NEW AND FIRST-RATE PELARGONIUMS. 35 



F lor i cultural Cabinet, and, being again in flower, rendered the 

 American bed gay at a late period of the year. I am sorry to record 

 that I perceived on the fourth day of the new year the flowering 

 bunches on our common laurels were about one inch in length, and 

 therefore liable to injury, should the present mild winter be concluded 

 by frosty weather. 



NEW AND FIRST-RATE PELARGONIUMS. 



BY ORION. 



Several articles under the above title have lately appeared in your 

 contemporary, the Florist, with the signature of " Orion " appended 

 (my assumed name), in which I have endeavoured " to do the State 

 some service j" but it seems something has been written which does 

 not please certain parties living a few miles west of the metropolis. 

 The Editor in the November Number requested me to procure for 

 him tables showing the relative popularity of various Pelargoniums, 

 although I asked either himself or Mr. Edwards to do so. At some 

 cost and much trouble, I made application to the most celebrated culti- 

 vators, and eighteen gentlemen courteously replied, favouring me with 

 their individual opinions, from the summary of which I drew up the 

 returns as requested, and forwarded them to the Editor of the Florist, 

 for insertion in the January number. You may guess the surprise and 

 indignation I felt on looking over the pages of that number, to find 

 the article I sent altogether omitted, and a notice to " Orion " on the 

 cover, stating, the lists could not be printed because I had not supplied 

 my name confidentially ; and this, after inserting several previous 

 articles signed Orion, and actually requesting me to procure the de- 

 sired returns. The notice concluded, " You cannot conceive the fuss 

 it has made." It is quite evident that the withholding my real name 

 the7i, could not produce it ; but I suppose the number and position of 

 the varieties of Pelargoniums raised by other persons than those of the 

 party connected with the Magazine, are so placed by the contributors, 

 as given in the returns, that their insertion would be an obstacle to 

 self-interested indulgence, and the fuss was occasioned by the integrity 

 of the individuals in their selections. I trust their example will on 

 all occasions be followed. 



Having introduced myself into your pages, and explained the " why 

 and wherefore of my appearance," I will now endeavour to give you 

 the information the Florist, in its integrity of principle, rejected from 

 its pages. Premising that a return was sent to the Florist, and after- 

 wards copied into your Journal (at page 316), of the Pelargoniums 

 seen oftenest at the London exhibitions, the following list is drawn up 

 from the opinions of the principal exhibitors there ; and these names, 

 so well known to your readers, are among the number : Mr. Dobson, 

 gardener to Mr. Peck, editor of the Florist; Mr. Black, gardener to 

 E. Foster, Esq., Clewer ; Mr. Bragg, Slough ; Mr. Turner, Slough ; 

 Mr. Moseley, Edgvva re-road ; Messrs. Henderson and Co., of Wel- 

 lington Nursery ; Major Foquet, the raiser of the most popular flower 



