Notes and Gleanings. 43 



English show-pansies. I grow here several kinds, partaking more of the character 

 of the small Cliveden or Trentham blue pansy, a very dwarf compact-growing 

 kind, giving a profusion of bluish-lilac flowers, which are very small, from early 

 in April to November. 



" Why not, then, use bedding-pansies, when the supply for each season can 

 be so easily kept up by parting the old plants in the autumn ? I cannot too 

 strongly press the use of these bedding-pansies on the readers of your magazine, 

 because not only are they so easily cultivated, and are so useful, but they really 

 give us from three to four months more flower than our ordinary bedding-plants. 



" One word with regard to soil for them. A moderately stiff soil suits them 

 better than a very light soil ; and, in fact, too light a soil does not do for pansies 

 generally." 



Tricolor Pelargonium Star of India. — Of all the flowers of the pres- 

 ent day, there is hardly one, perhaps, so popular, so universally admired, and so 

 generally grown, as the tricolor-leaved geranium, Mrs. Pollock j while the varie- 

 ties that are from time to time put forward will soon create so much confusion 

 as to make weeding out an absolute necessity. Thus we have now before us two 

 catalogues, in one of which we find forty new varieties, and in another eleven, 

 varying in price from one to three guineas, and of necessity many of them pre- 

 senting so great a similarity to one another, that only the eye of a very practised 

 connoisseur would be able to distinguish them. Besides, there are few firms of 

 any eminence who have not had one or more of this favorite class to send out : so 

 the kinds will soon be numbered by hundreds. 



Among those varieties which we have seen this season, Rollison's Star of 

 Imlia, which we now by their permission figure, seems to us to be one of the 

 best. The coloring of the foliage is good, and the habit of the plant excellent. 

 It partakes more of the character of Sunset than of Mrs. Pollock, the edges of 

 the leaves being deeply cut, and the surface considerably more smooth, while 

 the coloring is richer than either ; the bright crimson flame which breaks in and 

 through the deep maroon band being exceedingly rich. The golden edge of the 

 leaves is very decided, and the green in the centre light and distinct. Messrs. 

 Rollison inform us that the habit of the plant is very free ; and this we should 

 gather from our own plants, which are long-jointed and branching. 



We have found in the cultivation of this very beautiful class of plants that 

 they delight in a rich, friable soil, in plenty of light and air, the sun seeming to 

 bring out the brilliancy of their leaf-coloring ; while, as a rule, their roots are 

 more delicate than the ordinary general varieties. The color of the flowers 

 (which are of good form) is a rich, bright, scarlet-crimson; the truss being good, 

 and the flowers freely produced. — Floral Magazine, pi. 392. 



Ibkris carnosa. — A pretty little Alpine plant, of dwarf habit ; the whole 

 plant frequently being only two inches high. The heads of flowers are large 

 and very showy, of a shaded purplish rose and white, and so large as often to 

 eclipse the whole plant. The leaves are small and fleshy. Native of the valleys 

 of the Pyrenees. — Ibid., pi. 379. 



