THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 231 



recondite purposes. Perhaps I should add another reason, tliat the 

 collectioQ of zonales comprises always some 500 different varieties, 

 and that, therefore, there are plenty of plants to operate with, as 

 of some of the sorts we grow a dozen or two, and of others only two 

 cr three. Now, I am always anxious to place our amateur readers 

 as nearly as possible on a level with myself in respect of any advan- 

 tages which attend the systems followed here, and I will briefly state 

 what is the best method to get up geraniums for a grand bed of 

 mixed colours, grouped as a pyramid, the plants rising from a few 

 inches to four or five feet high. Collect from all the best kinds at 

 once a quantity of seed. Give the preference to such as Dr. 

 Lindley, Magna Charta, John Hampden, H. W. Longfellow, Pink 

 Beauty, Lady Middleton, May Queen, and others of robust constitu- 

 tion, and that make tine flowers. Do not save much seed of such 

 flimsy sorts as Christine, as they make poor pot-plants. If you 

 have plenty of glass, and can keep a few hundred small plants 

 through the winter, sow the seed as soon as ripe, and in due time 

 pot the plants in the smallest pots, and winter them in a warm 

 house near the glass. If not well off in respect of glass, sow in 

 February or March, place the seed-pans in a gentle heat, and grow 

 the plants all the summer in a greenhouse or frame, and get them 

 into 60-sized pots before the end of August. In March following, 

 shift them into 48 size, and, as they fill these pots with roots, shift 

 again to 32 size, and in this size let them flower ; they are all to be 

 allowed to grow as they please, no stopping, no pruning. In the 

 course of the second summer — that is to say, in about fifteen months 

 from the time the seed was sown — they will flower. We flower a 

 great many in le>s than five months from the time of sowing the 

 seed, but we say nothing about such things now, because it is 

 desirable to adapt these notes to the circumstances of the majority 

 of private cultivators. All the seedlings should remain one full 

 year in the 32-sized pots, and after that term should be shifted on, 

 to 24 size, or otherwise disposed of as may be considered most 

 expedient. The system of cultivation proposed will produce robust 

 plants varyins: from two to five feet high, with tine heads, and 

 abundance of flowers of all colours. AVhen packed close together 

 to form a group, the colours being mixed indiscriminately, their 

 appearance will so far surpass all other geraniums, that a revolution 

 in the district is pretty sure to follow. The seedlings are our 

 stronghold for plunging effects, and it is so easy to raise geraniums 

 from seed, that I recom.mend all who take to plunging to accompany 

 it with this great aid to success. 



Calceolarias. — Select the kinds for compactness of habit. 

 The best we have used are Canariensis and Gem. The last named 

 is a bright yellow, and is the best of all the bedding calceolarias. 

 To make Hne plants, get some frames, and make beds of half leaf- 

 mould and half sandy loam, and put in the cuttings in the first week 

 of Septeii\ber; there let them remain all the winter. At the end of 

 March take them up carefully, and pot them in 48 size, using 

 nothing else to fill in except quite rotten hot-bed manure : it must 

 be rotted to dust. After potting, shut them up close, and give 



