1868. J 
VIOLA CORNUTA. 
205 
6 feet in diameter, I do not recollect any otlier instance where so much real 
ornament can he got for so small an outlay from a ligneous perennial. 
When the plant is not in flower it is no straggler, hut always looks trim and 
neat, for it “ buries its dead,” and it is not until the plant is finally chopped 
to pieces that you see the dead leaves and twigs that did its work before it 
attained the adult state. 
Although this Furze will grow very well on level ground, it is preferable 
to plant a specimen on an artificial knoll or hillock, so that the centre of 
the plant may thereby stand high, and the branches droop gracefully down 
the sides of the slope. The great fault of the plant is its dwarf habit, and 
this method of planting just brings it up to the level of the eye. It falls to 
the lot of very few to have it, as in my case above referred to, where it 
formed an avenue, and stood 9 feet high, so that a lady on horseback could 
enjoy the fragrance, and the beauty of its flowers. 
How many dull slopes and shapeless mounds of earth .throughout the 
country might be made gay with this plant at little cost! aye, even the 
very “ cairns ” (heaps) of stone, with the help of a little rich mud, might 
thus be made to “ blossom like the Rose.” 
Salford. Alex. Forsyte. 
VIOLA CORNUTA. 
ENTERTAIN the impression that this bedding plant is better adapted 
for spring than summer work, if rightly treated. Nearly all the 
Violas are naturally spring-blooming plants, and V. cornuta is no 
exception to the general rule. V. lutea is in my estimation the 
most constant bloomer of all the bedding kinds ; its habit is much 
dwarfer than that of V. cornuta, and I find that it withstands the drought 
much better. Last May twelvemonths I put out well-rooted plants of 
V. cornuta for edgings and other purposes, along with the usual bedding 
stuff; the plants grew strongly but flowered thinly, and as a consequence I 
proposed to dispense with it another year, but for various reasons it was 
allowed to stand in its place over the winter, and very early in the spring it 
began to bloom, and during April and May was the most effective mass of 
purple I have ever seen. By this time the single line of plants had become 
from 15 to 18 inches in width, and it was not thoroughly exhausted till the 
end of June. 
The most effectual way to obtain this display every spring would be, I 
apprehend, to lift all the old plants as soon as they had done blooming, 
cut them close back, pull them well to pieces, and plant the divisions in a 
north border till October, when they might be again transferred to the flower 
garden. I am not sure indeed if they would not be, by this time, again in 
bloom, but at all events the plants will never prove so generally satisfactory 
