138 
THE PROPERTIES OF THE FANCY PELARGONIUM. 
Pelargonium an imaginary pattern, we by no means wish to infer that such a marking as we have 
given is to be the only perfection. Like the Pansy, the flower is capable of producing an endless variety, 
and all good, the principal object being uniformity. It is quite as good to have five petals alike, with 
a blotch or a spot in each, as it is to have the feather as we have depicted it; but it is absolutely neces¬ 
sary to produce flatness, roundness, and brilliance. Thickness of petal seems to have been achieved 
already in many varieties, but indistinctness and roughness seem to pervade nearly all of the very best. 
We have always to keep in mind that the Fancy Pelargonium requires to be of dwarf habit and 
striking colour. One of the chief objects is, that it should be good for bedding out, and as the eye is 
not close to the bed, whatever is indefinite or deficient of colour is lost at the distance we are generally 
placed in as we walk round the garden. Scarlet is a striking colour alone, and the Fancy Pelargo¬ 
nium must be very well contrasted in colour to be worthy of a place. Suppose we had a variety with 
black markings on a white ground, the contrast would be as great as it is possible to produce; all 
colours, therefore, as they recede from black, get less striking as a contrast, but wdien we have bright¬ 
ness or denseness of colour well defined and properly abrupt, the flower cannot be other than desirable. 
The purity of the white is everything as regards the colour, for if the colour be faint so that it be well 
defined, it is, to some extent, a contrast. Cloudy and shady grounds are bad, anything that is indefi¬ 
nite is bad; the most exquisite shape would be useless if there were not distinctness in the marking. 
A pale rose feathering on the under petals, or a distinct spot on each, or a flower with the upper petals 
of a deep colour, and the under petals white or pale rose, would be admissible; and so would any other kind 
of marking, instead of those we have given; if plain and distinct, it would be equally esteemed 
perhaps, for it is in the colour and markings that the value must now be estimated. There cannot be 
a better mark of novelty than a colour which we have not obtained, but it must not be a mere dab of 
colour here and there, nor must it be cloudy, or shady, or indistinct. The figures of the three varie¬ 
ties wdiich are given with the present number, present us with little gems in their way, but the artist, 
who has not been aware of the little points which tell so much one way as the other, has evidently 
considered that the actual form of the flower was of less consequence than it is. Artists in general 
attend a good deal more to the picturesque than to those nice points which make a flower good or good 
for nothing. There is, for instance, an unnatural curl in the upper petals of all, they might have been 
all drawn from one flower for all the difference we can see in the shape or make, and yet when we 
saw these flowers we considered them very different in their forms however good they are; those, 
therefore, who buy the flowers from the drawings, will be agreeably disappointed with the bloom of 
the flower, for they are a much better shape than they are represented. If we were inclined to write 
the properties of the Fancy Pelargonium over again, w r e should be very apt to quote the properties of 
the Pansy, because we suspect they are to be realised in the flower before us. The under petals should 
be uniform, the colour bright or dense, the marking distinct, and the ground colour pure ; the petals 
thick and of fine texture, the edge free from puckering, notching, or frilling ; the flower perfectly round, 
the footstalks long enough to enable the flowers to expand and touch edge to edge without lapping over. 
There should not be less than four flowers on a truss ; the bloom should be continuous ; the plant short 
jointed; the foliage small and clean ; the habit dwarf and bushy; the flowers thrown up above the 
foliage and very abundant. Beyond this all is fancy ; whether the flowers be spotted, or feathered, or 
blotched, the three lower petals should be uniform and the two upper ones alike, and we have seen 
all this realized, or as nearly so as may be ; and certainly the other kinds of Pelargonium, that is to say 
those shown for prizes so many years, are unquestionably behind the Fancy ones, which three or four 
years ago were hardly worthy of a place in the garden, for they were puckered and frilly, rough on the 
edges, indefinite in their colours and markings, and otherwise ill-formed. We rejoice in their advance, 
for it shows what can be done when the florist is determined to improve a flower. We are not quite 
sure that the Show Pelargoniums have advanced the last two or three years ; there is a great sameness. 
Perhaps two of the three figured some time ago are the most decided novelties of late production ; 
the one for its rich purple colour, the other for its very remarkable spotting. Ocellatum is, in fact, a 
Fancy Pelargonium to all intents and purposes, but it is in all but its peculiar marking, a Show variety; 
so peculiar, however, is the spot on the three lower petals, that we should hardly think it safe to use 
if we were showing half a dozen ; it is impossible to divest one’s-self of the notion that it is a bed¬ 
ding-out variety. It is not only in point of form of the flower and colour, that the Fancy Pelargonium 
is improving so much, but we have several already which have sweet foliage, and we see no reason why 
a class of sweet and fancy-foliaged varieties should not be raised. We saw, the other day, a small 
plant, a cross between Anais and one of the Cape species, which had Oak leaves and a very neat dark 
blotch in the centre of each leaf, and should this marking be constant the plant will form the basis of 
a class of fancy-foliaged Pelargoniums. 
