136 THE FLORIST. 



variety of colouring on flowers of equal merit as to form, and size, and 

 tiuality, which, no doubt, will be done in time, and probably new 

 beauties will be brought out of which none but the ardent seedling 

 raiser ever dreamed. I know of no flower that presents so great a 

 variety of colouring and fine form as some of the new varieties, and 

 we may confidently anticipate still greater things in this justly favourite 

 flower. 



The exhibitions have, no doubt, been very useful in stimulating the 

 cultivation and the raising of seedling Pelargoniums, and I believe the 

 collections from Slough exhibited last season at Gore House, the Crystal 

 Palace, and Regent's Park, were by far the best, both in quality and 

 cultivation, that ever were seen. It would be well had the general 

 cultivation kept pace with the examples exhibited at the shows, but, 

 alas ! it is far from being so ; to see a house or a collection of Pelar- 

 goniums even decently grown, is a rare exception. I saw a houseful 

 the end of last February, with the main shoots scarcely an inch long 

 and the leaves about the size of a shilling — a state of growth which 

 they ought to have attained full five months before. What can be 

 expected of such plants ? May and June is the natural period of their 

 blooming, and they cannot be had mgood bloom at other periods. And 

 this is no exceptional case, but is nearly the rule ; the plants are not 

 cultivated, they are barely kept alive. The first error is their not being 

 cut down early enough, so that neither the cuttings nor the old plant 

 have time to make sufficient growth before winter ; then they are 

 huddled together, often in a cold damp house, half their leaves either 

 fogged or eaten by the green-fly, so that spring and blooming time finds 

 them not only unprepared to give a generous head of flower, but, lank 

 and sickly ; they are not really fit to furnish cuttings, and their most 

 appropriate place is the rubbish heap. No plant better repays good 

 treatment, and I would ask all who profess to grow it to bear this in 

 mind ; there is no secret in the best cultivation, and no difficulty, the 

 needful conditions of success are easily learned, and as easily followed 

 by all who try to succeed. 



An Old Geranium Grower. 



FRUIT TREES AND FRUIT TREE PROTECTION.— No. II. 

 Mr. Bailey says : " In this county I can adduce many instances of 

 trees in the villages known as the ' Apricot villages,' where trees have 

 not failed in bearing heavy crops for many years running, and which 

 have scarcely ever been touched by a knife since they were in the 

 nursery." I can easily believe this, more particularly from what Mr. 

 Bailey says afterwards ; but I think " heavy cropping for many years 

 running " a practice which cannot be too strongly reprobated. These 

 Apricots of the " Apricot villages " are Apricots only in name — they 

 are nearly aU stone and very little flesh. Hear what the Editor of the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle " says : " It is an axiom in applied physiology 

 that no animal or plant can bear more than its system can nourish ; 



