JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER . 75 
the leafage of Christine do not appear to he accounted for by the 
parentage, there being in it such evident traces of the Cerinum or 
Monstrosum of Sweet. Mr. Kinghorn, to whom I am indebted for its 
history, tells me that he very soon made note of its strong individu¬ 
ality, in which it seems to rise to the rank of a species, and reproduces 
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 Rose Queen, sent out in 1855, was one of the good 
things obtained by Mr. Kinghorn in the same batch with Christine. 
This has 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 variegated 
Zonals known, and only one with bright scarlet flowers ; this was 
called Lee’s Variegated, and was very scarce. It was, I think, raised 
by Mr. Bailey, then gardener at Nunehara Park. Mr. Kinghorn 
selected this Lee’s Variegated to supply pollen for a cross on the 
old Compactum, which was the seed parent, and in the first batch of 
seedlings from this cross he obtained the celebrated Cerise Unique, 
and the much more celebrated Flower of the Day, the most useful 
and most famous of all known variegated-leaved Zonals. Mr. King¬ 
horn to this day considers this was the greatest advance ever accom¬ 
plished at one bound in work of this kind, and I thoroughly agree 
with him. The large seedling plant and two smaller plants of Flower 
of the Day were purchased by Messrs. Lee in August, 1849, and 
in August, 1850, they had a stock of 1500 plants of various sizes to 
offer for sale—a wonderful sight in those days, and one worth seeing 
even now. 
It so happens that the last-named, most useful of all the silver¬ 
leaved varieties, conducts us direct to the fountain head of the whole 
race of the tricolors. In the year 1850 Mr. Kinghorn raised from 
Flower of the Day the beautiful variety known as Attraction, the leaf 
of which has a silvery margin and a dark zone, diffusing subdued 
rays of red and rich brown outwards upon the creamy band that 
girdles it. The Attraction was the first silver tricolor, and one of 
the parents of the first golden tricolor. Mr. Grieve, in his admirable 
History of Variegated Pelargoniums, tells that he fertilised a dark- 
zoned variety known as Cottage Maid with the pollen of Attraction. 
Amongst the seedlings occurred one that was the parent of the dark- 
zoned Emperor of the French, from which came the whole race of 
golden tricolors. From Cottage Maid and Golden Chain (the latter 
being the pollen parent) Mr. Grieve obtained Golden Tom Thumb, 
and from Emperor of the French and Golden Tom Thumb (the latter 
being the pollen parent) he obtained Golden Pheasant, the first true 
golden tricolor. This same Emperor of the French, grandson of 
Attraction, produced by the pollen of Golden Pheasant the two most 
famous of the tricolors, Mrs. Pollock and Sunset. 
The double Pelargoniums have had a career of fifty years at least. 
A handsome double purple, named Veitchianum, not of the zonal 
section, but allied to Barringtoni, was raised by the late Mr. J. Veitch 
at Exeter about the year 1828, and its portrait appears in Sweet’s 
supplementary volume (81), where nearly next door to it is another 
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 Mrs.'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 
fact 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 suppressed 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 wai 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 standard of 
judging, and a variety must be distinct and good to pass through the 
sieve. Moreover, the raising of varieties has been to a great extent 
reduced to scientific principles, and we obtain as a result new cha¬ 
racters suggestive of the great extent of the field that still lies open 
to the adventurous spirit in cross-breeding. No one in recent years 
has contributed more directly towards the scientific treatment of the 
subject than our painstaking Treasurer Dr. Denny, of whose labours 
I propose to present a hasty sketch. 
