218 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[October, 
Some thirty-six years ago, I introduced the Fuchsia Riccartoni , then named the 
Port Famine Fuchsia, to the Island of Arran. On visiting the island a few years 
ago, I found it growing plentifully on the fishermen’s cottages. On the south 
side of the island, where the thermometer in the severest winters seldom registers 
more than 10° or 12° of frost, I found some of these Fuchsias with stems 3 in. 
in diameter, and forming little trees. The Hydrangeas in some villa gardens 
there likewise form immense bushes, and flower plentifully every year. The 
Island of Arran is now much frequented by tourists, and must be reckoned one 
of the most interesting in the British possessions for its geological and botanical 
riches.— William Tillery, WelbecJc. 
ON PELARGONIUMS.—No. Y. 
« HE Silver Tricolors have not kept pace with their golden cousins. Whether 
it is that they have been neglected by the cross-breeders, or have proved 
f less tractable than the goldens, I know not; but the fact is evident that 
neither in number nor in quality do they approach them. It appears to 
me therefore that breeders of variegates might achieve the greatest results by 
giving their attention more especially to the production of improved varieties 
of Silver Tricolors. 
The points to be aimed at I conceive to be—a large, firm, circular, and slightly 
convex foliage, with a base of soft sage-green, a broad circular zone of brilliant 
carmine, and a well-defined and smooth margin of pure white; these combined 
with a robust habit of growth. To obtain a pure white edge in conjunction with 
smoothness, presents the greatest difficulty, for with increased whiteness comes 
greater inequality of growth, and consequently increased crumpling of the leaf. 
At present but little advance has been obtained upon Italia Unita , which, 
when well grown in a cool conservatory, maintains its position for brilliancy of 
colour; Miss Burdett Coutts , and Mrs. Rousby , and perhaps Caroline Longjield, 
present some little improvement upon it as regards form and flatness of foliage. 
Lady Dorothy Nevill , a seedling raised by Mr. Postans, when exhibited at one of 
the Royal Horticultural Society’s Floral Committee meetings, appeared to be 
decidedly an advance ; and u a seedling,” shown with a batch of bronze bicolors, 
by Mr. Laing at the Society’s Pelargonium Show, looked promising. 
For bedding purposes I look upon the Silver Tricolors (at least the varieties I 
have seen tried) as useless, for unless the season is exceptionally fine they speedily 
lose their brilliancy and assume a duskiness of colour, while their foliage becomes 
more corrugated. A cool conservatory is undoubtedly their true position. 
Of the Golden Tricolors I have not seen the newer varieties grown out-of- 
doors, but two years since I grew a bed of what were then considered the best 
varieties (in which bed I had in all two hundred and forty plants), for the sake of 
testing their bedding qualities. Lady Cullum, Sophia Cusack , Sophia Dumaresque , 
Edwinia Fitzpatrick , Queen Victoria , and Louisa Smith , were all magnificently 
