June 6, 1867. ] 



JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



387 



Arbutus, in some portions of the grounds quite lulled down, in more 

 elevated purta elij^btly iiijured. 



Laurustinns. tlie same. 



Ancuba japonica, sliRbtly injured. 



Sweet Bay. killed down to tbe ground. 



Holly, Variegated, very much injured, some tine standards quite 

 killed. 



Holly, Common Green, some nearly killed. 



Laurels, Common, tbe foliage mucb destioyeu, in some cases tbe 

 wood killed. 



Oaks, Evergreen, some nearly killtd. 



Rbododendrous, some kinds nearly destroyed. 



Sorts of Pears tbat suffered most, but wbich were worked on Quince — 

 Beurrc d'Aremberg, Ducbesse d'AngouU-me, Seckle, Louise Bonue of 

 Jersey, and Fondaute d'.A.utomno. 



Hoses, of all classes, have suffered severely. Of standard 

 Hybrid Perpetuals it is difficult to say which is the most hardy, for 

 those which were supposed to liave escaped have lately died, being so much 

 injured tboy could not recover. The Moss kinds seem to have suffered 

 least. The Hybrid Bourbons and Hybrid Cliiuas have been very 

 severely injured; some of the Climbers — Ayrshire, &c., were slightly 

 injured. 



Lowest temperature registered 7° below zero — that is, .30" of frost, 

 January 4th, 5th, and 6th. 



ORIGIN OF VARIEGATED PEEARGONIUMS. 



[The following is the paper on this sahject which Mr. Wills 

 intended to have read at the Koyal Horticultural Society's 

 Meeting, May 2l9t.] 



My intention was, had there been time, to have bronght 

 the whole of my specimens of the old Pelargouinms before the 

 meeting. They would have illustrated the progress that has 

 been made from the year 1710 to the present time. I have to 

 thank Mr. Davies, gardener to Lord Bridport, for several of 

 these curious old forms. One of them. Miller's old variegated, 

 is especially interesting, as being the first variegated Pelargo- 

 nium ever seen in this country, and probably the parent of all 

 the beautiful variegated forms we see around us on this occa- 

 sion. I have also in my collection plants of two of the wild 

 Cape Pelargoniums — namely, Pelargonium inquinans, the 

 parent of all the plain-leaved section, and the wild Pelargo- 

 nium znnale, wbich is the parent of all the zonate varieties. 

 These old varieties, which have been so long cast aside as 

 worthless, are, nevertheless, very interesting, as being the 

 parents of the magnificent host of variegated Pelargoniums 

 we see around us. 



I am very much inclined to think that it is not by man's 

 agency that our first variegated kinds were obtained. My 

 opinion is, that Nature in the first instance received no 

 assistance from man, but that some of the earliest varie- 

 gated kinds originated naturally. The first .'ilver-variegated 

 Pelargonium of any note was sent out many years ago by 

 the Messrs. Lee, of Hammersmith, and named by them Lee's 

 Variegated Scarlet ; and I think there can be little doubt 

 but that the origin of this variety was a sport from a green 

 parent, which may have been naturally impregnated by the 

 pollen of Pelargonium zonale variegatum. One of the seedlings 

 from this natural cross, although perfectly green for several 

 years, may have had the tendency to variegation, and many years 

 may have elapsed before the plant had sufficiently matured itself 

 to enable it to produce a variegated sport. In support of this 

 view, I may quote a letter I received some months ago from 

 Mr. Davies, and in which he says. " Many years ago I raised a 

 quantity of seedlings from Lee's Flower of the Day. One of 

 them produced a beautiful bright scarlet flower, the flower-truss 

 of which was very large. The original parent, which is now 

 about 18 feet high by 10 feet wide, continued perfectly green 

 till about four years ago, when it occasionally threw out sports, 

 producing variegated leaves on different parts of the plant, 

 which are generally greatly admired." Many instances of a 

 similar nature have come under my own observation. This, I 

 think, will show the possibility of plants retaining variegiition 

 in their nature for many years, and only developing it when 

 the plant has grown to a large size, or been subjected to some 

 peculiar treatment. 



Whatever may have been the origin of Lee's Variegated 

 Scarlet, it is certain it was the parent of some of our very 

 best silver-margined varieties. From it Mr. Kinghorn raised 

 Flower of the Day, a variety which is still grown very largely, 

 and is not yet surpassed for general usefulness by any at 

 present in cultivation. Flower of the Day was followed by 

 Mountain of Light, and a little later Mrs. Lennox appeared : 

 after this Bijou, Alma, and many others in the same way. 



