Plate 301. 
PELARGONIUMS, LORD LYON AND 
FAVOURITE. 
The great improvement that has taken place in the form, 
size, and colour of this universally admired flower was admirably 
shown at the Great International Exhibition, where Mr. Hoyle 
exhibited blooms of some of his most remarkable flowers 
together w-ith a sheet of dried blooms of the Pelargoniums of 
sixty years ago. It w 7 as hardly possible to conceive that the 
beautiful, symmetrically rounded flowers with their brilliant 
colouring could ever have been the descendants of such narrow- 
petaled and starry-looking flowers as our forefathers cultivated 
then; no greater proof could be given of the change that skill 
and careful hybridization can effect than they did; and few, 
we think, can deny the statement that no one has so largely 
contributed to this result as Mr. Hoyle, of Reading. 
The flowers which we now figure have been selected by us 
from a number of seedlings, which will be, as usual, sent out 
by Mr. Turner, of Slough, in the autumn, as they seemed to us 
to be, where all wrnre excellent, the best. In this opinion we 
have been strengthened by the fact that they have both received 
first-class certificates. They are both flowers that will sustain 
the high position that Mr. Hoyle has deservedly attained. 
Favourite (Fig. 1) is a very brilliant-looking flower; the 
upper petals are a brilliant crimson-maroon with a narrow fiery 
crimson border; the lower petals are deep rosy-crimson, with 
a dark spot towards the base of each, while the centre of the 
flower is pure white. Lord Lyon (Fig- 2) is a very large, noble¬ 
looking flower; the upper petals are bright rosy-crimson, with a 
dark blotch ; the lower petals are rosy-pink, slightly veined, and 
