IRISH GARDENING 



151 



Sweet-scented Leaved 

 Pelargoniums. 



By Miss J I. M. White, LL.D. 



Even' in the garden we do not escape from the 

 tyranny of fashion, and in obedience to its 

 dictates plants rise and fall in popular esteem. 

 During the years 1820—30, when Sweet published 

 his excellent book on the Geraniac?ae he was able 

 to describe some 500 Pelargoniums — a feat which 

 few growers of the present day would care to be 

 called on to emulate. Although scented-leaved 

 Pelargoniums failed for many years to find a place 

 in greenhouses, they seem always to have been 

 cherished as cottage plants and to have been 

 loved by the poor. t George Eliot in " Janet's 

 Repentance " speaks of a scented Geranium 

 giving forth its wholesome odour in the midst 

 of a noisy pot-house, and in the tiny window of 

 many a poor and squalid little room, the one spot 

 of greenness and the sole breath of fragrance are 

 supplied by a lanky plant of " Capitatum," the 

 beloved " Oak Geranium " of the poor. Miss 

 Brenan tells me that a cottager in her neighbour- 

 hood has a very old plant of Odora Rosea which 

 she brought many years ago as a cutting from 

 America, and which has now a stem almost 

 as thick as a small tree. The sweet-scented 

 leaves of these Pelargoniums when sent to 

 hospitals seem to give almost more pleasure to the 

 patients than flowers, their only formidable rivals 

 in popular favour being " Lad's Love " and the 

 " Lemon-scented Verbena." 



An admirable article on sweet-scented leaved 

 Pelargoniums appeared in the October, 1911, 

 number of the Journal of the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society, contributed by Miss Troyte 

 Bullock and Miss E. V. Brenan, both well- 

 known growers of these plants, and readers who 

 desire an exhaustive treatment of the subject 

 must be referred to it. A difficulty which con- 

 fronts the collectors of these plants at the outset 

 is the hopeless confusion of the nomenclature. 

 Miss Hope, a grower of sweet-scented Pelar- 

 goniums, writing more than thirty years ago, 

 makes the same complaint in her delightful book 

 " Gardens and Woodlands " : the names of the 

 scented Pelargoniums were then in a muddle, and, 

 they have remained so ever since. The matter 

 is now receiving attention at Wisley, the gardens 

 of the Royal Horticultural Society, so we must 

 hope that some sort of order may at last be 

 evolved out of the existing chaos. I make no 

 claim whatever to speak with authority on the 

 matter, I give the varieties the names under 

 which I grow them, but I. alas ! feel no certainty 

 that these names are right. The synonyms are 

 sorely perplexing, also the fact that widely 

 different varieties are grown under the same 

 name. To take such a well-known variety as 

 " Peppermint," Miss Hope speaks of it as 

 " Lobatum " ; Sweet describes " Lobatum " as 

 the " Cow Parsnip -leaved Stork's Bill," a plant 

 differing widely from " Peppermint." Plants sent 

 to me as " Pilosum," " Tonientosum," and " Mrs. 

 Seymour " have all proved to be my old friend 

 " Peppermint." " Lady Mary Fox," an almost 

 equally well-known variety, has as synonyms 

 " Mrs. Moore," " Moore's Victory," " Alturn." 

 " Mr. J. Douglas," " Old Irish." Then again 

 two extremely different plants are grown as 



" Duchess of Devonshire." 1 grow a rather 

 coarsely cut glutinosum — " Viscosissinius " I 

 believe it is generally called ; others grow as 

 " Duchess of Devonshire," a plant more nearly 

 allied to the Orispums. Two entirely different 

 varieties are also grown as " Lothario." 



Miss Brenan in the article above referred to 

 has divided the scented Pelargoniums into three 

 main groups — 



I. Capitatum section. 

 II. Crispum section. 

 III. Quercifolium section, 



after which she places the Uniques, and in yet 

 another section a large number of distinct 

 varieties that cannot well be included in any of 

 these groups. It is well to remember this classifi- 

 cation, but for the ordinary , gardener these 

 Pelargoniums may, perhaps, be more usefully 

 divided into : — 



(a) The most effective — with good flowers. 



(6) The sweetest. 



(c) The best for cutting and arranging with 



flowers. 



(d) Distinctive varieties. 



Group A (with most effective flowers) would 

 include : — Agnes ; Andersonii ; Balbisianum ; 

 Betuhefolium, white, very effective if grown as a 

 large specimen : Claret Kock : Oucullatum, single 

 and double form : Chit Chat : Clorinda, a con- 

 tinuous flowerer, most effective; Dale Park 

 Beauty ; Dideniatum : Lady Mary Fox, scarlet 

 very good; Lady Mary =llirsutuni ; Lothario, 

 tnyvariety: Miss Brenan's variety : Mons. Nonin ; 

 Mis. Earle ; Mrs. Douglas ; Painted Lady ; Pretty 

 Polly, one of the most popular ; Kapaceum ; 

 Scill'y Isles ; Schottisham Pet ; Shrubland 

 Hose, very good ; Toronto. 



The Uniques. — Purple Unique = syn. Bellevue 

 Seedling = syn. Chippenham* : Scarlet Unique ; 

 White Unique : Kollisson's Unique ; Conspicuuni ; 

 Mrs. Kingsbury. 



Group B (the sweetest). — Attar of Rose ; 

 The Crispums, all these are good. There are some 

 eight different varieties. Crispum Minus, a little 

 gem, deliciously sweet ; " Bridal King " extremely 

 sweet ; Lady Scarborough, one of the sweetest ; 

 Prince of Orange, large flowers, very sweet; 

 Princess of Orange, large flowers, very sweet ; 

 Kudola, a small lemon-scented Capitatum. 

 Varieties with strong and peculiar scent, liked by 

 some people and disliked by others, are : — Pepper- 

 mint ; Turpentine =Fragrans ; Beauty ; and 

 Mrs. Meredith t which seem to have some of the 

 Peppermint strain. Blandfordianun = Lady Betty 

 Germaine, grey leaves, distinct scent. 



Group C (the best for cutting and arranging 

 with flowers). — Capitatum, all the various forms; 

 Graveolens Variegatum = Lady Plymouth: Fair 

 Ellen = Sweet Helen ; Filidfolium : Graveolens ; 

 Pheasant's Foot ; Kadula ; Sandbach Beauty ; 

 Wintona picturata = Vandesi, Chiswick Beauty 

 = Major Clarke. The Crispums belong as much 

 to this group as to Group B. They are very 

 sweet and they are good for cutting. 



Group I> (distinctive varieties, not always with 

 sweet-scented leaves, but generally classed with 

 these varieties). — Abrotanifolium, like j " Lad s 

 Love," very sweet, might also be placed in 



* The Purple Uniques .are difficult to decide definitely a bout. Miss 

 Brenan and I class them a little differently. She makes Chippenham 

 distinct, and makes Conspicuuni as a synonym of Purplr unique. 



tThis applies to the variety that I grow as Mr. Meredith. There 

 are other plants grown under this name. I believe 