Dr. Denny commenced the raising of Pelargoniums in the year 
1866, having in view to ascertain the influence of parentage, and thus 
to establish a rule for the selection of varieties for seed-bearing pur¬ 
poses. In raising varieties with variegated leaves, as also with 
distinct and handsome flowers, he found the pollen parent exercised 
the greatest influence on the offspring. The foundation of his strain 
of circular-flowered Zonals was obtained by fertilising the large 
starry flowers of Leonidas with pollen taken from the finely-formed 
flowers of Lord Derby. From 1871 to the present time Dr. Denny 
has sent out sixty varieties, and he has in the same period raised and 
flowered and destroyed about thirty thousand. These figures show 
that when the selection is severe, and nothing is allowed to pass that 
is not of the highest quality, there must be five hundred seedlings 
grown for the chance of obtaining one worth naming. The late Mr. 
John Salter used to say that it was needful to flower two thousand 
seedling Chrysanthemums for the chance of one worth naming. 
Therefore, if the comparison is of any value, it shows that raising 
Zonals is a very profitable business, the chances of success being four 
times greater than with Chrysanthemums. But Dr. Denny obtains 
more good things than he sends out, for he makes every year a 
selection of plants for seeding, and these amount to about 3 per 
cent, of the total number. It will be seen, therefore, that for every 
one sent out under name there are about fifteen equally good or 
nearly so, but for some reason or other they are not parted with, but 
are reserved to supply seed or pollen, and are then destroyed to make 
room for a new selection. 
Amongst many interesting results of our friend’s observations is 
one that strikingly confirms a suspicion that accompanies a study of 
Sweet’s portraits—it is that some varieties assume the character and 
bearing of species, and by self-fertilisation reproduce themselves with 
peculiar exactitude. No one can doubt that many of the so-called 
species of plants, whether of Pelargoniums at the Cape or of Willows 
in England, are as truly hybrids as any that are raised in gardens. 
And this brings us to the question, What is a species ? and the 
question suggests" that if in treating this great subject I scarcely 
knew where to begin, I certainly know where to leave off. I confess 
I do not know what is a species—and so, thanking you for your kind 
attention, I now return to the golden silence. 
LUCKNOW HOUSE, ADDISCOMBE. 
The above address will be by no means unfamiliar to members 
of the National Rose Association and other scientific societies. 
After acting as Judge in several classes at Croydon, and having 
the satisfaction of awarding a first prize to a very meritorious 
twenty-four of the invaluable Hon. Treasurer possessed by the 
National Rose Society, we adjourned to Lucknow House, where, 
after the rites of much hospitality had been duly observed, I 
obtained at last my much-wished-for introduction to see Mr. 
Mawley’s wonderful garden with its three hundred Rose trees. 
People talk of it being impossible to cut a good twelve on any 
given show day without-possessing six or seven hundred Rose 
trees, and how very many now get into their thousands ? yet here 
is a garden that had three hundred last year, and now has barely 
380 plants, the flowers from which won more first prizes last 
year than I can well enumerate. To give one instance : while 
its master was starring it with some of them at Manchester, the 
spare blooms left behind went to a neighbouring local show, and 
with ease won a first prize for twenty-four, defeating, I think, five 
of the trade besides other amateurs. 
Here, then, was the garden which I, with my eight hundred 
Rose trees, last year met at the National and was defeated, and 
again at the Alexandra with the same result. Why, the whole 
house and garden does not cover the space of half an acre, yet it 
has a south wall border of all the best Teas, enjoying the rudest 
health, which anyone might be proud of. At right angles to this 
is a double row of robust H.P.’s—really robust is too feeble an 
adjective. The finest plants of all (a rapidly increasing plan) 
were all budded where they grow and never moved, the seedling 
Briar being the stock most favoured. Besides the richest viands 
and waterings weekly, twice a week the earth is turned over 
between the plants, thus carrying out Mr. George Paul’s invariable 
exhortation, “ Keep the hoe going,” to something more than a 
pitch of perfection. 
Tearing myself away from the Roses, I had just time for the 
glance round the scientific instruments for which Lucknow House 
is famous in a very wide scientific circle. And here I am dis¬ 
tinctly out of my depth. There were two rain gauges, one of 
them only consulted once a month, which was of itself perplexing. 
Then a thermometer which went down a wooden well and came 
