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Show 368 FLOWERS. CJJAP. X. Pansy or Jfearlsease ( Violrt tricolm·, &c.).-Tho history of this ~owe~ seems to bo pretty well known; it was grown in Evelyn's garden m 1G87; but the varieties were not attended to till 1810-181~, when Lady Monko, together with Mr. Lee tho welt-known nun:;cryman, cnergotical.ly .commenced their culture ; and in the course of a few years tw~nty varwtws conld be pm:chasod.'sa At about the same period, .namely m 1813 or 1814, Lord Gambier collect d some wild plants, and hts garde~o~, lVIr. Thomson~ cultivated them together with some common garden vn.nohcs, and so~n eHecicd a great improvement. 'rho first groat ~!tango was the convers1~n of ~he d ·k lines in tho centro of tho flower mto a dark eye or contlo, winch a~\hat period h[Ltl never boon soon, l.mt is now consicl.orcd one of the chi~f Tor1nisilos of a first-rate flower. In 1835 a book cntn:cl~ devoted to th1s flower was published, and four hundred named vanotJCs wore. on sale. :From these circumstances this plant seemed to me worth stuclymg, ~oro especially from the gren.t contrast between tho smal .l~ dull, olongatecl, J~Tcgular flowers of tho wilJ pansy, and tho bc~utJful,. flat,. symmetn cn.l, circular, voh'ot-liko flowers, more than two mcbe~ .m dtamctcr, magnificently and vario11sly coloured, wltich arc cxhJb1tod at our sl:O\~S. nut when I came to inquire more closely, I found that, though tho vanetws wore so modern, yet that much confusion and doubt prevailed about their parcutn.go. Florists believe that tho varieties 1 8'~ arc descended from seve~·al wilJ stocks, namely, V. tricolor, luteo, .r;mndtjlm·a, arr:cvna, and .iJltate(t, more or loRs intorcroRRcd. And wbon I looked to botamcal works to ascertain whether those forms ought to be ranked as species, I found equal doubt and confusion. Vioht .!lltaicct seems to be a distinct form, but what part it has played in the origin of our varieties I know not; it is said to have been crossed with V. lutw. Violn amwua 185 is .now looked at by all botanists a( a natural variety of V. granrlijlom; and this and V. sudetica have boon proved to be identical with V. lutea. Tho lat~or. and V. tr:icolm· (including its admitted variety v: a1'vrmsis) arc rankc~. as d1~tmct spocws .by ]3abington ; and likewise by M. Gay,186 who has pmd partwular attcntwn to the genus; but tho specific distinction between V. lutea and tricolor is chiefly grounded on tho one being strictly an~ tho other ~ot stricti~ permmial as well as on some other slight and ummportant d1ffercnces m the form ~f tbo stem and stipulcs. Bentham unites these two forms; and a high authority on such matters, Mr. U. C. ~Vat~on, 107 sa~s that, "whilo v. tricolor pas. cs into Jf. cwveusis on tlto one SJdC, 1t approximates so much towards J!. lutca and V. Ca1'tisii on tho other side, that a distinction becomes scarcely more easy between them." 183 Loudon's 'Gnrdonor's Mngmo:ino,' vol. xi. 18!35, p. 4.27 ; n,lso 'J ournnl of li< rticuHuro,' Aprill4, 18GR, p. 275. ts• Lon<lon's • Gardener'~:~ Mnguziuo,' vol. viii. p. 575; vol. ix. p. 680. 185 Sir J. R Smit.h, 'English Florn,' vol. i. p. 306. II. C. Wtttson, 'Cybolo llrit:tnn:ica,' vol. i. 1817, p. 1 1. t aG Quoted from 'Annalcs des Sciences,' in tho Companion to tho 'Bot. Mog.,' vol. i. 1835, p. HiO. 187 'Cybolo llritunnica,' vol. i. p. 17:-l. See nlso Dr·. U orbort on tho chnngos of colour in trnnspl:mtcd specimens, nnd on tho nrttuml variations of V. gran<Iiflom, iu 'Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. iv. p. 10. CHAP. X. FLOWERS. 3G9 Renee, after having carefully compared numerous varieties, I gave up the attempt as too difficult for any one except a professerl botanist. Most of tho varieties present such inconstant characters, that when grown in poor soil, or when flowering out of their proper season, they produce differently colomod and much smaller flowers. Cultivators speak of this or that kind as being remarkably constant or true; but by this they do not mean, as in other cases, that tho kind transmits its character by seed, but that the individual plant docs not chango much under culture. Tho principle of inheritance, however, docs hold good to a certain extent oven with tho fleeting varieties of the Hcartcase, for to gain good sorts it is indispensable to sow tho seed of good sorts. Novortholcss in every largo seed-bed a few almost wild seedlings often reappear through reversion. On comparing tho choicest varieties with the nearest allied wild forms, besides tho difference in tho size, outline, and colour of the flowers, tho leaves aro soon sometimes to differ in shape, as docs the calyx occasionally in tho length and breadth of the sepals. The differences in tho form of tho noct..<try more especially deserve notice ; because characters derived from this organ have been much used in tho discrimination of most of tho species of Viola. In a large number of flowers compared in 1842 I found that in tho greater number the nectary was straight; in others tho extremity was a littlo turned upwards, or downwards, or inwards, so as to be completely hooked; in others, instead of being hooked, it was fuRt turned l"octangularly downwards, and then backwards and upwards; in others tho extremity was considerably enlarged; and lastly, in some the basal part was depressed, becoming, as usual, laterally compressed towards tho extremity. In a large number of flowers, on tho other band, examined by me in 1856 from a nursery-garden in a different part of England, the nectary hardly varied at all. Now M. Gay says that in certain districts, especially in Auvorgne, the nectary of the wild V. gmnclijlora varies in the 'manner just described. Must we conclude from this that the cultivated varieties first mentioned were all descended from V. grandijlora, and that the second lot, though having the same general appearance, were descended from V. t,ricolor·, of which tho nectary, according toM. Gay, is subject to little variation? Or is it not more probable that both these wild forms would be found under other conditions to vary in the same manner and degree, thus showing that they ought not to be ranked as specifically distinct? The Dahlia has been referred to by almost every author who has written on the variation of plants, because it is believed that all the varieties are descended from a single species, and because all have arisen since 1802 in Franco, and since 1804 in England.1BB Mr. Sabino remarks that" it seems as if some period of cultivation had been required before tho fixed qualities of tho native plant gave way and began to sport into thoso changes which now so delight us." 18~ Tho flowers have boon greatly modified in shape from a flat to a globular form. Anemone and ramm- 1 88 Snlisbury, in' Transact. llort. Soc.,' vol. i. 1812, pp. 84, !J2. A semi-double variety was produced in Madrid in 1790. VOL. I. 189 ' Transact. llort. Soc.,' vol. ill. 1820, p. 225. 2 n |