18 JOURNAL OP THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fame and many more admirers than Barnum's p'oUgS. But many 

 persons have some kind of claim to the honour of raising Tom 

 Thumb, for there prevailed during some fifteen years— say from 1840 

 to 1855 — a mania for raising scarlet Pelargoniums adapted for bed- 

 ding ; for those were the days of the horticultural scarlet fever, and 

 many varieties nearly alike came forth from various quarters. Many 

 of these passed for genuine Tom Thumbs, and many perhaps were 

 quite as good. However, the original and true variety differed from 

 most of the others in this respect, that it rarely ripened a seed 

 unless it was artificially fertilised, when it was as prolific as any. 

 This fact separates it far from Christine, which is an inveterate 

 seeder. The leafage also puts them far asunder, for Tom has a 

 smooth papery leaf of a yellowish green, and Christine has a thick 

 soft leaf of a bluish green— one takes us back to inquinans, the other 

 to cerifera, and Nature ordered the characters ages ago in the soli- 

 tudes that stretch away drearilly to the west of Cape Town. 



The pink-flowered Christine was raised by Mr. P. E. Kinghorn 

 of Eichmond in the year 1852. The parents were Ingram's Princess 

 Eoyal and old pink Nosegay, which was formely much used for 

 training on walls and pillars. The peculiar softness and blue tone of 

 the leafage of Christine appear to be fully accounted for by the 

 parentage, there being in it such evident traces of the Cerinum or 

 Mon8trosum of Sweet. Mr. Kinghorn, to whom I am indebted for 

 its history, tells me that he very soon made note of its strong indivi- 

 duality, in which it seems to rise to the rank of a species, and repro- 

 duces itself freely and truly from seeds. During some fifteen years 

 it was the most popular of all bedding plants, for it outran Tom 

 Thumb at last. The beautiful Eose Queen, sent out in 1855, was 

 one of the good things obtained by Mr.Kinghorn in the same batch 

 with Christine. This has a higher quality, but never proved so good 

 a bedder, and therefore never attained to great popularity. 



It would be unfair to omit all mention of the variegated-leaved 

 varieties, because in a good bedding display they contribute features 

 fully as important as the strong colours. They tone down and har- 

 monise and divide. In the year 1844 there were very few varie- 

 gated Zonals known, and only one with bright scarlet flowers ; this 

 was called Lee's Variegated, and was very scarce. It was I think 



