ON GERANIUMS 181 



representatives, should not be used to check any exuber- 

 ance. Given this provision, the Zonals will restore the 

 most depressed person to joviality. He has only to 

 throw away the newspaper which contains such melan- 

 choly news about his investments, and to stalk resolutely 

 into his greenhouse to be restored to serenity. 



The Zonal Geranium is still, of course, a useful 

 garden plant. If it had not been a good plant it would 

 never have become sufficiently popular to be overdone. 

 And the fact that it has been over-used should not, by 

 the force of reaction, lead to its being under-used. It 

 is a capital plant for the amateur to draw upon who 

 begins his gardening year, perforce, late in spring. He 

 can buy it cheaply in boxes, or out of small pots, in 

 May or June. It is equally happy in a town and in a 

 suburban garden. It does not object to poor soil. It 

 will grow almost better than any plant of standing 

 in a dry place. It will never stop flowering, when 

 once it starts, until frost comes. It will throw its 

 flowers well above the leaves, and so be really 

 " decorative." 



With all these qualities it is impossible that the 

 Zonal Geranium can drop out of gardens. And those 

 who may not feel that they can spare a place for it 

 in their principal beds or borders, may often be glad 

 to fall back upon it for a dry bank or other unfavourable 

 spot, or to grow large plants in tubs or vases on 

 terraces, near flights of steps, and in other selected 

 positions. 



Amateurs who have no glass should not attempt to 

 raise their own Zonals, and it is hardly worth while 

 to keep old plants through the winter. It is true that 

 they will often live in a cellar or frost-proof store if 

 pruned hard both at head and root in autumn ; but young 



