Plate 75. 
HYBRID GREENPIOUSE GERANIUMS. 
Pelargonium (hyhridumj , var. 
If there be one flower which more than another deserves the 
name of “ Everybody’s Flower,” it is the Pelargonium; for every¬ 
where we meet with it: in the cottage-window, in the lonely 
garret, and even within the prison walls—more cherished per¬ 
haps than when in the conservatory of the nobleman or the 
boudoir of the lady of fashion, and this not merely from its 
intrinsic beauty, great as that is, but also from the easiness of its 
culture. While it will, like everything else, show the effects of 
good care and attention, it will also endure an amount of hard¬ 
ship which would kill another flower. 
The advances that it has made in popular favour have been 
very great. We can well remember the time when the Eev. 
Mr. Garth, of Farnham, and Mr. Forster, of Clewer Manor, first 
started in the race for public favour, and nothing was heard of 
but Garth’s Syljph and Forster’s Joan of Arc. At that time 
there was but one class, those known now as Florists’ Gera¬ 
niums. Some years afterwards, those now designated as Fancies 
were introduced, at first ill-shaped in form and faint in colour, 
now perfectly symmetrical and of very beautiful tints. The 
appearance of one variety with spots in each petal was the 
avant-courier of a race now known as Spotted Pelargoniums, 
while some years ago M. Chauviere, of the Rue de la Pochette, 
Paris, turning his attention to them, first led the way in the 
curiously bizarre and spotted varieties known now as French 
Pelargoniums; so that, independently of the bedding varieties 
of Geranium, there are now four distinct classes, vying with 
one another in brightness of colouring, symmetry of form, and 
beauty of foliage. 
The most celebrated raisers of seedlings have been now for 
