1S71. ] 
ON PELARGONIUMS.-NO. I. 
13 
Foster, Hoyle, and other hybridizers, already been bred and cultivated up to 
great perfection as a florists’ flower. Magnificent in size and form, grand in 
richness and depth of colour, and with delicacy and softness of shading, it far 
surpasses the productions of our finest artists. 
The smaller-flowered class, known as “Fancies,” follow close upon the heels 
of the former in beauty and perfection, whilst they surpass them in profuseness of 
blooming. Again, take those less perfect in form, but nevertheless gay and attrac¬ 
tive from their decorative qualities—the section known as “ French,” with their 
spotted, sometimes fringed or imbricated petals, or semi-double flowers, possessing 
endless shades of colour ; these, though devoid of florists’ qualities, are highly 
valuable as decorators of the conservatory, of the dinner-table, and of the ball-room, 
where in close companionship they rival the beauty of the cheek in their purity 
and brilliancy of colour. In fact, what would the bouquet be without them ? 
As border plants, or bedders, these sections of the Pelargonium family are 
faulty. For these purposes, however, we have in another, the “ Scarlet ” section, 
ample reparation, and in my opinion, abundant promise for the future. Thanks 
to the late Mr. Beaton, to whom is especially due the great and sudden impetus 
given to the development of this section, we have here a grand tribe of decorative 
plants, producing trusses of most noble dimensions, remarkable for brilliancy of 
colour, and highly ’ornamental in our conservatories. By his indomitable industry 
and pluck, he also succeeded in breaking into hitherto unknown colours, giving us 
pioneers in colour of great promise for the future, pioneers that I trust will be 
utilized by his disciples and admirers till the old bedding “ Scarlet ” shall deck 
our lawns with flowers as brilliant as, and more varied than, the rainbow—an 
achievement which I firmly believe, had our good friend still survived, he would 
(to his unutterable joy) have accomplished ere this. 
So much progress has been made already, that patience and perseverance will, 
I doubt not, ensure the fulfilment of my prophecy. Take, for example, Celestial, 
and note the advance in it towards a blue. I believe that blue, yellow, crimson, 
and every intermediate colour will some day belong to the originally “ Scarlet ” 
Pelargonium. Again, take the “Nosegay” class, and note the wonderful strides 
already made there upon the legacy left to us; while in what are classed as 
“ Zonals ” we are fast approaching to flowers fairly entitled to be judged as 
florists’ flowers for perfection in form. 
We owe to another ardent spirit (Mr. Grieve, who is happily yet spared to 
help on the good work), a class of plants to which, I think, the name of “ Zonal ” 
more correctly belongs, a class decorative alike to our conservatories and our 
lawns by its foliage—foliage converted by colour into all the beauty of a flower, 
carmine and silver, gold, crimson, and black, being blended with all shades of 
green, and most brilliant in the early spring and autumn, when most needed to 
supply the place of absent flowers. 
While I feel that I have by no means exhausted the subject, nor dilated 
