Plate 279. 



NEW ZONAL PELARGONIUMS. 



Among new Pelargoniums of the Zonal class, the fine varieties raised by E. B. Postans, 

 Esq., Brentwood, and distributed by Mr. C. Burley, Brentwood, take high rank. At the 

 meeting of the Pelargonium Society, at South Kensington in June last, Mr. Burley staged 

 some remarkable flowers of great size, and high-class quality. Polyphemus (No. 1.) is of a 

 soft scarlet hue, and has a large pure white eye of unusual size, which makes it very con- 

 spicuous, as it equals in dimension the diameter of a threepenny-piece. The flowers are of 

 good size and shape, borne on medium-sized trusses. Tom Bowling (No. 2), unfortunately 

 mis-named Tom Brown, has fine noble flowers of great size and substance, soft orange-scarlet 

 in colour, borne on large globular trusses : and the habit of growth being all that could be 

 desired, it will make a fine exhibition variety. It was awarded a first-class certificate by the 

 Eoyal Horticultural Society in June last. Leveson Gower (No. 3) is perhaps the finest salmon- 

 coloured Zonal yet raised. The flowers are very large and of excellent form, produced on 

 immense trusses standing perfectly erect over a fine zonate foliage. It has received a first- 

 class certificate of merit from the Eoyal Botanic Society. The three-foregoing varieties are 

 specially recommended for exhibition purposes, and for culture in pots for conservatory 

 decoration. 



Plate 280. 



LOBELIA " LILAC QUEEN." 



Of late years several lilac-coloured bedding Lobelias have been distributed from time 

 to time, but mainly of the the larger and looser growing L. erinus speciosa type. The 

 one now figured is a seedling of the compacla type that has passed into the hands of Mr. 

 B. S. Williams, Victoria Nursery, Upper Holloway, N., for distribution. The habit of 

 growth is dense, regular, and most compact ; and the flowers, which as is usual with this 

 type, are produced in great profusion, are of good size and shape, and of a cheerful bright 

 lilac in colour. It supplies a tint much wanted in flower-gardens, and it gives it in a form 

 suitable alike for large and small arrangements. As a companion to the foregoing a fine 

 blue-flowered variety named Blue Beauty can be highly recommended : and the best white 

 of the same habit is The Bride. The last-named has the merit of producing flowers of good 

 size and the purest white, without any blemish in the form of a tint of blue, which is apt to 

 disfigure many of the so-called white Lobelias. One great quality characteristic of the fore- 

 going varieties is their continuity of bloom, the dense growth maintaining a succession of 

 flowering stems which carries the head of flower through to the end of the summer. 



