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ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



IV. Variegated Plants of the Seventeenth Century. 

 By the Bev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S. 



In looking over the manuscripts in the muniment-room of the 

 princely mansion of the Duke of Beaufort, at Badminton, I found 

 a list of variegated or, as the list is headed, " Strip' d and Edg'd 

 Plants," evidently drawn up towards the close of the seventeenth 

 century, and, in all probability, cultivated at Badminton by the 

 first Duke of Beaufort, though this is not a matter of certainty. In 

 the present rage for such productions, it may not be uninteresting 

 to see what forms were then cultivated. It will be observed that 

 almost all are indigenous species, and, with a single exception (the 

 tree-houseleek), not one extra-European. Some of them, moreover, 

 as the species of Pulmonaria, cannot be regarded as diseased va- 

 rieties, any more than many of the exotic forms which are now so 

 much admired and sought after. 



It would be almost an endless task to enumerate these ; but I have 

 thought that it would be interesting to append a list of variegated, 

 mostly herbaceous, plants cultivated by the Chief Baron Sir 

 Frederick Pollock, near Hounslow, with some instructive notes 

 kindly forwarded at my request. 



It is not necessary here to enter at any length into the ques- 

 tion whether variegation is an evidence of disease or not — a ques- 

 tion, however, which I think is decided by the fact that a variegated 

 graft has influence on the stock ; that when shoots are produced, 

 as in some forms of Pelargonium which are quite white, without 

 the least portion of green, it is, as Mr. E. Thompson has proved 

 at the Chiswick Gardens, impossible to strike them ; and that 

 when seedlings come up with perfectly bleached cotyledons, 

 they either fail at once or, if they linger at all, produce only 

 chlorotized leaves*. The tendency of plants to become variegated 

 in particular soils, as mentioned hereafter, is perhaps another 

 indication of disease. 



I have to thank the Duke of Beaufort for his kindness in 

 allowing me to inspect his manuscripts, and for permitting his 

 librarian to take the copy which is here transcribed ; and to Chief 

 Baron Pollock for his list and notes. In either case I have 

 thought it right to follow the order in which the lists are sent, 



* A perfectly white and extremely beautiful Pelargonium came up from seed 

 at Mr. It. Brown's gardens at Wothorpe, near Stamford, and it was hoped might 

 prove a great acquisition ; but after making about six leaves, it shared the common 

 fate of such vegetable albinos. 



