184 
FANCY GERANIUMS. 
ticultural Society by Mr. Fortune, in 1846, who found it growing 
in the gardens of the Mandarins, and by them highly esteemed. 
It fully bears out the character given of it in the ‘Journal of the 
Horticultural Society/ where it is stated to be “ beyond all com¬ 
parison the handsomest of the natural order of fumeworts. The 
stems grow from a foot to a foot and a half high ; the leaves are 
palmately trifid; racemes axillary, four to six inches long, each 
containing about twenty flowers, the petals are four in number, 
the two outer ones crimson purple; each with a very blunt, 
ventricose, short, sheath-like spur at the base; two inner ones 
narrower, and projecting far beyond the revolute points of 
the outer ones, white, with a purple tip. 
As a pot plant for rooms, it is extremely graceful, and remains 
for a long time in flower. Its habits are the same as the well- 
known Bielytra ( Fumaria ) formosa , a plant common in all 
gardens, where showy herbaceous plants are grown, The stems 
die down in autumn, and the roots remain in a dormant state 
until the following spring, when the plant again appears/above 
ground, and flowers in the months of May and June. 
Being a native of Siberia and the northern provinces of China, 
there is little doubt but it will prove perfectly hardy, although 
it is yet too scarce and expensive a plant to allow of a fair trial 
being given. Increase is effected both by division of the roots 
and by cuttings. It will prove a most useful plant for early 
forcing, as it needs only a moderate amount of heat to excite it 
to bloom.— Pax. Mag , Bot. 
FANCY GERANIUMS. 
In furtherance of the idea broached a few months back, regard¬ 
ing a new name for the very interesting class of Pelargoniums 
now becoming popular under the above title, we have received 
several communications bearing upon the subject; all the writers 
concur in the desirability of a better term, both because of its 
pre-occupation in connexion with the older showing varieties, 
which, as a class, have engrossed as much general attention and 
“fancy” as any flower now to be named; and also, because the 
word conveys so little notion of their peculiar character. 
