BRIEF REMARKS. 237 



There were a great number of other kinds which were amongst tiio 

 winning ones, but only one of each kind was shown. Nevertheless 

 some of them are of superb cliaracter, but few of them being sent 

 out will account for tliere not being more in the winning classes. 

 However, the above twenty-one kinds are of excellent character, and 

 persons desirous of growing only good kinds, and wishing to procure 

 such, may rely upon them being first-i-ate in form, colours, marking, 

 and edging. 



Monstrous Flowers of Pelargoniums. — The following extract 

 from a paper read by Mr. Sowerby at the Conversazione Meeting of 

 the Eoyal Botanic Society, in the Regent's Park, describes an inter- 

 esting case of monstrosity. After pointing out the distinguishing cha- 

 racters of the genera Geranium and Pelargonium, Mr. Sowerby pro- 

 ceeded to say, " The gardener, as in this ca«e, when he finds nothing 

 but external beauty to recommend a plant, endeavours, by selecting 

 the most perfect, and then cultivating it highly, to increase in the suc- 

 ceeding both the beauty of colour and of form ; and as the beauty of 

 form depends on the same elements as that of colour, that is, as before 

 explained, upon the indication of perfect adaptation to the end, or the 

 resemblance of that indication, a full round form is especially aimed at 

 l)y the cultivator of flowers, and the Pelargonium fancier endeavours 

 to obtain five broad and equal petals to form a round flower, with tiie 

 upper two deeply and brilliantly coloured, to produce a contrast to the 

 three lower and light-coloured ones ; but with all his care the flowers 

 do not come constant, and now and then one will play the truant, and 

 sport as he calls it, and tliis commonly happens among the most petted 

 or highest cultivated varieties. "When the dark colour disappears 

 from the upper petals altogether, and the petals become equal in size 

 and form, it will be observed that the characteristic tubular nectary 

 also disappears. The want of the nectary or honey tube is also accom- 

 panied by a I'egular arrangement of five anther-bearing and five abor- 

 tive filaments. The white varieties are less liable to this change than 

 those with rose or salmon-coloured petals, and it is also rare among the 

 new fancy varieties ; frequently it occurs in the central flower of the 

 truss. In some flowers the nectary is also shortened, and in others a 

 small spot will remain on one petal when the nectary is absent. In the 

 fancy variety called Yeatuiannianum grandiflorum, which has spots on 

 all the petals, the spots become equal, the two large spots being 

 reduced. An additional petal also accompanies the ciiange in a few 

 cases. One plant of the Ueauty of Clapham, a rose-coloured variety, 

 has almost every flower changed more or less. Thus it appears that 

 cultivation makes one species of plant appear to run into another, and 

 may destroy a remarkable generic character, consisting of the presence 

 of an important organ in the flower, &c. Thus the gardener seems by 

 over-cultivation to reduce his flower to a lower standard, but I do not 

 think this is exactly the case ; for though he may apparently reduce a 

 Cape Pelargonium to a European Geranium in tlie eye of a botanist, 

 or partly so, still he would iiave a more truly beautiful flower if he 

 conhl obtain a full truss of beautiful large rose-coloured or pink 



