PANSY{Viola sp.). This flower has been so long cultivated that its source is a matter of uncertainty. As we now see it, it is a purely artificial production, differing considerably from any wild plant known. By some it is supposed to be merely a cultivated form of Viola tricolor, a corn-field weed, while others 'assert it to be the result of hybridization between V. tricolor and other species such as V. altaica, V. grandiflora, &c. As florists and gardeners conducted, and still too often conduct, their operations without scientific method, it is unfortunately not possible to arrive at any definite conclusion on this point. Some experiments of Μ. Carrière, however, go to show that seeds of the wild V. tricolor will produce forms so like those of the cultivated pansy that it is reasonable to assume that that flower has originated from the wild plant by continuous selection. Mr Darwin confesses himself to have been foiled in the attempt to unravel the parentage of the pansy, “and gave up the attempt as too difficult for any one except a professed botanist.” The changes that have been effected from the wild type are, however, more striking to the eye than really fundamental. Increase in size, an alteration in form by virtue of which the narrow oblong petals are converted into circular ones, and variations in the intensity and distribution of the colour—these are the changes that have been wrought by continued selection, while the more essential parts of the flower have been relatively unaffected. The stamens and pistil, in fact, present the characteristics of the genus Viola. In that genus the construction of the stamens and pistil is such as to favour cross-fertilization, and that circumstance alone would account for much of the variation that is observed. In ...