20 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



double named Implicatum (86), which is as like the double 

 cucullatum Mr. Cannell has been growing of late as can be expected 

 of things that are probably different. 



But the proper history of the doubles begins with Wilmore's 

 Surprise, a handsome semi-double variety, which was described and 

 figured in the Gardeners' Chronicle of August 17th, 1850. This was 

 found by Mr. Wilmore of Strawberry Vale, Edgbaston, growing in 

 the midst of a plantation of Hollyhocks, and so unaccustomed were 

 the eyes of the florists to such a thing that it was considered to be a 

 true hybrid between a Pelargonium and a Hollyhock. A remarkable 

 lact in the history of this variety is that simultaneously with the 

 finding of it in the garden at Edgbaston it was obtained by the late 

 Mr. Beaton as a sport from Diadematum rubescens, and was by him 

 named Monstrosum. The Edgbaston plant was shown by Messrs. 

 Lee, of Hammersmith, at Regent's Park on the 30th of June,* 1852, 

 and Mr. Beaton suppresed his monstrosum in favour of it. 



The double Zonals are of later date, one of the earliest being the 

 crimson-scarlet Gloire de Nancy, which was first shown in this 

 country in the year 1866. In the year 1869 there were seventeen 

 double Zonals brought into public notice, and of other sections in 

 that year the collective name was Legion. At this point of the story 

 the subject becomes too large to be handled on the present occasion. 

 It is quite certain that during the few years when Geraniums were 

 everything and all other vegetables nothing in human estimation the 

 heads of gardeners were so crammed with zones and margins, and 

 trusses and pips and beds, that there was no room for anything else, 

 and the phenomena of the tulipomania were reproduced in a newer 

 fashion, and no one was fully aware of the fact that the world had 

 gone mad on the subject of Pelargoniums. 



Now that we can again survey the subject calmly it will be 

 observed that two classes of Pelargoniums remain in full favour with 

 the public. The large-flowered show varieties and the large-flowered 

 single Zonals take the lead, and they are pleasantly followed by a 

 crowd of Ivy-leaved, double-flowered and variegated sorts that are 

 useful and beautiful, but no longer oppress us by their multitude 

 and similarity. The Pelargonium Society has set up a severe stand- 

 ard of judging, and a variety must be distinct and good to pass 



