The National Viola and Pansy Society.

VIOLA STANDARD

Exhibition Varieties

COLOUR - The colour should be clear and bright, without any semblance of a blotch, and new breaks will count in favour of the varieties submitted. In rayed varieties the rays must be thin and equally distributed over the bottom and side petals.

SIZE. - No bloom should be considered fit for award under 2.5 inches diameter.

SUBSTANCE. - The petals should he thick and fleshy.

SHAPE AND QUALITY. - The contour of the bloom should be as near circular as possible round a centre at a point where the eyebrows meet. It should be free from any serrature. notch or unevenness; the petals lying close and evenly on each other. The bottom petal should be large and full - occupying nearly half the bloom - and well covering the side petal,. which should be well rounded and meet at the shoulders above the eye. The top petals should be full and evenly proportioned.

EYE. - This should be of a bright gold or orange colour and be situate almost in the centre of the flower It should be small, round and clearly defined. without running into the ground colour.

STEM. - Should be long and strong.

FAULTS. - Thin petals. curled and cupped flowers, and thin, weakly stem.

Bedding Varieties

To gain a First Class Certificate a Viola must be awarded a minimum of 37 points.
To gain an Award of Merit a Viola must be awarded a minimum of 30 points.

PANSY STANDARD

FORM. - The outline should he a perfect circle and fre of every notch, serrature, or unevenness, the petals lying close and evenly on each other.

TEXTURE. - The petals should be thick, and of a rich, glossy, velvety appearance.

COLOUR. - In all flowers the ground colour (of whatever shade) should be perfectly alike in all the three lower petals, and should be circular, and of equal width between the blotch and the belt in the three lower petals. The colours in the top petals may run into each other. The margin of the under petals should be regular and distinct, as also the margins of the two side petals of the flower. The margins of the three petals should all meet, and should form, as it were, three parts of a circle. The blotch should be large, dense and solid, and of a circular character, free from all running into or through the ground colour, or the eye.

EYE - This should be bright gold or orange, and solid, without mixing or running into the blotch. and should be exactly in the centre of the bloom.

SIZE. - The larger bloom {other properties being equal} should be the better, but no flower should be considered fit for competition under 2.5 inches diameter.

SELFS. - Of whatever colour, should be of the same shade throughout, in yellow, white. blue, or any other shade; the denser the blotch the better.

Meritorious. - A flower which is large, fresh, clean, circular in outline, with smooth thick velvety petals without serrations, lying evenly on each other, and either flat or slightly reflexed so that the surface of the flower is slightly convex. Centre petals which meet above the eye and reach well up on the top petals, and a bottom petal which sufficiently deep and broad to balance the others. Colours which are harmonious; belting (margin) of uniform width; blotches which are large, solid, rounded and clearly defined; and an eye which is bright yellow, solid, circular and well defined.

Defective. - A flower which is less than 2.5in. in diameter, is past its best, soil-marked, concave, or lacking a circular outline. Petals which are fish-tailed, thin, of poor substance, or serrated. Inharmonious colours. Belting (margin) which is too narrow or more than 1/3in. wide, or of uneven width, or ill-defined. Blotches which are small, thin, or ragged-edged. An eye which is dull or ill-defined.

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