THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 195 



«lass I have had good luck with Turner's Ensign, which is certainly 

 one of the best grey-edged flowers of all the batch of new ones. 

 Mead's Miss Gidduigs has delighted me, the pips open so flat, in such 

 large trusses, and the colours are remarkable for strength and regu- 

 larity. Ckeetham's Lancashire Hero is another of my favourites. 

 Add Chapman's Sophia and Macleans Uniciue, and you have the 

 pink and prime of the novelties in this class. As for white-edged 

 flowers, I have had many newish ones in the class in flower this 

 season, but they did not bloom so well as others, and none of the 

 white-edged, whether new or old, were so white as I have seen them. 

 Many, indeed, were too decidedly grey to be called white, if we had 

 never seen them before. But I have been well satisfied with LighU 

 lady's Fair Maid, the counterpart in colouring of my Miller of the 

 Dee, also with Smith's Ne PI as Ultra, Fletcher's Mary Ann, Smith's 

 Lady Sale, Gairns's Model, a charmiug form. The only novelty 

 amongst selfs that I have had flower well was Smith's Formosa, a 

 very faulty but most lovely flower, the body colour of which is a 

 light lively mauve. I would not be without it on any account, for 

 if it only secures the admiration of the ladies — as it never fails to 

 do— that is enough to warrant keeping it. Chapman's Squire Smith, 

 Martin's Mrs. Sturrock, Martin's Eclipse, and Lighthodij's Meteor 

 Flag, are grand things in this class, and I suppose we shall have a 

 chance of buying some of Mr. Turner's new selfs in 1869. 



I hope some day our Editor will put the classification of auriculas 

 to rights in the same business-like and useful way he has classified 

 the geraniums. There is no proper distinction between a white and 

 a grey-edged auricula, and the most experienced cultivators will 

 often differ about the class to which a new variety should be assigned. 

 Almost all florists' flowers have been classified objectionablv ; in 

 fact, the classification is the fruit of empiricism and arbitrary dicta- 

 tion, not of reason and observation. There is abundant work in this 

 field for those who are equal to it. 



SHOW AND FANCY PELARGONIUMS. 



BY AK EXHIBITOE. ~^ 



E hear and read so much about the various classes of 

 zonal and variegated Pelargoniums, that one might for 

 the moment suppose that the sections of show and 

 fancy pelargoniums were well-nigh forgotten, and fast 

 going out of fashion. But it is not so ; they are grown 

 and cared for as much as ever, and can be seen everywhere in as high 

 a state of perfection as they ever were, and it is in but few places 

 that they have been entirely thrust out by those belonging to the 

 other sectioDs ; and where this has happened we have invariably 

 found the proprietor to be " zonal mad," and unable to see any 

 beauty in anything else. Well, we will leave them to their fancies, 

 and by giving a few hints upon the management, aid in extending 



