April 22. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
01 
tectiug vegetable alkaloids. By experiments on animals, 
and from observation of its effects on biniseif, the ordeal 
boan has a double action on the animal body : it para¬ 
lyses the heart’s action, and it suspends the power of 
the will over the muscles, causing paralysis. Jt is a 
potent poison, for twelve grains caused severe symptoms 
in his own person, although the poison was promptly 
evacuated by vomiting, excited by hot water. The alco¬ 
holic extract has the same effect and action with the 
seed itself .”—(Year Boole of Facts.) 
BEDDING GERANIUMS. 
( Continued from page 4G.) 
Variegated Geraniums. —The common Horseshoe 
Geranium, now of many forms, originated from a simple 
bright scarlet flower, with petals no bigger than those 
of the Herb Robert Geranium of our English groves. 
It is almost the only one of the scarlet breed of which 
we possess a semblance of the original, and that sem- 
blanco is the “ old Scarlet Variegated,” or the Zonule 
marginatum of old books, and the one which, with 
Verbena venosa, formed the celebrated “ shot-silk bed.” 
This variegated form is nearly coeval with the Horse¬ 
shoe Geranium itself, which was first brought to England 
in 1710. Many years later it underwent another trans¬ 
formation, and the llowers became crimson instead of 
scarlet; this crimson is more tender and less vigorous 
than the original variegated, and is extremely scarce. .1 
never saw but two plants of it, and I possess one of 
them at this moment, and a number of crosses between 
it and other equally rare parents. There is a pink 
flowered form of it, which I saw, last autumn, in the 
terrace garden, in front of the large conservatory at Kew, 
and there is a lilacy one very like it, which is common 
enough about Ipswich. I had it to Sbrubland Park 
from Mr. Latter, of Bramford. I want both the pink 
and the lilacy one for the experimental garden. If I 
recollect rightly, the lilac one is barren, but I am not 
sure. These four variegated, with the Golden Chain, our 
only representative of the “ Cape Scarlet,” or Inquinans, 
are the only old kinds of variegated, as far ns I know, 
and I should be very glad to learn more of their history, 
or if there are, or were, more kinds of them. Mangle's 
Variegated is from a totally different strain, and is a 
sport from Heterogaminn, or from one of its earliest 
seedlings. Heterogaminn was called “ The Pink Ividney- 
leaf” in my young days. I said “ Plain Pink ” when 
writing about it from Sbrubland Park. It appears, in a 
subdued form, in almost every bed of many less varie¬ 
gated, but it is seldom used in beds now, although it 
makes a very rich mass in the autumn where it does 
well. The best bed of it I ever saw was in the garden 
of the late Sir Abraham Hume, not far from the 
nurseries of Mr. Paul, of Cheshunt. Of all the Gera¬ 
niums, the flowers of this Plain Pink, or Pink Kidney- 
leaf, or Heterogaminn, are the best for nosegays which 
are made flat on the surface. These require a degree 
of skill not yet attained in Covent Garden Market. 
The bride’s nosegay at that wedding mentioned in 
The Cottage Gard*neji was perfectly Hat on the face, 
or surface, but it cost two guineas, from the first maker 
in London—a Mr. Davis, I think; but Mr. Gunter could 
tell, as he provides for all the great weddings in the 
metropolis, and must know the name of the first bridal 
nosegay manufacturer in town, and I should like to see 
that name in our musterroll; for what would be the use of 
writing about flower beds, or any beds, without weddings; 
or who would wed without a nosegay of the first style 
of fashion ? 
I have seen Mangle’s Variegated in seed several times, 
but have never seen or heard that a seed of it vegetated. 
The plain form of it will ged, but will not cross out of ! 
its own section. I want a large number of this varie- i 
gated to try different ways of disposing of it in beds. ! 
The Beauty Supreme Verbena is said to mix with it, and 
render it more showy in a bed, on very good authority, 
but I cannot speak to the fact. A thin crop of Mignonette 
with it, in a bed at the Crystal Palace, last season, looked 
well; and, like the shot-silk bed, the two plants ought 
to be so regulated, from time to time, that neither of 
them get the mastery. Flower of the Day seems the 
greatest favourite of the new variegated kinds; but, 
without seeing a bed of Attraction, I should pronounce 
it, at least, equally good. The flowers of Attraction, 
and of Mountain of Light, and Silver King, are a better 
scarlet than those of Flower of the Day. There are j 
other kinds of variegated in the same strain just out, or j 
coming out; but no one cau determine the value of a j 
variegated plant for a bed from seeing it in a pot; but if 1 
I had them all, side by side on a border, or in a bed, 1 i 
could soon tell which was good, better, and best; some 
one must take that pains with them before the question ; 
of merit and the degree of merit'in each can be du- ; 
cided. Brilliant, which looks like a cross from Zonale ' 
by some plant from the section of Heterogaminn, is a ' 
good-looking pot plant, but is by no means a good t 
bedder for most places; perhaps it would do on poor, ; 
chalky land ; on ordinary soils it loses much of the ' 
white on the leaf, and whole branches turn green, there- j 
fore, if you try it in your garden, have it plunged in j 
the pots as they do the Unique. I had no opportunity j 
of kuowiug how far it would seed, cross, or yield pollen ; 
but the habit, or style of growth, is of the very best, 
and it deserves to bo looked after by tho cross breeder—• 
and here is your man. 
The Iyy-leafs, Lateripes and Peltatum have, each of 
them, one variegated kind, but I never saw the variegated 
Peltatum. It was figured long ago in Andrews’ coloured 
engravings of Geraniums (1701) simultaneously with j 
the species in the first volume of the “Botanical Maga- j 
7.ine.” It was eighty-six years after that before tbe true I 
Ivy-leaf was introduced—the white Ivy-leaf—of which 
we have no variety yet, although it seeds freely. Sweet \ 
was wrong altogether in assigning three varieties to 
Laterijies, or white Ivy-leaf. Ilis second variety, Zonatum, 
is a distinct species, and seeds as much as the white, 
but does not spread in a bed nearly so well as tho 
white. His Lateripes roseum is our dwarf, best bedding 
Geranium of that race, our pink Ivy-leaf, or Cup-leaf, 
and of it there is a variegated form, called, by Sweet, 
Albo marginatum. I take it, that the new scarlet Ivy- 
leaf in a sport from Roseum ; if it is from Zonatum, it is 
no sport, but a true seedling, and I must be wrong in 
my coujecture of it as a sport. My friend, whom 1 j 
quoted at page 2, says, the scarlet Ivy-leaf “ comes pink 
sometimes," which amounts to a certainty, with me, 
that it cannot be a seedling from Zonatum, a purple 
flower, and the only fiow'er that will seed in this section 
after the white Ivy-leaf. The pink Ivy-leaf and the 
variegated form of it are both as barren as the desert, 
although the male organs appear to be as perfectly 
developed as those of any member of the family. 1 
could manage forty or fifty plants of each of them. I 
mean the pink and variegated Ivy-leaf, but not the pink 
Ivy-leaf Peltatum, which is a climber not at all suitable 
for beds; but I would pay any ordinary sum for 
Peltatum variegation, which, however, 1 fear is lost. 
I never could force a cross of lvy-leafs, save one, I 
which, I fear, I shall lose after flowering it two seasons; 
it is of no use but to a breeder; it is from Zonatum, by 
the pollen of Lateripes, but it goes too much after the 
mother to be good looking; if, among all our readers, 
any one can tell me of another kind of Ivy-leaf, or of 
attempts to cross from any of them, 1 shall be as 
pleased ns I should be with a basket of plants of them. 
