PRICE SIX CENTS, 
$3.03 PER YEAR. 
VOL. XXXI. No. 6 
WHOLE No. 1306. 
[Entered according to Act ot Congress, in the year 1875. by the Rural Publishing Company, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.! 
larity. The flower of the oak-leaf pelar¬ 
gonium, though of a brilliant red, is, like 
that of rose geranium (P. graveolens) the 
least attractive feature of the plant. The 
leaves bear so general a resemblance to oak- 
leaves that, viewing t hem for the tlrst time, 
its name would suggest itself at once. The 
veins anti veinlets stand out upon the back 
of a leaf as if glued there, presenting only 
the concave depressions upon the face which 
divide and subdivide it into so many convex 
parts. The leaves are deeply sinuate-lobed— 
most deeply in the first pair ol‘ sinuses—less 
apparent towards the apex, giving the leaf 
generally a deltoid form, with surrulato 
edges. Along the mid vein is a band of 
glossy chocolate bronze following the vein- 
let', irregularly, half across the blade, as 
distinct and abrupt as if painted upon the 
dense, vivid green surface. The petioles are 
long, slender, somewhat hispedand opposite. 
The. stalk in its thickest part is comparatively 
slight, though more firm, elastic and less suc¬ 
culent than that of other pelargoniums. The 
growth in some degree changes its direction 
at every mode, which is swollen and distinct, 
but the branches gradually assume a pendu¬ 
lous habit that, with the amide spread of the 
leaves, give the whole plant a graceful com¬ 
pactness and rotundity that at a little dis¬ 
tance might be mistaken for a fine specimen 
of Mahonia or Holly. 
Not the least of its merits is that while 
most others of this genus, during the 
scorching midday sun, ure curling up their 
half-withered foliage and bogging for mer¬ 
cy, this plant stands out as fresh and de¬ 
fiant as if it wera enjoying the moist air 
and regular temperature of a hot-house. 
With equal nonchalance it luxuriates in 
a temperature as low as forty, and as 
an ever reliable window-plant, it cannot 
be surpassed. We have never known one 
to mature seed, but it strikes readily from 
cuttings, grows with great rapidity and 
would, we are confident, attract a fair 
share of attention if honored with a bed 
to itself among the many ornamental foli- 
v aged plants that engross, at the present 
\ time, so considerable a part of our fond- 
' y ] ness and care. 
Bryophyltum calycinum, or Knlanchcr, 
r ' crennta , is singular in its endless powers of 
E/ reproduction. The compound leaves are 
>; unequally pinnate with, for the most part, 
l) five leaflets to a raehls. They are thick, 
\ y fleshy, petiolate, opposite, elliptical—the 
- odd terminal leaf larger than the rest and 
ovately elliptical—doubly erenate and ever- 
"• green as the sedum and other leeks. 
^ Perfect little plants ure readily produced 
from the margins of the leaves, or rather 
| from the juncti ons of the scallops. It is 
? only necessary to detach the leaf—place it 
\ upon the mantle, or suspend it toariyob- 
S ject by a thread. As the leaf withers, in 
$ the course of from ten days to three 
j weeks, depending upon the season, minute 
fibrous rootlets show themselves, and 
shortly two tiny leaves will appear, soon 
followed by others until the little plant- 
deriving its sustenance exclusively from 
the dying parent leaf—has attained a 
growth of from one to two inches. We 
may then cut it out and plant it the 
same as we would a phlox, pansy or any 
other seedling of the easiest cultivation. 
Bryophyllum is as old as the hills, though, 
until within ayearorso, quite unknown in 
at least this section of the country. The 
growth is exceedingly rapid and the young 
plant thickly foliaged, highly symmetrical 
and beautiful in everyway. As it matures, 
however, the main stalk which grows as 
Chronicle of December 19th, i observe the 
price of Zonalo Pelargoniums ranges from 
ninepence to one shilling and sixpence per 
dozen sprays, while other Pelargoniums 
range from one shilling and sixpence to 
three shillings per dozen sprays, which would 
bo about equ il to a range of from eighteen 
to seventy-fi ve cents i.i our money, per dozen 
sprays of these flowers. Many varieties of 
the Zonalo and other Pelargoniums flower 
very freely all winter, and with our brighter 
winter sky, it would not bo at all difficult to 
have the liner varieties in flower at any de¬ 
sired time in great profusion, which, if 
fashion allowed, would be quite profitable to 
American florists even at half the rates re¬ 
alized in London, because these plants are 
much easier to cultivate in this country than 
in England for the purposes above mentioned. 
Paterson, N. J. H. E. Chitty. 
imagination. The dark blotches on the up - | 
per petals are the richest and deepest ma¬ 
roon, which are surrounded by a belt of the 
brightest vermlllion ; the lower and smaller 
petals arc also bright vermlllion, while all 
the petals are margined with pure white, 
making altogether a flower of singular 
beauty ; and as the flowers are produced in 
large clusters or trusses, each trass being in 
itself a bouqctet of the richest coloring, 
there is no doubt of its being a most wel¬ 
come addition to this already attractive 
class of plants, Tina plant flowers while 
quite small. I saw a few in flower which 
were only in four or five inch pota, and the 
trusses were quite five Inches iu diameter. 
It occurred to me that this variety could not 
fail to become exceedingly valuable for all 
decorative purposes, and if the flowers are 
as permanent a- others of the same type, I 
see no reason why its flowers should not be 
available for bouquets, See., In this country 
as well as in England. 1 have thought, 
however, that perhaps the cooler and more 
humid atmosphere of London and England 
generally, might have something to do with 
the continued preservation of these fleers 
after being cat from the plants, although in 
some instances they are carried many miles 
to market after being gathered. 
Ln looking over the Covent Garden market 
quotations for cut flowers in the Gardener' 
II— IMPROVED PELARGONIUMS FOR CUT 
FLOWERS. 
In addition to the large numbers of Zonale 
Pelai’goniums, used in the London market 
for cut flowers, many other varieties arc also 
much esteemed, among which may be 
mentioned the fancy kinds, the small 
compact trusses Of which are highly pr zed 
by the bouquet makers. I also observed 
some hybrid Cape species, most of which 
were quite new to me, and I think but very 
few of this type of the Pelargonium have 
as yet found t heir way to this country. Their 
color; are exceedingly rich, being mostly 
combinations or scarlet and black, white and 
maroon, also lilac und maroon. The flowers, 
compared with the show varieties, are small, 
but being compact, and firmly set on long 
footstalks, they are considered quite valua¬ 
ble by the florists, especially as the plants 
flower nearly' the whole ye&l, which gives 
them an additional value as bedding plants. 
But by far the most valuable of all the 
Pelargoniums for cut flowers are a compara¬ 
tively new race, called the frilled or fringed 
varieties. The tints and combinations of 
color in some, of these varieties hvc so exceed¬ 
ingly rich and varied as to almost defy de¬ 
scription. They are an offshoot of the 
French spotted kinds, but possess features 
quite distinct from all other classes of 
Pelargoniums, some of them being beau¬ 
tifully crimped, fringed, or frilled ; others 
are richly striped or spotted, and many of 
them have double or serai-double flowers. 
The petals of these varieties do not fall as 
readily as the Zonalei, but’ seem rather to 
have a tendency to shrivel up after several 
days’ use in a bouquet. This class of Pelar¬ 
goniums is grown very extensively in the 
TWO PLANTS, 
BY ELBERT S. CARMAN, 
