becomes increasingly more difficult, yet each year shows from the 
zeal and energy of our seedling-raisers that they still take for 
their motto “ Excelsior.” 
The three flowers now figured are all seedlings, reared at 
Clewer Manor, where for a long series of years the improve¬ 
ment of the Pelargonium has been successfully carried on ; and 
each year shows that the 44 strain ” there, as it is technically 
called, is improving by the mixture of the flowers of other 
raisers; the very cupped form that used to mark Mr. Foster's 
flowers is gradually giving way to broader-petalled and more 
open ones, as the illustration by Mr. Andrews testifies. Im¬ 
provement (fig. 1) is one of those fine purple-tinted flowers 
which are so effective on the stage ; the lower petals are a rich 
purple, while the upper petals have a deep maroon blotch in 
the centre, with a purple margin ; it received a first-class certifi¬ 
cate at the Eoyal Horticultural Society, and a certificate at the 
Eoyal Botanic Society. Censor (fig. 2) is a crimson-purple 
flower, the spot on the upper petal not occupying so large a 
space as in general, while the colour of the flower is novel and 
pleasing ; it received a first-class certificate at the Eoyal Botanic 
Society, and a second-class at the Eoyal Horticultural Society. 
Souvenir (fig. 3) has richly-painted crimson and black lower 
petals, black top, and bright margin ; it is not perhaps so 
decidedly a good flower as the others, but is likely to be very 
effective as a bold and striking flower for the home stage. 
