OCTOBEE. 
225 
These organs, however, are not entirely naked, as you shall see. Observe, in 
fact, a large leaf of a yellowish green colour, folded like a horn; this is 
swollen in its inferior part. You will perceive a sort of club of a purplish 
colour, gracefully erect in the centre of the cavity, round which the leaf is 
folded. If, now, you open this leaf towards the base {Jig. 5), you will meet 
with a complicated arrangement of organs. Quite at the base are the ovaries, 
fixed close on the stalk, and placed round it in several series, each of them 
terminating in a bearded neck. Above them are the stamens, their anthers 
without filaments; they also are placed immediately on the stem, and arranged 
in more numerous series. Above these are two or three series of pointed 
bodies ; these are undeveloped anthers ; and above all is the purple club. 
There is a remarkable phenomenon connected with this club. During a 
certain period, when the plant is in bloom, the club acquires a considerable 
heat, sensible to the hand, and still more so to the thermometer. This heat 
begins commonly between two and three o’clock in the afternoon, its highest 
degree being between six and eight o’clock, and at ten it ceases. The club 
becomes blackish during this phenomenon, by which it may be ascertained 
when it is in operation. 
ON WINTERING BEDDING GERANIUMS. 
I think I need not say one word on the merits of the Geranium for 
bedding purposes, these are now so generally understood and acknowledged 
as to render it superfluous to do so. The season now drawing to a close has 
established, beyond all doubts, not only its adaptability for bedding out, but 
its superiority over all other plants. This will give a great impulse to the 
great efforts that are already being made to produce new and distinct kinds. 
A really good white is still a desideratum; and though yellow-leaved kinds 
can, to a certain extent, be used for yellow beds, a yellow or orange colour 
flower is also greatly wanted. There are shades of other colours also wanting, 
but I make no doubt they will be forthcoming ere long. When we get these 
colours we shall be able to plant some of our parterres entirely with bedding 
Geraniums, and have them pictures of brilliancy and beauty from the middle 
of May to the end of October. In speaking thus of the Geranium, let it not 
be understood that I would wish to see other plants driven from the garden, or 
their cultivation neglected—quite the contrary, the great fault I find in most 
places now-a-days is the fewness of the variety of plants grown. Many hours 
of my boyhood were spent after schooltime in a flower garden, which con¬ 
tained in those days as great, if not a greater, variety of plants as any private 
establishment in the united kingdom. It was a walled enclosure, and a variety 
of sterling things were on these walls—there were Myrtles, Jasmines, Honey¬ 
suckles, Clematises, and Roses in great variety; there were also Wistarias, 
Maurandyas, and Lophospermums—the two latter stood out the winter. There 
were also Magnolias and many other things too numerous to mention. Beneath 
the Myrtles, at the foot of the wall, were Violets, which produced abundance 
of flower all the winter through. In the borders were magnificent specimens 
of Camellias, Azaleas, Pittosporums, Eucalyptus, Acacias, and numbers of 
other greenhouse plants. There were some grand plants of Hydrangeas, and 
a large border of Rhododendrons and Azaleas. Of hardy perennials there 
was a large and varied assortment. There were beds for bulbs of all descrip¬ 
tions. Annuals were largely grown—indeed, to enumerate a tentn part of the 
things that were grown would occupy more than the limits of this sheet. I 
have been induced to mention these matters, that when speaking of bedding 
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