JULY. 
193 
SPOTTED GERANIUMS. 
(Plate 178). 
Concerning the handsome varieties of Geranium which form 
the subject of our plate this month, we hope to give a full 
description in our next, the limited space at our command on 
this occasion preventing us doing them justice in our present 
issue. We may, however, state that they are a wonderful 
advance on anything of the kind that has yet appeared even in 
the fine class to which they belong. Although good growers, 
easy to winter, and throwing full sized trusses freely on all 
shoots, yet, to have them in perfection, they must he well 
grown, a point to which it is to he regretted many pay no great 
attention. True, we never miss seeing splendid specimens at 
our great metropolitan exhibitions; hut in many private esta¬ 
blishments throughout the country second-rate plants are the 
rule rather than the exception. A common fault is too much 
crowding, and when that happens plants that have their growth 
wholly to make in spring will not bloom in true character. 
Over-potting is also a mistake of frequent occurrence; it should 
be borne in mind that the pots must become full of roots before 
there can be a fine head of bloom. Starting them into growth 
at a time when they are throwing up their trusses is likewise 
injurious. 
ON GREEN.EDGED AURICULAS.* 
I DO not think either you, Mr. Editor, or those for whom you cater, 
would thank me for stretching on a Procrustean bed whatever I may 
have to say on each of the four classes of Auriculas, and making them 
separately yield an article apiece ; but I this will easily do so. And as 
I began with the least advanced of the four, the white-edged, I will 
now take that which at present ranks next lowest in its list of first-rate 
varieties, though highest in general estimation, and much the most 
numerous in named sorts, namely, the green-edged. The reason of 
the high estimation in which this class is held, is, because in a good 
example, the contrast between the four zones is much the most perfect, 
and gives it a far more striking and refined appearance than can be 
found in any of the other kinds. Something may also be due to the 
rarity of such examples. This I believe to have been the spring which 
moved “ D. of Deal ” to suggest the fusion of the classes; for no one 
can see a collection of twelve or more set out for a show, and therefore 
of the most perfect, without being struck with the absence of any broad 
line of distinction between the classes; the insensible gradation by 
which the greens melt into the greys and the greys into the whites, 
suggesting a natural reason for the Manchester system of class showing 
by single specimens, or at any rate by not more than one in each class. 
Take an Al of each and put them together, and the classes are separated 
VOL. XV., NO. CLXIII. 
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