THE FLORIST. 3Q5 



PELARGONIUMS. 



" If any one compares the Pelargonium flowers that were 

 known in 1827 with those common in 1847, he will find it diffi- 

 cult to believe that they can all have had the same origin, and 

 that twenty years have sufficed to produce so great a change 

 as has really been effected. But if the varieties produced 

 between 1842 and 1847 are examined, the ground of surprise 

 will be changed, and the wonder will be, that the improve- 

 ment which was so rapid in the first fifteen years should have 

 become so slow in the last five. Yet the reason is obvious ; 

 hybridising, in the direction followed by the raisers of Pelar- 

 goniums, has reached its limit ; we have obtained all the 

 result that is obtainable. Therefore we say, Gentlemen, 



YOU SHOULD NOW SAIL ON ANOTHER TACK. PUT YOUR SHIP 

 ABOUT ; IT IS OF NO USE TO CRUISE ANY LONGER IN THESE 

 SEAS; YOU HAVE DONE ALL THAT MAN CAN DO IN THIS 

 QUARTER ; AND IF YOU ARE WISE, YOU WILL STEER IN AN- 

 OTHER DIRECTION."* 



On November the 20th, 1847, w^e were dodging under 

 easy sail, Cape Expectation on the weather-bow, and Reali- 

 sation Bay under our lee, the wind light, and clear weather, 

 when Commodore Lindley made the signal for all captains 

 in the Geranium fleet to go on board. Upon reaching the 

 quarter-deck, the above was read to us from the Chronicle, 

 and we were then ordered to return to our several ships. "We 

 were hardly aboard and gone below for a moment, before we 

 heard our first-lieutenant order the hands to be turned out 

 to tack ship. We were on deck in a minute. " Avast there I" 

 cried we ; 



" ' Not a brace or a tack 

 Or a sheet will we slack !' 



We'll run the risk of a court-martial ; and hold our station, 

 come what may." And so we quietly kept our luff, and 

 watched Captains Catleugh and several others follow the com- 

 modore, and Captain Gordon, who, with a flowing sheet, made 

 sail and went olFfor the " Capes." It was with great regret 

 we saw our old friends disappear one after the other below the 

 horizon, and it was no small loss to part from our gallant 

 commander-in-chief; but we felt assured that, by abandon- 

 ing our station, we should miss some prizes we were certain 

 to make, if we continued upon the same tack and in the same 

 * Gardeners'' Chronicle, vol. vii. p. 7G3. 



VOL. II. NO. XXIV. A A 



