Cultivation of the Pelargonium. 37 



Pelargoniums in collections of twelve new and first-rate varieties culti- 

 vated with superior skill, in eight-inch pots. Gold Banksian medal, £1. 

 Silver Gilt, £4. Certificate of excellence, jG2 10s. 



Pelargoniums, in collections of twelve varieties in eleven-inch pots. 

 The same medals. [These are the large specimens. — Ed.] 



Scarlet Pelargoniums, in six distinct varieties in pots not less than eleven 

 inches in diameter. Silver Gilt medal, £4. Certificate of Excellence, 

 £2 10s. Large Silver medal, £l 15s. 



To be disrjualified, if not really fine. 



Some such arrangement, reducing the number of plants to 

 six in the place of twelve, if thought expedient, the better to 

 accommodate amateurs, with one of the Society's, or one of the 

 Appleton Gold medals, and two or three smaller prizes, 

 would be the means of at once rescuing this flower from the 

 commonality, if we may so use the word, into which it has of 

 late fallen. May we not hope that our hints will be duly 

 weighed before making up the list of prizes for 1847 ? 



We now come to the directions of Mr. Beck for the full cul- 

 tivation of the plants, as laid down in a small treatise pub- 

 lished by him, biit which, being now out of print, we publish, 

 to save the author the labor of rewriting : — 



REMARKS. 



The following remarks upon the management of the pelar- 

 gonium, are principally intended for the guidance of private 

 growers ; for the method of training adopted by exhibitors is 

 not that which I think best calculated to make the finest 

 display upon the home stage. It is requisite that plants in- 

 tended for exhibition should have every truss carefully sup- 

 ported by a stick, or they would not bear the transit without 

 considerable injury ; this gives them a stiff, unnatural appear- 

 ance, very different to that where Nature predominates over 

 Art. Again, for exhibition, it is requisite that the flowers 

 should be much closer to the foliage than is desirable in a 

 private collection. If the accompanying directions are fol- 

 lowed, the plants ought to be close and bushy until the end of 

 April, when the flower-stalks should push boldly above the 

 foliage, so that when the whole are in flower, the eye should 

 rest on a rich varied sheet of bloom, unbroken by the dis- 

 figurement of the innumerable sticks so offensive at our grcu 

 Metropolitan Shows. I have endeavored to give the colors 

 accurately ; but the tints are so varied, and called by such 



