228 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



wide for anything to equal it. Another good quality of this variety 

 is the colour of the flowers, for in place of the ordinary scarlet, 

 which ill agrees with a yellow ground, the flowers of this variety 

 are of a soft, pleasing cerise colour, and when a bed of this is freely 

 sprinkled with flowers, it has a most luxurious appearance. Gold- 

 finch and Canary have been good this season, but as they are not 

 new, we must not put their names in italics. Of the Cloth of Gold, 

 Gold Leaf, and Golden Fleece series, the last-named has proved the 

 best everywhere. In the class of new silver variegated geraniums, 

 the only new one that has made any important figure here is one 

 sent by Mr. J. J. C hater, of Cambridge, and the name of which we 

 have unfortunately lost. The next best to Chater's is the old Day- 

 break, and, all things considered, that is probably the best variety of 

 the kind in cultivation. 



Fuchsia, Golden Fleece. — This is one of the many good things 

 Messrs. E. G. Henderson off'er this season. It is one of the most 

 brilliant bedding plants ever seen,, the leaves being of a shining gold 

 yellow colour, literally producing the eft'ect of burnished gold. 

 Although far less beautiful as a pot plant than when seen glowing 

 in the sunshine in the parterre, it is by no means unattractive in the 

 greenhouse, in which respect it differs from, the majority of yellow- 

 leaved bedding plants, which are usually \erj sickly when seen any- 

 where but in their places out of doors. This Golden Fleece .sur- 

 passes all the other variegated -leaved fuchsias, both in colour of leaf, 

 flower, and habit of growth. 



Pp-ethrum, Golden Featlier. — This has been recommended in these 

 pages, and we are quite confident we need not now be ashamed of 

 our recommendation. It has, in fact, proved eminently serviceable, 

 and is a favourite everywhere. Having several plants in odd places, 

 we allowed some of them to flower, the proper way to deal with the 

 plant being to remove the flowers. It appeared highly probable 

 that this plant would serve two purposes, and might be worked into 

 one of those " chameleon " borders that Mr. Howlett used to write 

 about so instructively. Suppose, then, we plant it where its yellow 

 leaves will be appropriate from the beginning of May to the middle 

 of July, and then supposing other features of the scheme have 

 changed, and we no longer want yellow leaves alone, but white 

 flowers also. In such a case, here is a plant to our hands. The 

 flowers are small and have no particular merit ; but there are plenty 

 of them, and picking them ofl" is a troublesome job. 



Lohelia, Indigo Blue, is one of the very best of the blue bedding 

 plants. No one should now grow seedling lobelias ; the very best 

 are far inferior to the good named varieties that are available. This 

 one is of a rich deep blue colour, with clear white eye. Pamila 

 elegans is another good lobelia, very much used this season at the 

 Crystal Palace and Battersea Park. It is extremely dwarf in habit, 

 and is quite smothered with blue flowers all the summer. White 

 Queen is almost a pure white, and good, but rather too robust in 

 habit. On the other hand, lliss Miirphy is as great a failure as 

 Snov-flaJcc, neither of them, as bedding plants, worth a penny per 

 thousand. 



