BEDDING PLANTS. 235 



on this account, I have restricted the use of bedding plants at my 

 garden to. their legitimate proportions. 



There are numerous varieties of Geraniums, or, more properly 

 speaking, Pelargoniums. Some of their leaves are either golden varie- 

 gated, golden and bronzed, or golden-leaved and golden-edged ; others 

 are either silver variegated or silver-edged ; lastly, there are others 

 which are zonal and plain leaved. If the plain truth be told, the 

 floriculturists have worked the pelargoniums out by raising multitudes 

 of seedlings till the varieties run into each other so closely that one 

 can scarcely be distinguished from the other ; and thus they have 

 covered the whole ground within the limits of variation which it is 

 possible for a single species to assume ; but with all this variation 

 no new species has been formed. Probably one of the finest varie- 

 gated geraniums which have ever been raised by the process of artificial 

 selection is that called Mrs. Pollock, the leaf of which (fig. 461) is so 

 exquisitely coloured when thoroughly exposed to light and air, that 

 a single leaf may be used either for a lady's brooch or as an ornament 



FIG. 461. Mrs. Pollock Geranium (leaf). FIG. 462. Pelargonium. 



to be worn in the hair. We grow other variegated kinds which may 

 be selected according to fancy. All these highly-coloured leaves are 

 best displayed without flowers, and it is a good plan to pluck the 

 flowers as fast as they appear. Other bedding geraniums, or Pelar- 

 goniums as they are generally called (fig. 462), are grown for their 

 flowers, of which two or three shades of colour should be selected, but 

 scarlet and crimson should be the predominant colours. Of late 

 years double-flowering geraniums have been introduced, but to my 

 mind they are worthless florists' flowers. 



