70 



CULTURE OF GERANIUMS. 



fore-stick of good hickory or maple wood, 

 drivingj in its glowing heat, your guests aiid 

 family into a wide circle round the room, and 

 lighting it up with such a cheerful, welcome 

 radiance, as will put modern gas and sperma- 

 ceti out of countenance — no sviell about it, 

 but the delicious odor of the sweet exuding 

 sap. Ah, my good sir, it is a very capital 

 house I 



But why so large a landed estate, and stone 

 so very plenty, to permit such a house to one 

 who wants it ? I see no such great require- 

 ments in these particulars. Rough stones are 

 cheap — unhammered they should be ; and the 

 house is certainly not a very large one — a 

 good house, indeed, Mr. Downing. I wish some 

 person would build one like it, with the alte- 

 rations I have suggested. I would go a good 

 way to see it. 



Whitewashijig. — The curculio again ! the 

 pestilent rascal ! I hope some plan is to be 

 ascertained among them all to stop their rav- 

 ages. We'll wait a little longer, and see what 

 this last cure will amount to. 



Cream Hill Vindicated. — I feared as much. 

 "A pretty free sort of a country this," said 

 Teague, just after landing, " that a jintleman 

 can't say and do what he plazes, without such 

 a patter about his ears, and a threat of the 

 bilboes." One thing we have gained, howev- 



er. Cream Hill has produced Ijoth poetry 

 and eloquence in its " vindication," and I 

 trust the effort of its vindicator, at a descrip- 

 tion of its fair proportions, has not "wrenched" 

 him so sadly as a "nothing" else might have 

 done. 



I thank your correspondent, however, most 

 heartily, that in vindicating his favorite "hill," 

 he has thus valiantly come up to my aid in il- 

 lustrating the genus "Imitatii," through his 

 signature "Fe?-eYas" — a name some thousand 

 years or more in date, and applied by odd 

 scores and more of pamphleteers and scrib- 

 blers every year from the Romans down. No 

 "imitation" in this, my good friend — none, 

 whatever. 



Thus, Mr. Editor, terminates my random 

 seribblings on your now past volume of the 

 Horticulturist. That I have profited any one, 

 I may well doubt ; that I have amused now 

 and then a reader, is possible ; and if I have 

 done no harm, I shall be, at least, content. 

 My pen will now take its rest in the quiet re- 

 pose of my farm, and among the society of my 

 peaceful, rustic neighbors. Whether its labors 

 will again revisit your pages, is a question of 

 little moment, I presume, with yourself or your 

 readers. That, time and tide must deter- 

 mine. Jeffreys. 



ON THE CULTURE OF GERANIUMS. 



BY WM. CHORLTON, STATEN ISLAND. 



The Pelargonium (Geranium,) is not only one 

 of the most splendid, but to the florist one of 

 the most useful genera. So superb is the in- 

 florescence of some, so unsurpassedly rich the 

 scent, and so delicate and handsome the foli- 

 age of other kinds, that no collection of plants, 

 however small, can be said to be complete 

 without a due selection of this favorite of 



Flora. From the time of our great-grand- 

 mothers, it has been a justly popular plant. 

 The old "Horse Shoe" and "Ivy Leaf," 

 were once seen in every cottage window, and 

 were looked upon as a part of the family by 

 all, from the old grandmother, who put on 

 her spectacles to watch its unfolding leaves, 

 to the smallest child, who stood tiptoe on buf- 



