240 Notes and Gleanings. 



with fourteen flowers, the other with thirteen. The smallest stem is two feet high, 

 with one flower, making a total of twenty-eight. The largest of the flowers are 

 about one foot in diameter ; not so large, in proportion to the strength of the 

 plant, as in previous years : but perhaps this may be accounted for by the fact 

 that I was anxious to bring the plant into flower, and subjected it to the tem- 

 perature of the East-Indian house (orchid-house) from the time the buds were 

 half matured until several of them were expanded. In this way, I had it in 

 flower in less than half the time I should in an ordinary greenhouse. The girth 

 of the largest stem near the bottom is three and three-eighths, that of the other 

 three and one-quarter, inches. 



The Theory of Silver Sand. — Silver sand, when mixed with the soil in 

 potting, acts a little chemically on other constituents of the soil ; but, to a great 

 extent, the action is mechanical. In using it for striking cuttings, it is chiefly 

 valued for its purity, its freedom from iron and other minerals, and clay, earth, 

 and calcareous matters, which are often the accompaniments of other pit and 

 river sands. The nearest to silver sand in usefulness is that collected on public 

 roads after heavy rains ; which sand, when well washed, is about as pure silex as 

 silver sand. What in practice makes it such a good covering for pots of cuttings 

 is its freedom from other substances ; its porosity, which allows the water freely 

 to pass without lodging about and rotting the cuttings ; and, notwithstanding 

 this porosity, the closeness with which it clings round the cuttings, preventing 

 the access of air to their base, which, if permitted to any extent, would rob 

 them of their juices and vitality. 



A Blue Bedding Geranium. — We have been asked as to the probabihties 

 of success in fertilizing bedding geraniums or pelargoniums with our wild species. 

 We know of the experiment having been tried without success, and find in an 

 exchange the following record of failure by an English gardener : — 



" In the years 1857 and 1858, 1 endeavored to fertilize pelargoniums — Boulede 

 Neige, Queen, Kingsbury Pet, and Prince of Orange — with the pollen oi Geranium 

 pratense. I repeated the experiment several times and under different circum- 

 stances, but succeeded only in obtaining two or three seeds, which produced 

 plants bearing no resemblance whatever to pratense. These seeds were doubt- 

 less the result of pollen from some of the bedding varieties having accidentally 

 gained access to the flowers experimented on. I also tried to cross-fertilize the 

 flowers of a potted plant of G. pratense with some of the bedding pelargoniums, 

 but did not succeed in obtaining a single seed. I made similar futile attempts 

 with the spotted (show) varieties. I do not recollect ever having tried Gerani- 

 um sylvaticum; but I endeavored on one occasion to intercross both the bedding 

 and spotted pelargoniums with Geranium Robertianumj and the results, I regret 

 to say, only added to my long list of failures. 



" I tried these experiments eight or nine years ago ; but further experience 

 and consideration satisfy me that it will be utterly useless to expect a cross be- 

 tween these varieties, or, as I ought perhaps rather to say, a hybrid between 

 tlie bedding and show varieties of pelargoniums and the indigenous geraniums." 



