it by referring back to Mr. Simkins’s 
Pansy book^ and for a history of the Fancy Pansy to the Journal 
'?/' Horticulture for July 26th, 1883, written by me. 
In order to try and find out if our Scottish florists really took 
the Pansy in hand at the time Thompson did, I have searched 
through volumes of Harrison’s “ Floricultural Cabinet ” from the 
first volume (1833), and others up to 1840, and although florists’ 
flowers were thoroughly discussed and their treatment and culture 
given through the “ Cabinet,” I cannot anywhere find any informa¬ 
tion as to any Scottish florists having taken them in hand at that 
early period, or any record of any Scottish-raised varieties. 
In the volume for 1833 (December number) coloured illustra¬ 
tions are given of the following Heartsease—viz., Sky Blue and 
Yellow, in form and size that of a small Viola; Allen’s Queen 
Adelaide, and Appleby’s William IV., in which there is the first 
approach to a “ belting ” or border on the edge of the three lower 
petals, but of very indifferent form and with a rayed centre. In 
the November number of the 1833 volume there is also a coloured 
plate showing Maid of Athens, Prince George (an exact counter¬ 
part of Violas Vernon Lee and Rob Roy), and Thompson’s 
Favourite, a very novel flower, about as well shaped as Viola cor- 
nuta and but a trifle larger. Coloured illustrations of these are 
given in Simkins’ book. In this volume there is a list of seventy- 
six varieties of Pansies in cultivation, the raisers’ names so far as 
given being English florists—Allen, Bryce, Brown of Slough, 
Bunny of Stratford, Wheeler of Warminster, and Wilmer of 
Sunbury. Their places of abode are not given, but as I knew all 
personally in my early days I am able to give their places of 
business. In this list is to be found Lord Gambier, Thompson’s 
Favourite, already alluded to, and others of Thompson’s raising. 
In the August number, 1834, there are also coloured plates of 
Lucy and Sir Walter Scott, the latter a yellow ground flower with 
dark top petals, with a fraction of belting in each lower petal, and 
a small blotch on each side of the eye in the side petals, the bottom 
petal being rayed up to this period. The flower is always alluded 
to as the Heartsease in the Floricultural Cabinet, but in the volume 
for 1835 I find the word Pansy first used. This was even then an 
old name, as Shakespeare makes Ophelia say in her mad scene, 
“ There’s Pansies, that’s for thoughts,” and it is well known that the 
word is derived from the French Pens4e or thought. In this 
volume are coloured plates of Iver Beauty, golden yellow with a 
distinct wire edging of coerulean blue, a flower about the size of 
Violetta, the parent of the miniatums, and could it be obtained 
now would send my esteemed friend William Cuthbertson, of 
Dobbie & Co., into the regions of delight as an immense acquisition 
to our Fancy Violas, for I begin to think we shall soon have to 
make classes for them, seifs, fancies, miniatums, and hybrid 
Pansies, the latter of the Pansy type, but I am not going into that 
subject now. 
In the 1835 volume there are also coloured illustrations of 
Royal Crimson, yellow with a margin or belting in the lower 
petals, with the top petals of brownish crimson, a distinct advance 
towards our belted show Pansies. Iver Beauty was in all proba¬ 
bility one of Thompson’s raising. In the same vol., June number, 
Rollison’s Princess Victoria and Marsden’s King William are 
figured, but still of the Viola form and without blotch. 
In the July number, vol. for 1836, an illustration is given of 
Barratt’s Seedling, straw ground colour, with a regular belting 
and dark top petals, but with a rayed centre, and a nearer approach 
to our modern show Pansy. Other seedlings figured there also 
showed improved form with the more distinctive character of the 
modern show Pansy, and from this time the Pansy went ahead in 
improved form and size. Mr. Barratt was a well known nurseryman 
at Wakefield, Yorkshire. He took the Pansy in hand as well as 
the Dahlia, and his grand old Dahlia Vicar of Wakefield will be 
remembered by many an old florist. 
In June and July, vol. for 1837, eight seedlings raised by the 
editor, Mr. Harrison, then the proprietor of the Downham Nurseries, 
Norfolk, are figured, and in some of these this improved form is 
maintained ; but all with one exception with rayed centres—that 
is, without the defined blotch of dark colour surrounding the eye— 
and in that instance the blotch was of very primitive form. 
I may add here that in March, 1836, in reply to a correspondent 
for a list of forty best sorts, Mr. Mountjoy, a celebrated florist at 
that time near Ealing, London, gave a list which contained twenty- 
four of his own raising, for he was then celebrated for Pansies, ten 
of Thompson’s raising, and the remainder by other raisers, but not 
one that I can trace as oc Scottish origin. 
In the vol. for 1837, in the May No., a brief review is given of 
“ A History and Description of the Pansies Known at that Time,” 
but unfortunately their history is not given in the review in 
question, but the reviewer stated that at that period there were 
more than 500 varieties in cultivation ; so then as now, far too 
many must have been sent out as so-called decided improvements. 
In the volume for 1840 there is a coloured illustration of 
Silverlock’s Black Knight, a very dark self, which made an immense 
reputation, for the flower was the first greatly improved dark 
self known in its fine form, medium size, smoothness and substance. 
I was at that time in my teens, employed in a nursery in the South 
of England where we grew every variety of florists’ flowers of any 
note, and I can readily hark back to many of the old Pansies 
I have enumerated, Silverlock’s Black Knight has very often 
since, and up to the present time, been referred to by me as a 
grand acquisition in those days. It was introduced by Mr. Silver- 
lock of Chichester, an old and esteemed nurseryman and florist,, 
and the business is still in existence. 
The first double Pansy is referred to in this volume, ?.nd was 
raised by an amateur, but in old Parkinson’s “Paradisus Terres- 
tris,” published in 1629, a double Heartsease is mentioned. In 
Miller’s “ Gardeners’ Dictionary,” 1764, it is stated that “ Hearts¬ 
ease or Pansies grow naturally in some parts of the northern 
counties of England, but are generally cultivated in gardens about 
London.” 
To those who are not well acquainted with Pansies it will be 
as well to mention that the term “ Show ” Pansies applies to our 
old varieties, consisting of white, yellow, or dark seifs of circular 
form, or to flowers with a white or yellow body or ground colour 
with dark top petals, a distinct margin or belting in the three 
lower petals, with a dense well defined blotch about the eye. 
Fancy Pansies, or those of miscellaneous colours not conforming to 
the conditions recognised in the old “Show” varieties, but both 
strains are used for exhibition purposes. — Willia.w Dean, 
Birmingham. 
CROWDED FRUIT TREES. 
Symmetrical trees, models in shape, are useless unless they’ 
produce fine fruit. We are only too familiar with well-shaped 
trees that are a crowded mass, with not a fruit spur in the centre 
worthy of the name ; they are pruned annually after a fashion, 
but they might as well be clipped-in with the shears. Trees of 
whatever description they may be, w'hether Pears, Apples, or 
Plums, should have the branches so disposed that light and air can 
have free-access to every leaf. This is the secret of thorough 
development, and by no other means can the most satisfactory 
results be obtained. This is the time to thin out to the desired 
