2526 



PELARGONIUM 



PELARGONIUM 



of them variable and confusing in a wild state, with 

 plant-breeding in many places and continued through 

 two centuries, and with a large special literature, the 

 genus offers exceptional advantages and perplexities 

 to the student. Most of the species early came into 

 cultivation by the English and 

 Dutch, the South African plants 

 forming at one time almost a separ- 

 ate department of horticultural 

 knowledge. P. cucullatum, the domi- 

 nant parent in the florist's pelar- 

 goniums, was known in England as 

 early as 1690. The two originals of 

 the race of zonal or bedding gera- 

 niums were introduced into Eng- 

 land in 1710 and 1714. Early in 

 that century, a half-dozen species 

 were grown at Eltham, in the famous 

 garden of James Sherard, and these 

 were pictured in 1732 in Dillenius' 

 account of that garden, "Hortus 

 Elthamensis," a sumptuously illus- 

 trated work in quarto. Even at 

 2837. Gardener's that time, P. inquinans had varied 

 ' ideal, and the original markedly (see Fig. 2836). In his 

 form, as depicted in "Species Plantarum," 1753, Linnaeus 

 1841. described the few species which he 



knew (about twenty-five) under the 

 genus Geranium. In 1787, L'Heritier founded the genus 

 Pelargonium, and transferred many of the Linnsean 

 species. L'Heritier's work "Geraniologia," a quarto, 

 appeared in Paris in 1787 to 1788, with forty-four full- 

 page plates. Recently Kuntze has revived the pre- 

 Linnaean name Geraniospermum (1736) for this genus, 

 but it is not likely to find acceptance. 



Early in the nineteenth century, many species were 

 in cultivation in Europe, and experiments in hybridizing 

 and breeding became common. There appears to have 

 been something like a geranium craze. The experi- 

 ments seem to have been confined largely to the 

 development of the show or fancy pelargoniums, as 

 greenhouse subjects, for bedding plants had not reached 

 their present popularity. The geranium interest seems 

 to have culminated in Robert Sweet's noble work on 

 "Geraniaceae," published in five volumes in London, 

 1820 to 1830, containing 500 well-executed colored 

 plates of geraniaceous plants. At that time many dis- 

 tinct garden hybrids were in cultivation, and to these 

 Sweet gave Latin botanical names. His fifth volume 

 is devoted chiefly to garden forms of the show pelar- 

 gonium type, to which the general class name Domes- 

 ticum is given in the following sketch. The develop- 

 ment of the zonal or bedding geraniums had begun 

 in Sweet's time, and he includes them in his pictures, 

 but the larger part of their evolution is subsequent 

 to his history. Various small works on pelargonium 

 have appeared. De Jonghe's "Traite M6thodique de 

 la Culture du Pelargonium," Brussels, 1844, contains 

 good bibliographical and cultural data. 



Few classes of plants should have more interest to 

 the amateur and fancier because the species are 

 numerous and varied, the colors mostly very attrac- 

 tive, the habit of the plant interesting, and the foliage 

 often with pleasing fragrance ; yet, excluding the common 

 window and bedding geraniums of the P. zonale and P. 

 inquinans type and the Lady Washington or Show 

 types, they are very little known to gardeners. A cool 

 greenhouse could be made to yield very interesting sub- 

 jects in the species here described and others that may 

 be secured from collectors in the regions where they 

 grow. 



Most of the cultivated forms of pelargonium may 

 be grouped into four general horticultural classes: 



I. The zonal, horseshoe, fish, or bedding types, 

 known to gardeners as "geraniums." They comprise 

 a mongrel class, designated as the Hortorum class 



This race seems to be derived from P. zonale and P. 

 inquinans. These two species were made by Linnaeus 

 in 1753, but he founded them on descriptions in earlier 

 works rather than directly on the plants. In America, 

 the zonal geraniums are very popular, for they develop 

 their colors well in the bright climate. They are popu- 

 lar in all countries, however. They probably stand 

 closer to the lives of a great number of persons than any 

 other ornamental plant. If a window or a garden can 

 have but one plant, that plant is likely to be a geranium. 

 The old race of large-flowered and large-clustered 

 geraniums was known as "nosegay geraniums," because 

 they were bouquet-like, but this term is not known in 

 America. Another race has been developed for its zone- 

 marked leaves. There is also a race of double-flowered 



zonals, which have 

 appeared chiefly since 

 1860. The very full 

 double and close-clus- 

 tered forms lose much 

 of the grace and charm 

 of the single types. 

 Some of them are little 

 better, to a sensitive 

 eye, than balls of 

 colored paper. In the 

 development of the 

 individual flower of the 

 geranium, there have 

 been two ideals the 

 English ideal for a cir- 

 cular flower with the 

 petals broadened and 

 overlapping, and the 

 continental ideal with 

 a somewhat two-lipped 

 flower and the petals 

 well separated. In the 

 "Gardeners' Chroni- 

 cle" in 1841, p. 644, 

 the proper form is set 

 forth in an illustration, 

 and this is contrasted 

 with the "original 

 form;" the picture is 

 reproduced, somewhat 

 smaller, in Fig. 2837. 

 "The long, narrow, 

 flimsy petals of the old 

 varieties," the writing 

 says, "moved by every 

 breath of wind, and 

 separated to their very 

 base by broad open 

 spaces, have been suc- 

 ceeded by the beauti- 

 ful compact flowers of 

 the present day, with 

 broad stout petals so 

 entirely overlaying 

 each other as to leave 

 scarcely an indentation 

 in the outline of the 

 flower; while the 

 coarseness which pre- 

 vailed in the larger of 

 the old sorts is replaced 

 by a firmer substance, 

 and a far more deli- 

 cate texture." Fig. 

 2838 shows contrasting 

 ideals, although the 

 2838. Three forms of garden ger- picture does not re p re - 

 amum. The upper two show the , ,, PYtrpTTlp( , 

 two-lipped ideal. Uppermost is Mrs. 



E. G. Hill; middle one, Maculatum; In more recent years 

 lowest, Wistre. a French type has ap- 



