STREPTOCA RPUS—FL OR A L E VOL UTION. 



Eighteen Hybrid Teas. 



Deep Salmon Pink. 



Creamy White to Pale Yellow. 

 ♦White Lady. 

 fMme. Jules Finger. 

 fMrne. Joseph Combet. 

 Gloire Lyonnaise. 

 *Kaiserin Augusta Victoria. 



Souvenir de Mme. E. Verdier. 



fAntoine Eivoire. 



Creamy IVlule jlnslied with Salmon. 



*Lady Mary Fitzwilliam. 



* Augustine Guinoisseau. 



fMarjorie. 



Lady Henry Grosvenor. 



*La France. 



* Caroline Testout. 

 t Duchess of Albany. 

 tMrs. W. J. Grant. 

 Mrs. W. C. Whitney. 



Charlotte Gillemot. 



Best six marked * ; next best six marked t- 



THE STREPTOCARPUS (CAPE PRIMROSE). 



Like the more familiar achimenes and gloxinias which abound in beautiful varieties, 

 the Streptocarpus is a gesneriaceous plant, and, as its popular name denotes, is a native 

 of South Africa. The habit of the plant is like that of our common primrose, and 

 the leaves of many of the varieties are similar in form, but very much stouter, and 

 some a great deal larger ; the flowers are tubular, varying from 1 to 2 inches across 

 the mouth, and borne in profusion on stems differing in height from to 18 

 inches. The colours are most diverse, ranging from pure white, blush delicate rose- 

 pink, to magenta and maroon ; also from the palest of lavenders and mauves to the 

 richest violet-purples imaginable, browns and terra-cottas in various shades being 

 also represented. The beauty of the flowers is further enhanced by the chaste clear 

 pencillings and bold contrasting markings in the throats of the majority; so that 

 altogether it may be said of the Streptocarpus that it has given some of the most 

 dainty floral gems to our greenhouses during the summer. 



These Cape Primroses have not hitherto been placed in the category of " Florists' 

 Flowers," but this is their right place undoubtedly, as the varieties cultivated are the 

 direct result of manipulative skill in cross fertilisation. They are as surely flowers of art, 

 as is the coloured plate in which some of them are represented a work of art, and which 

 may be seen on consulting the Index. It would be impossible, however, to represent 

 in any plate all the graduations of tints and refined markings of the flowers raised 

 and grown ; and thus it would seem that the florist is the greater artist after all. 



Let us trace briefly the genealogy of such flowers as those figured. About the 

 year 1887 Mr. William Watson, the able assistant curator of the Royal Gardens, Kew, 

 exhibited two new varieties of Streptocarpus before the Floral Committee of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society. They were named S. kewensis (mauve purple with 



