THE CRANE'S-BILL FAMILY. 327 



make visible progress, I gradually denude the stock of its foli- 

 age, so as to give the grafts a greater supply of nourishment. 



By grafting in the autumn, and keeping the plants steadily 

 growing through the winter in a warm, light house, stopping 

 and shifting them into larger pots as they require it, I have had 

 plants from eighteen inches to two feet through during the fol- 

 lowing summer. Buds inserted as in rose-budding will grow, 

 but grafting commends itself as the surest and most expeditious 

 method. These remarks apply with equal force in the case of 

 dwarf, delicate varieties, or those Cape species difficult to 

 strike. Such as these may be worked just above the soil on 

 well-rooted plants of common varieties, and are thus increased 

 more readily than on their own roots. Another advantage this 

 method possesses is, that it can be successfully employed early 

 and late in the season, when an attempt to strike cuttings 

 usually proves a failure except with those who have the best 

 appliances. As before stated, care must be taken to use only 

 the firm shoots for grafts : those made either early or late are 

 generally too soft and pulpy, and are therefore the more liable 

 to rot off before they effect a union. 



The ivy-leaved sorts, both green and variegated, worked on 

 tall stems, are particularly handsome, and well repay the time 

 and trouble bestowed on them. Their drooping habit is so 

 well adapted for this position, that even when allowed to follow 

 their own inclination they make very graceful plants, and flower 

 profusely ; but by affording them a neat wire trellis, they may 

 be trained to form a pyramid, a balloon, or any other shape, to 

 suit the fancy of the cultivator. 



The double-flowering kinds, whether grown into standards 

 or worked, make very handsome objects. Excellent standard 

 plants of variegated ivy-leaved Pelargonium L'Elegante can be 

 obtained by grafting it on to a stem of the old crimson ivy-leaf. 



In the ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' 1844, p. 213, a correspondent 

 mentions that in 1842 he grafted a plant of Beauty of Ware 

 with ten grafts of other varieties, including Smith's Superb 

 Scarlet, Carnation Scarlet, Frogmore Scarlet, and the old 

 Variegated-leaved Scarlet. 



It is a well-known fact that pure white-leaved seedlings of 

 Pelargoniums, and other plants which are in fact albinos, die 

 off after they attain a certain size. I have, however, repeatedly 

 saved these albinos by carefully grafting them on rooted cuttings, 

 which are less variegated, as stocks ; and where these seedling 

 albinos are growing near others less variegated, they can often 

 be inarched, and thus preserved, since grafting supplies them 

 with sufficient chlorophyll to enable them to carry on their 



