1870,] NOTES AND QUERIES. 335 



1 Gardeners' Chronicle ' once laid down the properties which ought to guide judges 

 in estimating the qualities of these Pelargoniums in the following rules : — 1. The 

 plant must be of vigorous constitution, free-growing, but not long-jointed. 2. 

 The habit must be stout, close, and branching, and the branches thickly furnished 

 with horizontally-set well-displayed leaves. 3. The surface of the leaves must 

 be flat — that is, neither concave nor convex from contraction of the margin. 4. 

 The leaf-colouring must be bright, distinct, and well defined. 5. The ground 

 colour (green) must occupy a space in the centre equal in diameter to the com- 

 bined zone and marginal belt — that is, half the diameter of the leaf; it must be 

 of uniform hue, and must not extend into or appear bejond the zone. 6. The 

 zone must be either evenly arcuate or regularly scolloped or vandvked, dark on 

 the inner and brightly coloured on the outer edge. 7. The inner portion of the 

 zone to an extent not exceeding one-half its whole breadth must be dark-coloured 

 throughout (blackish or deep brownish red), breaking outwardly in a symmetri- 

 cally radiated manner into the bright colour (red or pink) of the outer half, which 

 latter must at no point break through the dark belt so as to touch the ground- 

 colour. 8. The marginal belt must be of uniform breadth, and of the same tint 

 throughout (yellow, straw-colour, cream-colour, or white), entirely separated 

 from the ground-colour, or from contact with the darker belt of the zone. 



At many country shows, the gold and bronze, or what you term the " bi- 

 color " section, are shown as variegated Pelargoniums ; but at the shows of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society they would not be admissible as such. Consult the 

 secretary of your show; he may be able to inform you what was done last year. It 

 would be very wrong to give the prizes to the biggest plants, irrespective of growth 

 and coloration. Medium-sized, well-grown, and nicely-coloured plants stand a 

 much better chance of taking honours. The name of the variety, a leaf of which 

 you enclosed, we take to be Lady Cullum. 



Violets. — The little bouquets of Violets which in the spring months are generally 

 sold by the flower-girls in the central streets of London are the produce of many acres 

 of land at Mitcham and its neighbourhood. A short visit to Mr Steedman's Violet 

 farm gives an insight to its workings. There are 16 acres of land under Violet 

 culture. The two varieties of this flower principally grown here are the Russian 

 and the Giant. The first named is darker in colour, the latter is the most frag- 

 rant. The picking is done by boys and girls, who have a tin can suspended by a 

 strap over the shoulder on one side, and a bunch of short strips of bass on the 

 other. When twenty-five Violets are plucked, they are tied together with a strip 

 of bass, and placed in the can. Another "hand" is employed to pick leaves 

 only. In about the centre of the little farm there is a shed or barn. Here the 

 picked Violets are brought and placed in heaps, as are also the leaves ; but the 

 latter are all thrown into a water-vat and swilled, for the purpose of removing 

 earthy rain-splashes. In the barn from ten to twenty pair of nimble fingers are 

 ready to make up the bouquets as soon as the flowers are supplied ; this is done 

 by tying two of the quarter hundred bunches of Violets together with two or 

 three leaves outside them. This done, they are then packed in symmetrical rings 

 in a small basket or skip. About three o'clock p.m. the work is done, and from 

 twenty to eighty skips are put into the van for market. The quantity varies con- 

 siderably, according to the weather and season. 



Mr Steedman is a true philanthropist and trader, and is as well known in 

 Covent Garden at six o'clock in the morning in March and the beginning of 

 April, as Rothschild is on the Exchange at three o'clock in the afternoon. Many 

 a poor flower-girl, without a penny, gets from him fifty bunches of Violets on 



