THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— May 27, 1850. 147 
section, and the bright scarlets with a large, clear white 
eye or centre. The Duchess of Kent is down in this 
season’s catalogue of E. G. Henderson and Sous, of the 
Wellington Road Nursery, as “ a dark, rich scarlet, with 
large conspicuous white centre; dwarf and free dower¬ 
ing.” This striking variety, from its conspicuous centre, 
makes quite a novel feature among Scarlet Geraniums. 
I have not seen this Duchess of Kent yet, therefore can¬ 
not pass an opiuion on it. 
In March, 1854, Mr. Gardener, a nurseryman at 
Maidstone, in Kent, advertised, in The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener, a “white-eyed” scarlet Geranium, called Mrs. 
Rickets, and knowing the then turn in the fancy, or 
fashion, I soon procured Mrs. Rickets, of which I heard 
no more in print; but Mrs. Rickets is the second best 
of the white-eyed race I have seen, and I can con¬ 
fidently recommend her, either for a pot-plant, or for a 
good, dwarfish bedder, with a horse-shoe leaf, and a 
moderate truss, dark scarlet, and large white eye, that is, 
comparatively large; the comparison being with Baron 
Hur/el, which has a small, thin orange-scarlet dower, 
witii a white eye, and is the best known kind of this 
strain. There have been white-eyed Scarlet Gerauiums 
since the oldest reader of The Cottage Gardener had 
his “ curly white locks” and pinafores, but no one took 
pains to follow out the white streaks and stars which 
appeared among seedlings. That “inveterate seeder,” 
the Old Scarlet, I mentioned the other day, had a larger 
white eye than any 1 had seen before it, but the flower 
was large and dat, and of the real orange-scarlet class, 
so that the white eye was less conspicuous than it would 
appear in a higher-coloured dower. 
There is one of my dark seedlings of Punch about 
the country, as Punch himself, with a starry white eye; 
but the roal Punch has no white, not even in the claw 
of the petal. I should he very glad to receive the starry- 
eyed Punch, because I mean to push the white-eyed as 
far as I can by crossing them, and a good strain, like 
that of Punch, is of importance. 
It is not yet six weeks since I altered my mind about 
Mrs. Rickets. Up to that time I thought her the best 
of all that breed. Mr. Fish mentioned a fine whito- 
edged seedling, two or three years since, which he had 
seen at Althorp with Mr. Judd. I thought I had this 
kind last year to compare with Mrs. Rickets, but Tom 
Thumb was all I had for it. However, Mr. Fish and 
Mr. Judd are now looking out all the sorts thereabouts 
for me, and this will be among them, no doubt. 
Mr. John Scott, nurseryman, Merriot Nurseries, near 
Crewkerne, Somerset, is among those who sent me their 
trade catalogues, and he has an excellent arrangement, 
as to colours, of all kinds of bedding out plants. One 
of his “ first-rate bedders,” called Dazzel, has a marked 
white eye, and another “ first-rate ” is a dwarf plant 
called Reidei, with a white eye. I do not see any more 
white-eyed kinds in all the catalogues which have been 
sent to me for the last three years, and from not seeing 
the above, I cannot say how they stand in the comparison 
with Mrs. Rickets, which was the best of them, in my 
own eye, till very recently. 
The history of the best white-eyed Geranium which I 
have seen is this:—In the summer of 1854 one of our 
correspondents sent me a box of trusses of a new white¬ 
eyed scarlet Geranium, from a distant part of the country, 
to see what I thought of it. He told me this Geranium 
was picked up in the south of Spain by an English 
traveller, and that he received it either from this 
traveller, or some one of his friends, I forget which. 
