14 THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. [JANUARY, 
sufficiently upon tlie value, utility, and charms of my theme, I challenge the 
production of a family of plants so deserving of our care and attention. 
No one can be a greater admirer than I am of the splendid foliage plants at 
present so much in vogue for conservatory decoration ; but let us not ride our 
hobby in this respect to the exclusion of flowers. The one relieves and supports 
the other. Set out your house exclusively with the choicest specimens of foliage 
plants, and I grant that many of them will possess a brilliancy of colour, almost 
equalling anything that can be produced by flowers; but still, I say, arrange 
them to the best of your ability, observe attentively the general contour and 
effects of your arrangements for a day or two ; then remove judiciously a small 
proportion of them, and supply their places with well-grown flowering plants of 
varied and brilliant colours; observe your house again, and I will venture to 
affirm it will have been improved by the alteration. Then, I would ask, where could 
you find plants at the season when their enlivening influence is most required 
more telling for your purpose than among the various sections of the Pelargonium 
family ? Of course, I am alluding to conservatory foliage plants when I associate 
with them the Pelargonium ; but my remarks equally apply to stove foliage plants, 
as regards the desirableness of the interspersion of flowers, and though here the 
temperature forbids the introduction of my friends the Pelargoniums, there are 
numerous lovely plants, and above all, those queenly flowers the Orchids, ready 
to come to our assistance. 
Returning from this digression to my subject, and before proceeding to review 
the qualities and adaptability of the varieties we possess for conservatory and 
bedding culture, and giving my ideas of the possible future from a steady perse¬ 
verance in hybridization, together with the results of my experience as regards 
the Scarlet section, I should like to call the attention of the magnates of our 
floricultural societies, and also of our leading florists, to an embarrassing point to 
amateurs in connection with the Pelargonium. I allude to the indefinite nomen¬ 
clature of the classes and varieties by which they are supposed to be known and 
catalogued, as well as described in the schedules of our horticultural societies. 
It is, for instance, most difficult for the unlearned to understand to which 
class the name of u Geranium ” and to which that of u Pelargonium ” properly 
belongs, they seem to be so indiscriminately applied. If one section claims by 
botanical right the name of Pelargonium, and another is entitled to that of 
Geranium,* why not call them by their proper names ? Why do not our 
floral committees decide their nomenclature, and let it be understood once and 
for all ? This done, there would still remain subdivisions of the varieties, which 
require to be also more definitely arranged to be understood. I would suggest 
some such an arrangement as the following:— 
The “ Largo-flowered ” or “ Show ” Pelargoniums would require, I suppose, to be divided into 
three or more classes, say :— 
* They are all alike and equally Pelargoniums: the Geraniums are border flowers of another character 
entirely.—E d. 
