70 THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. [March, 



appreciative of good culture as a show Pelargonium. The best position in which 

 to prepare the plants would be some open spot near the working sheds, where 

 they could be plunged in coal ashes, and be under the eye at all times. And as 

 they should show the public what the beauty of hardy plants really is, so should 

 they be grown entirely in the open air in spring and summer. To save the pots 

 and pans from cracking with frost, it would in many cases be desirable to plunge 

 them in shallow cold frames, or cradles, with a northern exposure in winter ; but 

 in the case of the herbaceous kinds, a few inches of some light protecting cover- 

 ing thrown over the pots when the tops of the plants have perished, would form 

 a sufficient protection. W. Eobinson. 



NEW FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 



HE marked improvement effected in the Chinese Primrose within the past 

 few years was abundantly illustrated at the meeting of the Floral Committee 

 on the 16th ult., when some very fine forms of this popular flower were 

 exhibited. Foremost was a truly magnificent strain of what is popularly 

 termed the red Primula sinensis. The depth of colour, which was a lively rose- 

 purple hue, was something remarkable, while the flowers were very large, very 

 stout, and had showy lemon centres ; the habit of the plants, moreover, was stout 

 and robust. The Committee deservedly awarded a first-class certificate to Mr. 

 Williams for this superb strain, which was named rubra grandiflora. A white Pri- 

 mula of an extremely novel type came from Mr. W. Paul. So pure was the colour, 

 that it might be correctly termed snow-white, and there was this noticeable 

 about the plants, that the leaf-stalks and flower-stalks were both of a reddish hue, 

 the latter being tall, surmounted with a bold truss of flowers, and thrown up 

 high above the foliage, which was more cut at the edge than usual. There is no 

 doubt that these novel types of Primulas have the capacity to reproduce them- 

 selves from seed ; so that on the ground of its undoubted novelty, and fine 

 qualities, this latter strain also should have been awarded a first-class certificate. 

 Messrs. Windebank and Kingsbury, of Southampton, to whom more than to 

 any others we are indebted for the variation now observed in the Primula, also 

 staged a collection of their flowers, though the long journey had sadly marred the 

 beauty of many of the finer varieties. Some twelve or fourteen years ago, these 

 growers took the Primula in hand, and it was they who were first successful in 

 raising flaked flowers, — flowers mottled and striped with purplish rose or pale 

 violet on a white ground. This season, a most decided step forward has been 

 achieved by them, in the production of flowers striped with rose — in some 

 instances the colour approaches scarlet. In the hands of Messrs. Windebank and 

 Kingsbury, the old types of the rose and white Primulas have changed into some 

 ten or twelve distinct types of variation, all more or less beautiful. In 

 point of size and in massiveness, the flaked flowers are yet behind the white 

 and rose-coloured types, but each year finds them gradually increasing in 



