PANSY or HEARTSEASE, a favourite garden flower, one of the oldest in cultivation, belonging to the violet family (Violaceae). It has been grown for so long a period under such diverse conditions and in such a variety of forms that its origin is uncertain. The numerous handsome forms, with their striking variations of size and colour, are purely an artificial production of the gardeners and differ in a marked degree from any related wild plant now known. The pansy is generally supposed to be merely a cultivated form of Viola tricolor (see VIOLET), a weed of European grain fields, while others assert it to be the result of hybridization between V. tricolor and other species such as V. altaica and V. grandiflora.
The tufted or bedding pansy, called also horned violet, is a cul tivated form of Viola cornuta, a native of Spain and the Pyrenees mountains. It differs from the true pansy in its tufted habit of growth and in the shape and position of its flower parts. The petals, which are obovate in form, do not overlap as in the true pansy, but stand distinctly apart. The spur on the lower petal, instead of being short and rounded, is long, slender and sharp pointed, whence the name horned violet. There are numerous garden forms varying greatly in colour, ranging from violet to white.
Some recent experiments 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. 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 cir cular ones, and variations in the intensity and distribution of the colour. The modern varieties of the pansy consist of the show varieties, and the fancy varieties, obtained from Belgium, and now much improved. Show varieties are subdivided according to the colour of the flowers into self s, white grounds and yellow grounds. The fancy or Belgian pansies have various colours blended, and the petals are blotched, streaked or edged. The bed ding varieties, known as violas or tufted pansies, have been raised by crossing the pale-blue Viola cornuta, and also V. lutea, with the show pansies. They are hardier than the true pansies and are f ree blooming sorts marked by effectiveness of colour in the mass.
For details of wild forms, see G. Drabble, "The British Pansies," Journal of Botany (1909-26-27) .