166 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
pots when necessary, they make fine plants for turning out in heels towards 
the end of May. The easy way in which this plant can he kept through 
the winter is a great recommendation in its favour to all lovers of garden¬ 
ing, and particularly to those who have only very limited space for keeping 
plants in winter, and who require all the room they have for Variegated 
Pelargoniums, and tender bedding plants. Salvia patens when well grown 
in pots makes a fine plant for the conservatory, and lasts a long time in 
flower. Young plants should he chosen and kept well stopped back to make 
specimens, and should have liberal pot room. 
Stourton. M. Saul. 
VARIEGATED ZONAL PELARGONIUMS AS BEDDING 
PLANTS. 
The rage for getting a stock of these beautiful and showy plants for 
bedding purposes is now at its height; hut their high price when first let 
out deters many from using them. It is no joke to pay two guineas for 
some of the highly certificated ones, and afterwards to find, from their same¬ 
ness of variegation, that they are no better than Mrs. Pollock or Sunset 
for bedding purposes. I have now Lady Cullum and Lucy Grieve planted 
side by side, and they are as nearly alike as two Peas of the Ringleader 
and First Crop class. [They are, however, quite distinct, as will be seen 
when they get established.] As far as my experience goes in bedding 
variegated Zonals, Gold Pheasant is as effective as any of them, and at the 
present time far cheaper. The “ Bicolors,” or Gold and Bronze Zonals, of 
the Beauty of Oulton type, are, in my opinion, more likely to be useful 
than the “ Tricolors.” This, however, time will prove. And now that we 
know how to go to work in raising new Bicolors and Tricolors, every gar¬ 
dener who has the means, and the time to spare, may soon have a batch of 
his own. Last year, having raised some very dark-zoned seedlings of the 
Nosegay and Zonal sections, I have used them as seed parents, and expect 
to have scores of new “ Tricolors ” from the seeds already sown and now 
breaking into variegation. I have a theory respecting “ Tricolor,” or rather 
Variegated Zonal Pelargoniums, which I should be glad to have ventilated 
—namely, that we are indebted to Cerise Unique and Commander-in-Chief 
for the origin of these fine coloured-leaved plants. If examined under the 
microscope it will be found that these varieties are full of colouring matter, 
both in the leaves and stems; and being crossed with some yellow-leaved 
variegated sport, they may have given origin to all the Tricolors. Be that 
as it may, all honour to Messrs. Grieve, Wills, and others for showing us 
the way to raise them. We may soon expect to hear gardeners’ little boys 
and girls repeating the following nursery rhyme :— 
“ Snip snorum, hey tricolorum ; 
Daddy’s raised a Tricolor will carry all before him.” 
There is another inducement besides that of the high prices of the 
new “ Tricolors” and “Bicolors” for a gardener to raise varieties of his 
own—namely, that he may show in his bedding-out some novelty not to be 
found elsewhere. Two years ago I detected a variegated sport on the Im¬ 
perial Crimson Nosegay, and have now propagated as many plants as to 
furnish a bed of it this year. This variety only grows from 6 to 8 inches 
high, and the leaves are as white in their variegation as those of Bijou. 
When it is planted out, mixed plant for plant, with Lobelia speciosa, the 
