December 21, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICDLTUKB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



481 







WEEKLY 



CALENDAR, 















Month 



Day 



of 



Week. 



DECEMBER 21—27, 1871. 



Average Tempera- Rain in 

 tore near London. 43 years. 



Smi 

 Bisea. 



Sun 

 Sets. 



Moon 

 Risea. 



Moon 



Seta. 



^■^il! 



Day 



of 



Year. 



21 



22 

 23 

 24 

 26 

 26 

 27 



Th 



F 



S 



Son 



M 



Td 



W 



Shortest Day. 



Winter commences 0.13 A.si, 



4 Sunday in Advest. 

 Christmas Day. 



Day. 

 44.1 

 45.0 

 441 

 44.0 

 43.4 

 43.2 

 43.0 



Niuht. 

 34.0 

 32.5 

 31.7 

 31.3 

 23.4 

 31.4 

 29.7 



Mean. 

 39,0 

 88.7 

 87.9 

 87.6 

 36.4 

 37.3 

 36.4 



Dava. 

 17 

 21 

 21 

 17 

 9 

 16 

 15 



m. h. 

 6af8 



6 8 



7 8 



7 8 



8 8 



8 8 



9 8 



m. h. 

 51 at 3 



51 8 

 61 3 



52 S 

 63 3 



63 3 



64 3 



m. b. 

 25afl 

 43 1 

 2 2 

 26 2 

 56 2 

 34 3 

 2t 4 



m. b. 

 7af 2 

 18 8 

 29 4 

 86 5 

 44 6 

 46 7 

 41 8 



Days. 

 9 

 10 

 11 

 1-2 

 13 

 O 

 15 



m. 8. 

 1 47 

 1 17 

 47 

 17 

 before 



42 



1 12 



365 

 856 

 357 

 868 

 369 

 360 

 861 



From observations taken near London daring forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 43 8^, and its night tem- 

 perature 31.4°. The greatest heat was 68'^, on the 25th, 1827 ; and the lowest cold 4°, on the 24th, 1860. The greatest tall of rain was 

 1.13 inch. 



THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE BEDDING 

 GERANIUM. 



ERE any mdiviclual to write an account of 

 the rise and progress of some of the plants 

 that supply our daily wants, many very 

 interesting facts would be revealed, and all 

 controversy which at present exists as to 

 the origin of several of them set at rest. The 

 "Wheat, for instance, has by some been as- 

 serted to have come from JSailops cylin- 

 drica, but the origin of this and some other 

 plants is far from being clearly defined, as 

 the transmutation of the wild plants to which their parent- 

 age is ascribed, is so slow that a human life is but a fraction 

 of the time sufficient to render the difference very per- 

 ceptible. Certainly there are cases where a marked im- 

 provement has taken place within a very few years, but 

 tliis generally occurs in plants devoted to ornament rather 

 than to use, and it will readily be admitted that the 

 Geranium is one of these. A cursory review of its pro- 

 gress will not be without interest, and I intend to give 

 a few of the leading features of the plant, its history, and 

 the position it has taken in the ornamental department of 

 gardening. ^ 



Although botanical catalogues assign a rather remote 

 date to the time when the Scarlet Geranium made its first 

 appearance in this country, it is likely that for many years 

 its cultivatiou was limited to very few plants. Kept in a 

 small pot, as was the custom at that time, it afforded but 

 few cuttings, and even these were not propagated to the 

 same extent as now. The first quarter of the present 

 century, most likely, passed before any great progress was 

 made in the cultivation of this important plant. It had, 

 certainly, found its way into most greenhouses, but the 

 varieties were, if I remember rightly, very few, as I can- 

 not recall any prior to 1826, but the old Horseshoe leaved 

 Geranium, ttie flower of which was a dull red rather than 

 a bright scarlet, and the petals narrow and windmill-like. 

