382 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 18 . 
very hardy, and not uncommon in the nurseries. Tt 
comes into flower in May, and after two months, it likes 
to go to rest for the season, like many more of them 
when grown in a pot, hut plant it out on a good south 
border, about the end of May, and it will go on flower¬ 
ing to the end of the season. I left it in bloom at 
Shrubland Park at the end of last October, where it 
stood three years, hut I had no cross from it, having 
only tried its pollen on one or two of the fancy sorts, 
which did not take effect, but that is of no moment, as 
we all know it to he a ready breeder with several of the 
sections. The most popular cross at present from fulgi¬ 
dum is flexuosum, the pollen parent being scepeflorens, 
and the seed-bearer fulgidum. 
Here I must remark, that the first grand error into 
which the last race of cross-breeders, or florists, had 
fallen, w r as by letting in the black spots through reni- 
forme into this scarlet strain. These black spots, small 
though they were at that early period, have gone on 
increasing ever since, and deprived us, at the present 
day, of splendid large clear scarlet blossoms on our 
greenhouse geraniums, that would equal, if not eclipse, 
the brilliancy of Punch or Tom Thumb. Only think 
for one moment of the thrill and sensation that would 
pass through the gardening mind of Europe, Asia, 
Africa, and America, if Mr. Beck, or Mr. Hoyle, or any 
other of our great breeders, were to bring up for exhibi¬ 
tion next May a seedling florist’s Geranium, four feet 
in diameter, and loaded with flowers as large as those of 
Ajax, and of as brilliant a scarlet as those of Tom 
Thumb, or any of that race. Why neither Ajax nor 
Achilles himself created such a stir before the walls of 
Troy; and yet the thing w r as, and is now, as easily to 
be effected as to have marked the three front petals of 
ocellata with darkish spots, provided that our forefathers 
had understood the effect of mixing the breeds of these 
geraniums in their day as we find it to he at the present. 
Therefore, admitting this to he the truth, or at any rate, 
to be a feasible theory, why not go hack thirty or forty 
years, and begin afresh with fulgidum and cortusce- 
folium, or sanguineum, on the one hand, for scarlets ; and 
then, il sanguineum left traces of the dark streaks around 
its own eye on the offspring, endeavour to wash them 
out by the pollen of echinatum, or better still, by that of 
crassicaule 1 Cross and recross in this strain, always 
rejecting every seedling which shows a dark spot, or 
dot, or streak, until you have gained your size and form 
in scarlets, pinks, or French whites; and if you find the 
original brilliancy of fulgidum getting on the wane, i 
cross again with fulgidum, not taking any thought 
about what is said of crossing in and in, for that is a 
dark lantern. This second turn of f ulgidum will assur¬ 
edly destroy your fine shapes, because the flowers of 
fulgidum itself are, perhaps, the worst shaped of all the 
Leraniums. A tyro might he excused for calling them 
ringent, that is, gaping like a Snapdragon ; but then the 
scarlet colour is so pure in them, that we cannot dis¬ 
pense with it, and the shape will fill in by degrees in 
alter generations. Pure whites, clear scarlet, and bright 
pinks, will never hurt each other in crossing, if no other 
tint or colour is allowed to affect them down from the 
original wild species; hut from the moment you admit 
the least dark spot or speck, or the faintest shade of 
purple or lilac, into this clear strain, you are never sure 
ot it afterwards. The foul stain, like what they call 
idiosyucracy, will pass from father to son, and from 
mother to daughter, in a way you know not, and may 
reappear long alter you had plumed your feathers on 
your successful efforts at washing it out and getting rid 
of it for ever. 
Sanguineum. —This is the next best scarlet after ful¬ 
gidum, hut not so easily to be met with, as they sell 
quite a different kind in some nurseries under the same 
name; a kind with dark purple flowers. The true san¬ 
guineum, figured by Sweet in his Geraniacea, has clear 
scarlet flowers, with dark streaks or veins radiating up 
from the eye, but the scarlet is not by any means so rich 
as in Fulgidum. I never saw this geranium in flower, 
and I am not quite sure that I ever saw the plant at all, 
three times I was disappointed by having the dark 
purple one sent me in its stead, but I cannot be mis¬ 
taken in the description, for 1 took it from a very long 
one by Sweet himself, with the coloured figure lying 
before me. He says it crosses more readily than any of 
the family, and names some of the best seedlings he had 
from it, but as they are now all lost, I shall pass them 
over, and say, as I do not know where to buy the true 
sanguineum, I should feel very grateful for a plant or a 
cutting of it from any one. 
Bicolor. —This is a common species with the flowers 
in stripes, as in Sidonia. They are purplish lilac and 
white; its habit and constitution are strong, and the 
leaves are large, coarse, and curly. There is a very 
pretty cross by its pollen with triste, which people take 
to be a wild species, called quinquevulnerum. Triste is 
a poor thing, and although the pollen of bicolor got 
such a good cross, it was an extreme cross, and stamped 
the constitution of quinquevulnerum so delicate and 
tender, that some gardeners cannot grow it. Mr. Jeffries, 
at Ipswich, used to have it quite healthy, growing in 
nothing but peat, and Mr. Barnes, of Stowmarket, pre¬ 
fers peat for all the more delicate ones, whether species 
or varieties. Bicolor should be set apart specially to 
breed striped flowers from. Sidonia and Spleenii pro¬ 
duce pollen, and if it would fertilise bicolor we should 
soon have a new race of riband flowers. I recollect, 
many years ago, a seedling, called imbricatum by Sweet, 
being sent, I think from Lee’s Nursery, toAltyre, for the 
late Lady Camming Gordon, with flowers exactly like 
bicolor, but nearly twice their size. This plant made a 
sensation among the gardeners round Forres, of which 
I, then a boy, had more than a full share, for I had my 
ears pulled desperately by the present proprietor of 
Altyre, for nibbling seeds from it, which I crossed myself, 
unbeknown to any one, and I thought my little heart 
would burst when they took the seeds from me, and 
threatened to send me to prison. Besides, add to this 
the banter of the rest of the men, who called me Nib- 
blyanum while I remained with them, and it will be 
clear that I shall never forget the breed of bicolor. The 
first cross from it, quinquevulnerum, yields no pollen, 
and never seeds that I know of. 
Gibbosum. —This is also a well-known species, and 
common in gardens, with small, dull, greenish-yellow 
flowers, which turn very sweet in the evening, like the 
Night-smelling Stock. It makes a good summer plant 
out on a mixed border, on account of its fine, healthy, 
sea-green leaves. It will give curious crosses, some of 
which inherit the property of being very sweet at night. 
One between it and scepeflorens was a great favourite 
with Mr. Sweet, who named it Vespertinum. 
D. Beaton. 
TRAINING PELARGONIUMS. 
Those intended to bloom in May and June must have 
no more stopping, but must be trained into tlieir desired 
shapes. So long as the flat bonnet-headed system of 
growth is fashionable, it is impossible to support them, 
and carry large plants about, without the aid of a num¬ 
ber of sticks. A number of years ago, I thought I had 
hit on a wrinkle—when on putting a cord round the 
rim of the pot, and fastening the lower branches to this 
string, I could dispense with a great portion of the 
sticks; but lo ! the first large nursery, where they grew 
large specimens in, that 1 visited, I beheld the same 
plan in full operation, though they owned they never 
tried it before that year. 1 believe it is a very common 
