198 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[July, 



when •' effect" is the object in view. This is not 

 the case with the Polyanthas ; they are dwarf — 

 they bear their flowers in clusters above the 

 plants, and they produce them without inter- 

 mission. Their every shoot is a flowering one. 

 and this without any exception to be seen in 

 several hundred plants, closely observed for 

 more than a year, even those pushed by cuttings 

 too long in tlie sand being capped with buds. 

 In appearance they are very pretty, whether the 

 blooms are considered individually, or the plant 

 with its canopy of flowers as a whole. It would 

 be hard to mention other qualities to be desired 

 in plants for masses or borders. As yet their 

 colors are all light, but I think time and experi- 

 ment only are wanting to add brighter shades, 

 and it is in white plants for bedding that we 

 find the least variety from which to choose. 



Again, they will be found valuable as window 

 plants. I have long been in doubt as to our 

 being justified in recommending roses of other 

 classes for that purpose, as they are satisfactory 

 in very iew instances. The Polyanthas, how- 

 ever, must not only prove superior to all other 

 roses, as pot plants, but will not unlikely be the 

 most popular of all flowering plants for house 

 culture, their most prominent characteristics 

 being exactly those desired. 



Florists will find them very convenient to 

 manage as they root readily and rapidly, can be 

 grown by any one, and may be had in selling 

 condition at any time. Their graceful beauty 

 ought to make them popular market plants. 



While attaching a great value to these varie- 

 ties, I am not inclined to think the qualities 

 mentioned at all elevate the standard of the 

 Rose, for its greatest beauty must always lie in 

 the richness and perfection of its individual 

 flowers, characteristics necessarily precluded 

 where the blooms are so small. They will be 

 grown, however, where other roses will not suc- 

 ceed, or require more patience than the grower 

 possesses, and they may furnish a new element 

 in bedding plants where any such additions will 

 certainly be welcome. 



Paquerette and the new Mignonette are prob- 

 ably the best for outdoor use; the former has 

 tight little rosettes of white, about an inch across 

 and very double, never showing a centre nor 

 losing their regular circular form, and I once 

 counted forty-two buds and flowers in one head. 

 Mignonette is much like it, with a delicate ming- 

 ling of pink and white. Anna Marie de Mon- 

 travel so far promises best as a house plant; its 



flowers are a half larger and of irregular form 

 when open, but when half expanded are much 

 more beautiful than the others are in any state, 

 being well worthy the application of the usual 

 floral adjectives. 



FLORAL IDENTITIES. 



BY N. F. F., WAVERLY, MD. 



I have Scarlet Bedder Geranium, which 

 is in every particular the counterpart of the 

 variety General Grant. Are they not one and 

 the same variety ? 



The origin of Scarlet Bedder would not be 

 difficult to ascertain, but who is responsible for 

 the variety General Grant? If this variety be 

 legitimate offspring, the originator need not be 

 ashamed of such progeny. But one can hardly 

 help feeling a little surprise at the singular coin- 

 cidence, that two such geraniums, which cannot 

 possibly be distinguished the one from the other, 

 should have been raised at the .same time by 

 different persons. 



Then amongst the few really good bedding 

 Coleus of recent introduction we have Glory of 

 Autumn and General Grant, which is one variety 

 with two names. The writer having been accus- 

 tomed to look at this Coleus from its infancy, 

 would like to be informed in what way the more 

 poetic, though less illustrious name, Glory of 

 Autumn has been tacked on, in. place of or in 

 addition to the martial cognomen applied to it 

 by the raiser. 



Will some one please rise to explain ? 



A FEW BEDDING PLANTS. 



BY SOME GREEN. 



When a geranium is called pre-eminently 

 beautiful, like the catalogues call Mrs. Charles 

 Pease, what shall we say of Emile De Giradin, 

 which is much like it in color but better in every 

 other respect? If you have the last you do not 

 want the pre-eminent. * 



After reading some superlatives on Acalypha 

 Macafeana, I bought the "superb" thing, and 

 was surprised at its dull colors blotched a little 

 brighter. Not one who saw it during the sum- 

 mer thought it as fine as a Coleus. Still the little 

 black fleas, such as eat potato tops, like it and 

 eat the leaves full of holes. 



In some forty varieties of geraniums President 

 Leon Simon was marked first as a bedder, while 

 in color there are many better. Deputy Taflye 