 This old Scarlet was very soon followed by one under the 

 equivocal title of " The White Scarlet," a horseshoe variety 

 with blooms of a dull white colour. This certainly was not 

 uncommon before the year 1833 ; and coeval with it were a 

 gold and a silver-edged variety which I remember to have 

 seen in the cottage windows. They were slow growers, 

 and of course their multiplication was correspondingly slow, 

 though they certainly were to be had. I confess having no 

 recollection of seeing any of the Ivy-leaved class at that 

 time, nor for many years afterwards, although it is likely 

 enough they were in cultivation. 



But an important future was now in store for the 

 Scarlets ; both a red and a white were to be had, and the 

 purpose of garden decoration to which they were destined 

 to be put was by degrees developed. My first experience 

 of them as applied to that use was, singularly enough, a 

 successful feat in cultivation under circumstances at the 

 time unexpected, A large plant of the old Horseshoe 

 variety had been planted against the back wall of a plant 

 house, and the soil being favourable, it quickly reached the 

 No. 660.— Vol. XXI., New Seexes, 



top, and flowered most abundantly. As it bid fair to out- 

 grow everything else it was much cut-in, furnishing a full 

 wheelbarrow-load of shoots and stalks. This was towards 

 the end of May, when some flower beds on the lawn were 

 being planted with French Marigolds, Asters, Ten-week 

 Stocks, and such other annuals as were to be had at that 

 time. It was thought that some of the shoots of the 

 Geraniums that were cut down might be stuck into one of 

 the least promising of these beds. Accordingly a quantity 

 of the shoots were put in, and as might be expected now, 

 but hardly so then, they almost every one grew, and by 

 the 1st of September were fine healthy plants in full 

 flower, the .annuals having been removed as the Gera- 

 niums progressed. 



Tills lesson was not lost on those who witnessed it, and 

 striking cuttings out of doors became somewhat the order 

 of the day in that district. I recollect one who had the 

 reputation of being a good gardener as well as the best 

 botanist in that neighbom-hood — for botany was more 

 associated with gardening then than it is now — attempting 

 to propagate out of doors the whole of his New Holland 

 plants, of which he had a good collection ; but hardwooded 

 plants, of course, refused to grow on the same terms as 

 succulent Geraniums, and disappointment was the result. 

 Cuttings of the latter plant were, for some years after- 

 wards, always placed in the full sun when it was intended 

 to propagate them ; and although the case I allude to took 

 place in 1829, the mode of propagating them discovered by 

 accident has not been much improved upon. Great quan- 

 tities of cuttings are not at the present day generally put 

 in during May, but the chief points of the practice are still 

 the same. It must not be inferred that inserting cuttings 

 in the open ground every May was the only plan adopted ; 

 on the contrary, I am not sure that I have ever seen that 

 process repeated, for the very good reason that cuttings at 

 that time are not plentiful. 



The plan of taking up the plants in autumn, and winter- 

 ing them in some cool vinery or similar place, was certainly 

 practised as early as 1830, but how much earlier I am not 

 able to say. I remember perfectly well having to plant 

 in 1831, a circular bed of' Geraniums which had occupied 

 the same position the year before, and were tall and rather 

 unwieldy plants. The bed they were put into was sur- 

 rounded by wi^e basketwork about 15 inches high, so that 

 the unruly growth of the Geranium was carefully kept 

 in bounds, and a good show of flowers, both early and late, 

 was the result, the old plants invariably blooming earliest. 

 This mode of treating the Scarlet Geranium was common 

 for some years, the plan of striking a large number of 

 cuttings in summer and keeping them in a limited space 

 till the following spring not being fully understood for 

 some years after. At the same time it ought to be observed 

 that the planting-out of the greenhouse varieties of the 

 Pelargonium was as much practised as that of the Scarlets, 

 and some favourite kinds of that time still retain a place. 

 My memory seems to rest on Moore's Victory as one of 

 the most popular about 1831, both in-doors and out, while 

 amongst the White-flowered section with dark blotches, 

 old Macranthon held the sway for some years, but this 

 No. 1212.— Vol. XLVI., Old Series. 