He said it was the prettiest thing he ever saw, and that 
if I thought well of it he would send it to Mr. Jacksou, 
at Kingston, who is his patron nurseryman. Unfor¬ 
tunately, however, Scarlet Geraniums will not travel ten 
miles in a close, box without the flowers falling to pieces 
the moment you unpack them, and these were no ex¬ 
ception to the usual tale; but I could see, from the large, 
white portion at the bottom of each petal being equally 
deep on all the petals, that the “ eye ” must have been 
well-marked; the flowers were bright scarlet. I know 
the man who sent the flowers ; he is a young gardener, 
whose name ought to be a MacGregor, or a Campbell, 
for he comes from Argyle, or Aberfoil, or thereabouts. 
He sent the new scarlet to Mr. Jackson, with a request 
that it should be called after his brave countryman, 
Sir Colin Campbell; they are all of a clan, I suppose; at 
all events, Sir Colin Campbell is by far the best of its 
raco that 1 have yet seen—a strong grower, a large 
truss, a large flower, and a large white eye. 
| I said the other day that I would point out such as 
j were more naturally inclined to flower in winter. Mrs. 
! Rickets has been in flower with me the whole of this 
| winter, that is, there were two trusses on one plant, and 
| between the two I could cut scarlet blossoms any day, 
| from last November till April, but the white eye dis- 
i appeared all the winter, and is not so stroug yet ns it 
will be in the height of summer and in the open air. 
Mr. Jackson's propagators tell me that Sir Colin 
Campbell is also inclined to flower naturally through 
the winter. Mr. Scott says, in his catalogue, one called 
Roi/al Dwarf is “a good winter flowering sort;” and 
there was another advertised, a few seasons back, by Mr. 
Glendinuing as a constant bloomer. All that 1 can yet 
say on that head is now before you. If it is possible 
to manage old plants of Scarlet Geraniums, so as to 
flower, without forcing, during the winter, and I firmly 
■ believe the thing to be possible, then it follows, 
j that if some kinds are inclined to flower in the 
! winter, or, which is the same thing, are more per¬ 
petual bloomers,—such kinds are sure to be the best for 
treating in an especial manner with a view of being 
j made to bloom only in winter. Whether there is a real 
j tendency for winter blooming, I much question. I did 
not grow the plant fronl a cutting, and the disposition 
might have been induced by the treatment before the 
; plant came into my possession. I mean to cross flowers, 
, however, for this very purpose. The pollen of Sir 
I Colin Campbell on the flowers of Mrs. Rickets should 
j unite the qualities of both in equal proportion. The 
\ mother, more generally, carries the lead of the habits, if 
the two parents are of equal strength ; if the mother is 
i an Amazon, and the father a “ little man,” every one of 
the seedlings take the stronger habit of the mother ; but 
from so renowned a warrior as Sir Colin undoubtedly is 
— and his namesake is the same among its class—and 
the well-known beauty of Mrs. Rickets, together with her 
more feminine-like weakness of constitution, 1 shall ex¬ 
pect a breed of slow, temperate, and very manageable 
little Campbells, which will bear any experiments for 
winter flowering, with less hurt to themselves than most 
other breeds which I can mention from my own expe¬ 
rience. 
The Fire Queen, a bold, scarlet truss and a small, white 
eye, is the last of this strain which I have seen. I am 
not aware of the names of the raisers, or of the pedigree, 
of any one of these Geraniums, except that one which 
was raised by Mr. Judd. Some of the others may carry 
more than one name, and may only be different in name 
—I mean such as I have not seen myself. To prevent 
confusion of this kind, and to enable one to buy with 
confidence, is the reason why I am so anxious to register 
the pedigree of every bedding Geranium. When a nur¬ 
seryman buys a seedling which he is quite sure is dif¬ 
ferent from all others in its class, his name is a sure 
guarantee for ttiat kind, and is sufficient for the regis¬ 
trar-general ; but several of my own seedlings, which 
I never thought worth naming, are about under different 
names, and so with other seedlings, thus causing a dis¬ 
trust in new names. For my part, I hesitate to buy or 
recommend any plant which is not well authenticated— 
