MARCH. 
81 
cultivation. It was planted out in June, deep enough to hide all 
defects. As autumn drew on my doubts began to rise, for not a vestige 
of white could be seen about it. I therefore took it up, potted it, and 
cut the head off it. In a few weeks afterwards I was encouraged 
on seeing by five or six buds that had started that some were green, 
some white, and one beautifully variegated; this I preserved and 
propagated. Next year two or three plants of the same (C. Unique), 
which had been bedded out, were taken up and potted after tbe frost 
had killed their tops. Keeping bad treatment still in view, I would 
have nothing cut off them, and here again I got a sport similar to one 
which 1 obtained the previous year. 1 next took Tom Thumb in hand, 
and from it I was surprised to get Brilliant. I tried it again, and now 
I have got what I think is identical with Silver King! I believe, 
therefore, that all the so-called scarlet Pelargoniums may be changed 
in this manner. Whether this alteration in appearance be a disease or 
not there is one very remarkable fact connected with it worthy of Mr. 
Darwin’s notice; that is, I have never got a green sport from a varie¬ 
gated plant like tbe green parent of the variegated variety. From 
Annie the sport is like old Compactum; from Brilliant it has an upright 
habit and becomes red with cold; and the variegated plant I raised 
myself, alluded to above, resembles Cerise Unique in nothing but the 
flower. 
20th Feb. An Old Showman. 
THE CLOTH OF GOLD AND THE BRITISH QUEEN 
STRAWBERRY. 
This is a curious combination ; but there is something still more 
curious, viz., I never remember seeing a good Cloth of Gold on a south 
wall, or a successful bed of British Queens under a south wall. I 
believe the grand key, however, to both of them to be suitability of 
soil, viz., strongish land, but friable enough for good Barley and 
Turnips, with gravelly subsoil. All the good Cloths of Gold that I 
know are in such soil and are all east aspect, or open to all four winds. 
I tried to grow the Queen under my south wall, but she was worse 
there than in the centre of the garden. 100 feet above the top of my 
chimneys, in strongish land, and blown upon by all four winds, she is 
healthy and strong, and has been these three years. I cannot grow 
her in my home garden—west aspect. I have tried her under a south 
wall, a north wall, and in the centre—fully open to the bluff of the 
west winds, north-west, and south-w'est; there she was best. I have 
her now in stronger soil in a garden open to north and east, and there 
she is as green and strong as Trollope’s Victoria. I sent her first 
runners this year to France to my friend Mr. Gloede, and he has sent 
for her second runners now on her strings. The first sent w^ere beau¬ 
tiful, and these are better ; both were self-pegged. I can only account 
for this, and what I have said about the Cloth of Gold, by “ radiation,” 
which is so destructive of vegetables, fruits, and flowers. It is radiation 
that makes it so necessary to protect things on or under a south wall. 
VOL. XV., NO. CLIX. 0 
