128 



THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



otlier people may do as tliey please, 

 but after this present season Tom and 

 I part for ever, and my choice for a 

 dwarf scarlet will be between Crystal 

 Palace and Attraction. The first of 

 these is so like Tom in colour and 

 habit, that it needs no desci-iption, 

 but it surpasses our good old friend 

 Tom in longer continuance of bloom, 

 and a more even bloom the whole 

 season through. But Attraction be- 

 longs to the class of scarlets which 

 come near to the florists' standard of 

 properties, and has all the freeness of 

 a true bedder ; it is of dwarf habit, 

 has^plain green leaves, short joints, 

 and begins to bloom well from cut- 

 tings immediately it has struck root. 

 I particularly noticed a bed of this at 

 the Crystal Palace last year, and 

 marked it down then as the best of 

 all the scarlets for a bed or front row, 

 but I do not now pledge myself that 

 it is the best, because it is impossible 

 to use the term without adding con- 

 ditions, and one condition essential to 

 Attraction is a dry, sandy soil and a 

 sunny position. 



I must now tell you that I have 

 planted out for trial a large collection 

 of new geraniums, of which many are 

 now in bloom and already showing 

 their qualities fairly. I have plants 

 of all the same kinds in pots, so as 

 to compare them on both systems 

 to the end of the season. First 

 among them, as we have just been 

 speaking of scarlets, I must name 

 Carter's Spread Eagle, raised by Mr. 

 Beaton. This is of the nosegay race, 

 but with very broad petals ; that is, 

 broad for nosegays, which are un- 

 popular, because of their windmill 

 character. Spread Eagle will be one 

 of the most liery geraniums known, 

 and in a poor soil and hot position 

 will make a subject to talk about. 

 The colour is deep orange scarlet, 

 habit dwarf, and the trusses come at 

 nearly every joint, so that when it 

 has made a fair start it is not an 

 agreeable object to look at for any 

 length of time in the full sun. Mer- 

 rimac, also raised by Beaton and sent 

 out by Carter, is of similar habit 

 also, with broad petals, but the colour 

 is glowing crimson, and it may be 

 considered an improved Imperial 



Crimson, which is about as high 

 praise as need be bestowed upon it to 

 insure for it tlie popularity it de- 

 serves. I have had six large trusses 

 open at once, on plants scarcely four 

 inches high. Miss Parfit, from the 

 same breeder and the same dealer, is 

 nearly of the same colour as Mer- 

 rimac, say dazzling scarlet-crimson 

 with a faint white eye. The leaf of 

 this is a dull green slightly zoned, 

 and it grows dwarf and compact. 

 Last in this series is Lord Palmerston, 

 which was bedded out at South Ken- 

 sington last year. This produces 

 large trusses of deep crimson, and I 

 should recommend it for its intrinsic 

 beauty ; but I have some doubts 

 about its wearing qualities, and shall 

 withhold any further expression of 

 opinion respecting it for the present. 

 Now a plant each of all these four 

 can be had for half a sovereign, and 

 the purchaser can, if he pleases, pro- 

 pagate from June to September, and 

 have a tolerably sized house full for 

 use next year, and by that time know 

 exactly what to do with them and 

 what they will do for themselves. 

 Next in this comparison of scarlets 

 Beaton's Improved Eubens is a capital 

 thing, in a quite new shade of colour. 

 The peculiar salmon scarlet of Rubens 

 has had two washes of a deeper tone 

 of red laid on, the petals have been 

 stretched a trifle wider, and are one 

 film stouter in substance, and for 

 Berlin wool shading this will be in- 

 valuable. It is, in fact, a softened 

 scarlet, the form of the flower as 

 nearly perfect as in any bedder we 

 have, and it stands sun and rain with 

 impunity. 



So far for new scarlets, now for 

 old ones again. The race among 

 amateurs who bed out hundreds is all 

 in the zonale section, but among the 

 great artists who bed thousands the 

 race is among the nosegays. The 

 narrow petals of the nosegays stop 

 their progress to popularity, yet when 

 skilfully used there is no class of 

 bedders to equal them for abundance 

 of bloom, clear fresh solid colouring, 

 and powers of endurance. See Mrs. 

 Vernon, or Fothergilli, or Carmine 

 Nosegay used with calceolarias and 

 variegated geraniums at such places 



