12 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[January, 
September; and if the shoots have been stopped once or twice, they will have 
made nice bushes, either for potting into 6-in. or 7-in. pots, or for planting out 
on the benches, &c., as mentioned in a previous article on the Tree Carnation 
(p. 89, 1870). 
J • 
Any good soil will grow these plants, but to obtain extra fine heads of flower 
a mixture of peat, sand, and well-rotted manure is certainly best. Take up the 
plants with balls of earth, and pot or plant them in a house where the night 
temperature will run from 50° to 60° through the winter. Water, shade, and 
keep close for a few days, and syringe well each day until the plants are in 
flower. Smoke occasionally to prevent an inroad of thrips ; and when the plants 
are established give abundance of air day and night, until the weather becomes 
too cold. They will commence to flower by the middle of October, and continue 
to flower in succession for several months, rivalling the finest Ixoras in size of 
head and colour of flower, lasting after cutting much longer than the Ixoras, and 
admitting of being cut by the bushel each day if wanted. 
The finest of the varieties is that named Bouvardia elegans , a sport from 
Hogarth ; its colour is a light carmine scarlet, richer than in any Ixora I have seen, 
the flowers very long, and the truss from 5 in. to 6 in. in diameter. B. Laura is 
rose-coloured. B. longijlora cornea , a light-pink variety, must be propagated from 
cuttings, as it does not come true from the roots. B. leiantha is a fine dark scarlet; 
B. leiantha grandijlora , a deep crimson, very fine ; B. leiantha jlorihunda , a light 
orange scarlet, very free, with compact truss. B. splendens is dark orange scarlet, 
very fine. B. grandijlora and B. jasminoides are white, but, except for their colour, 
they are much inferior to the others, especially for cutting. B. Hogarth is a large, 
rich carmine; this sort is inclined to sport, for besides the variety called elegans , 
already named, there is now another very fine sport named Vreelandii , after the 
fortunate grower who owns it. This B. Vreelandii is of fine habit, like its parent, 
but the flowers are white, with just a faint blush on the outside ; it will be a most 
important acquisition to the growers of this useful class of plants. 
Some of your readers may think that the climate of England will not grow 
Bouvardias as well as I have described, but if they are planted on a warm border, 
or even in some of the (at that season) empty bedding-plant frames, they will 
well repay the trouble. The young plants might have a shift into a larger pot 
early in May, so as to be planted out in June, and would thus have a better start 
than they usually receive here.— James Taplin, South Amboy , N.J., U.S.A. 
ON PELARGONIUMS.—No. I. 
LOOK upon the Pelargonium as perhaps the most generally useful of any of 
the families of Flora we possess, and I purpose in this and some succeeding 
papers to notice its present position and future prospects as a florists’ flower, 
and its usefulness as a decorative plant, as viewed by an amateur cultivator. 
The u large-flowered ” or u show ” Pelargonium has, in the hands of the Messrs. 
