Plate 178. 
FANCY PANSIES. 
The four kinds of Fancy Pansies now figured were kindly 
supplied to our artist by Mr. William Dean, of Shipley, near 
Bradford, and evidence the very great improvement that is 
taking place in the form of these comparatively new candidates 
for public favour. To him we are also indebted for the follow¬ 
ing notes on the subject:—- 
“ The Fancy Pansy is now making rapid strides towards per¬ 
fection of form, and it is fast becoming popular; the endless 
variety, and new and striking colours constantly developed, 
strongly recommending this flower to the notice of cultivators. 
64 It thrives in ordinary garden soil, and prefers a cool, and, 
in hot weather, a somewhat shady situation: the shoots should 
be kept pegged to the ground, and occasionally a slight sur¬ 
facing of refuse potting soil from underneath the potting bench 
should be given; this enables the side shoots to root freely, 
and keeps the roots cooler in hot weather. Seed may be sown 
now and until April, to bloom in the summer and autumn.” 
Originally of English origin, the Fancy Pansy migrated to 
French soil, and was encouraged by the late M. Meillez, of 
Lille; but with his death, three years since, the Fancy Pansies 
would in all probability have passed into obscurity had not Mr. 
Dean taken them in hand at M. Meillez’s death, and in the 
cooler climate of Yorkshire making for them a home and a 
reputation. He this year bloomed many thousand seedlings, 
from which several have been selected for a further trial next 
year before they can be introduced: it is this careful attention 
to them that has tended to make them so popular, and if, as it 
is hoped, they attain the substance as well as the form of the 
old florist varieties, they cannot fail to become still more so. 
