4 8 4 



GERANIUM. 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



GERBERA. 



in height, flowering in midsummer 

 abundantly, and sometimes till late 

 in autumn to a less degree. Its flowers 

 are large and handsome. It requires 

 only ordinary garden soil, and is well 

 suited for the mixed border, or for 

 grouping with the finer perennials in 

 beds or on the margins of shrubberies. 

 Some other kinds are showy, and the 

 best of these are : the dwarf G. 

 sanguineum ; its beautiful Lancashire 

 variety, with rose-coloured blossoms 

 finely marked with dark lines ; G. 

 pratense, a tall kind, with large purple 

 flowers ; and its pure white variety. 

 There is also an intermediate form with 



A group of hardy Geraniums. 



white and purple flowers. The Cauca- 

 sian species, G. gymnocaulon and G. 

 ibericum, are beautiful, with their rich 

 purple blossoms, 2 inches across, 

 delicately pencilled with black. G. 

 platypetalum, striatum, ibericum, and 

 Lamberti are suited for shrubbery 

 borders, and most of them are free 

 and vigorous enough for naturalisation. 

 G. Endressi, with light rose-coloured 

 blossoms, is also very attractive. 

 Much the handsomest of the flowered 

 sorts is the foot-high G. grandiflorum, 

 which everybody should grow. All the 

 above-mentioned Geraniums are hardy, 

 easily cultivated, and grow in ordin- 

 ary soil. The pretty rock garden 

 kinds, G. cinereum and G. argenteum, 

 are alpine plants, and, unlike stout 

 perennials, they must be associated 

 with very dwarf rock plants. All the 

 Geraniums are increased by seed, and 

 with the exception perhaps of the 

 G. cinereum, and G. argenteum, all 

 are freely multiplied by division. 



GERARDIA. I have never, either in 

 gardens or in the wild land, or in the 

 Alpine mountains, where beauty of 

 plant life is at its highest, seen any- 

 thing that struck me more than a 

 Gerardia I once met with in the 

 roadside in New Jersey, growing abun- 

 dantly here and there like a little 

 tre3 in habit, 15 inches to 18 inches 

 high, bearing most graceful miniature 

 Pentstemon-like flowers, but far more 

 refined in colour and distinct in form 

 than any Pentstemon. Naturally I 

 asked why such a plant was not in 

 cultivation, and learnt that the Gerar- 

 dias are mostly parasites on the roots 

 "of other plants. In spite of this, I 

 brought home some seed of one or 

 two kinds and sowed it where I 

 thought it would have some chance, 

 but nothing ever came of it. Gerardia, 

 a genus called after John Gerard, 

 who wrote the famous Herbal in the 

 time of Queen Elizabeth, is, as a 

 group, of the highest interest. I hope 

 that some of them may be introduced. 

 G. tenuifolia is a species long known, 

 which thrives in the open, and forms 

 charming tufts covered with pretty 

 flowers in summer. It is dwarf and 

 bushy in habit, light and graceful in 

 effect with its numerous pale blue 

 flowers. 



GERBERA ( Transvaal Daisy] . 

 Perennials from South Africa, of which 

 few are yet in cultivation. G. Jame- 

 soni is a handsome plant, nearly hardy 

 in the southern counties, but too 

 tender for the midlands and the north. 

 Its leathery dark green leaves are 

 shaped like those of a Dandelion, and 

 arranged in a rosette, and the flowers 

 are glowing scarlet, 4 inches across, 

 borne singly on tall bare stems. 

 Where the plant cannot be grown in 

 the border it will bloom in a sunny, 

 airy greenhouse potted in a mixture 

 of loam, peat, and sand, and treated 

 as one would a Cineraria. In some 

 gardens it is well grown upon such 

 parts of the rock garden as are devoted 

 to hardy Cacti, where it can be shel- 

 tered by a glass roof in winter and 

 kept dry while freely exposed to the 

 air on all sides. G. viridifolia, a 

 dwarfer plant with smaller flowers, 

 white flushed with lilac, is also grown, 

 and between this and G. Jamesoni 

 beautiful hybrids have been raised in 

 which the flowers vary in colour from 

 nearly white to salmon-pink, coral-red, 

 orange, and yellow. 



