84 THE GARDENER. [Feb. 



as if not a raore handsome plant. It is an excellent dinner-table 

 plant. In hardiness it is the same as C. maritima, but we have not 

 found it so easily propagated. It can be raised easily from seed, but, 

 like its companion, we suppose it will scarcely attain its full coat of sil- 

 veriness the first year. We have not yet had experience of it from seed. 



Scnccio argentcms. — From what we have already seen of this plant, 

 we regard it as the finest silvery-foliaged plant for general usefulness 

 outdoors that has ever been introduced. When it can be said of it 

 that it is a hardy perennial, and a miniature as near as possible of 

 Centaurea Ragusina, forming lovely compact specimens G inches across, 

 with compact stiff leaves as white as those of the Centaurea, and like 

 them in all respects except size, little more need be said in its favour. 

 It was brought from the Pyrenees by Messrs Backhouse of York, who 

 sent a special expedition for it, who seem to think it does best in loamy 

 soil, though it grows wild in a loose shaly soil. It multiplies itself by 

 its " woody stem branching and rooting as it travels on.'^ At present 

 our stock of it is in pots, and from what can be seen of it in that state, 

 and from what we have heard of it outdoors much farther north, it 

 cannot fail to be a great favourite. 



Pelargonium Vesuvius. — Brilliant scarlet ; flowers produced in larg- 

 ish trusses in wonderful profusion. Habit compact and dwarf ; lively 

 green leaves slightly zoned. We regard this, from our experience of 

 it in two different soils and localities, as, taken as a whole, the most 

 useful Pelargonium that ever came under our notice. It has not a 

 fault that can be named. It is brilliant, free in growth, and for 

 keeping up a continuous profusion of telling blooms we have seen 

 nothing in the Pelargonium way to equal it for bedding. It is 

 excellent for pot-culture, and in intermediate heat blooms profusely 

 all the dull months of winter. At present we have a quantity of it in 

 a temperature of 55° to 60"", that were lifted out of the beds in Octo- 

 ber, and since the middle of November they have been studded with 

 bold trusses of bloom ; and this in the case of plants that were late in 

 September denuded of every growth that would make a cutting. The 

 more vigorously it grows, the more blooms are produced. 



P. Glorious. — This for beds is second only to Vesuvius. It is more 

 of a crimson scarlet, and not so lively a colour for distant effect, but 

 in all other respects it is the equal of Vesuvius. 



P. Grand-Duke. — This w^ell deserves its name as a pot-plant, in 

 which condition only have we yet proved it. But we have its charac- 

 ter from a reliable friend in the midland counties of England as one 

 of the most effective of bedders. It belongs to the nosegay section, 

 and has immense trusses of orange-scarlet blooms on very stout foot- 

 stalks. Habit compact. 



