FOUR COMMON FLOWERS 183 



pollen, it was used to pollinate the well-known 

 Rose Geranium so much used in perfumery and 

 which never bears seed. But by the use of the 

 pollen of the Coconut Geranium seeds were pro- 

 duced on the Rose Geranium by which a whole 

 new series of variously perfumed geraniums are 

 now growing. 



A line of work that I carried out at one time 

 involved the crossing of the pelargoniums with 

 variegated leaves with those having ordinary 

 green leaves. Among these crossbreeds it ap- 

 peared that the green-colored foliage was always, 

 as was to be expected, prepotent or dominant 

 over the white and yellow variations. The horse- 

 shoe variations were more readily transmitted, 

 but there was a varying proportion of marked 

 and plain leaves among these hybrids. 



Also worked at one time in selecting the 

 geraniums for the production of large flowers 

 of dazzling brilliant scarlet color, and with a 

 good measure of success. 



It will thus appear that there is abundant 

 opportunity for improving the geraniums even 

 by working with the species ordinarily under 

 cultivation. However, the best opportunity for 

 work in this line will involve hybridizing experi- 

 ments in which the exceedingly hardy wild spe- 

 cies are utilized. It should be possible thus to 