Previous to the appearance of these varieties Mr. Kinghorn 

 raised Attraction, which was the first variety ever produced 

 with a pink zone. This was followed by Countess of Warwick, 

 and then the appearance of Mr. Elphinstone's varieties created 

 a sensation. Their names were — Fontainbleau, Hotel de Cluny, 

 St. Cloud, and The Queen's Favourite. In 1833 Mangles' Silver 

 Variegated appeared as a sport on Pelargoniuin heterogamnm in 

 the garden of Captain Mangles at Sunning Hill. This variety 

 has never been of any use for cross-breening purposes. I 

 have never known it ripen seed "nut once ; tl]^t was at Oulton 

 Park during the hot and dry summer of 1805. None of the 

 seed vegetated. The origin of Golden Chain was a sport from 

 P. inquinans, produced about the year 1814, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Ipswich. Some years after this Lady Plymouth also 

 sported from P. graveolens. Osborne's Brilliant appeared in 

 1851 ; this was also a sport. 



There are several claimants to the honour of having raised 

 the first Tricolored Pelargonium. A correspondent stated in 

 The .Tournal of Horticultcee lately, that the first Tricolor was 

 raised in the neighbourhood of Blackheath nearly twenty years 

 ago, and that it was named Rainbow. If this statement is 

 true, it is strange that a variety nearly equal to Mrs. Pollock 

 should have remained unknown so long, and that its fortu- 

 nate raiser had not a keener eye to business. Mr. Elphinstone, 

 of the Sprowston Nurseries, Norwich, appears to have exhi- 

 bited the first Tricolor. In a letter which I received from him 

 some months ago, he said, " I raised the first Tricolor Pelar- 

 gonium, and exhibited it at the Horticultural Society's rooms 

 in Regent Street in the year 18.51, and was highly compli- 

 mented by the late Dr. Lindley." This variety Mr. Elphinstone 

 sold to Mr. Veitch, who could do nothing with it, and even- 

 tually lost it. Major Trevor Clarke, I believe, was the first to 

 discover the potency of the pollen of Golden Chain upon other 

 varieties. To Mr. Grieve belongs the honour of having pro- 

 duced the first permanent Tricolor. His name will be handed 

 down to posterity alone, as the originator of this beautiful 

 class of plants. The advent of his Mrs. Pollock in 1861 caused 

 quite a revolution amongst raisers and growers of bedding 

 Pelargoniums. I have no doubt that Mr. Grieve procured Mr. 

 Elphinstone's and Mr. Kinghorn's varieties, and with them 

 was enabled to bring about such wonderful results. I know, 

 from my own experience, that green seedlings from Mr. Elphin- 

 stone's varieties were produced in large numbers with very 

 dark and partly variegated zones. The pollen of Golden Chain 

 applied to the flowers of these would produce both Golden 

 and Silver Tricolors. One of these seedlings, raised five years 

 ajo from The Queen's Favourite, I used last year as a female 

 parent, because the zone was very dark and beautifully defined, 

 and the plant showed faint signs of variegation on its stem. 

 Its flowers were fertilised with the pollen of one of my Golden 

 Tricolors : it has produced both Golden and Silver Tricolors, 

 and one of the seedlings that remained perfectly green for nine 

 months afterwards threw out both Silver and Golden Tricolors. 

 This plant, also shown in my collection, is a living proof that 

 both Golden and Silver Tricolors can be produced by one plant 

 spontaneously. 



I have noticed in many instances seedling plants producing 

 a solitary variegated leaf after they had attained a height of 

 9 or 12 inches, and that this leaf has had sufficient power to 

 inoculate the whole of the plant. If the variegated leaf is 

 carefully preserved on the plant, and some of the green leaves 

 above it are removed, the effect of inoculation will soon be 

 observed. This will go on spreading and increasing untU the 

 whole system of the plant has become inoculated ; the plant 

 will then break out into variegation, and if any green leaves 

 appear on the variegated sport they should he immediately 

 removed. This will enable the variegated portions to predomi- 

 nate, and the future character of the plant will remain fixed 

 and permanent, only occasionally, perhaps, showing a greea 

 leaf. 



Again, small seedling-plants only showing very faint signs of 

 variegation in the cotyledons will ultimately become perma- 

 nently variegated, although no sign of variegation may be 

 seen on any of the leaves of the plants for nine, twelve, or 

 twenty-four months ; afterwards, if such plants be kept, it will 

 be seen on close examination by any one that there are streaks 

 of variegation appeariug on the stem near the position of one 

 of the cotyledons. These streaks, if the plant be freely culti- 

 vated, will extend very rapidly, and the variegation wiU in- 

 crease month after month until the whole system of the plant 

 become thoroughly impregnated ; then the plant will begin 

 pushing out variegated sheets from the base upwards. Some- 



