116 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 31, 1859. 
upon long footstalks towards the ends of the branches. 
They are of a reddish purple colour, and continue in 
succession great part of the summer. There are three or 
four varieties of this—one with fine variegated leaves ; 
one with crimson ; and another withp?'«/r-coloured flowers, 
which have been accidentally raised from seeds.” I put 
in the italics to draw your attention more particularly to 
the long footstalks, to the reddish and purple colour, to 
the crimson and pink, and to the fine variegated seedlings, 
every one of which is identical with the style and colours 
of the Nosegays. Therefore, Sweet must have been in 
error when lie" published the first Nosegay, and said it 
was a native of the Cape. 
All that related to the original wild Geraniums, in our 
hooks, was at my fingers’ ends years and years before I 
thought of them as bedding plants ; and having divined 
the origin of the Golden Chain from its own seedlings, I 
was all but mad about the crimson kind mentioned in 
Miller’s “Dictionary.” I never ceased asking about it 
of every good gardener who called at Shrubland from 
1842 till 1850, or 1851 rather. Amongst those whom I 
thus questioned were Mr. Ingram, gardener to Her 
Majesty, at Frogmore ; Mr. Toward, ditto, at Osborne ; 
Mr. Fleming, from Trentham ; Mr. Coburn, Caenwood, 
the Earl of Mansfield’s; Mr. Forbes, gardener to the 
Duke of Bedford; Mr. Spencer, from Bowood; and 
two first-class-carriage gardeners from Scotland, Mr. 
James Macintosh, gardener to the Duke of Buccleuch, at 
Drumlanrick Castle ; and Mr. Sharp, gardener to the 
Earl of Eglington. But not one out of all these, and a 
hundred others, could say he had seen a crimson Gera¬ 
nium. They all had heard of it, as we all did about the 
double white Hepatica ; but that was all. I heard of it, 
however, three quarters after the eleventh hour. 
At the end of August, 1851, a spruce young Englander 
called at Shrubland Park, and offered himself to succeed 
your humble servant, to look after the flower-beds. “ Did 
you ever see a crimson Geranium ? ” said I. He threw 
himself back in an arm-chair, put up both his hands to 
his eyes, and remained so for some time,-—I think I see 
him now. At last he sprang up and exclaimed, “ By Jove, 
I have seen one.” “ Well, if you will bring me a plant of 
it in bloom, I will guarantee that you shall get the place 
for it was an understood thing between Sir W. Middleton 
and myself, that no one should succeed me till I first ap¬ 
proved of him. The bargain was struck, the man left, 
and in three days it was told him that he was engaged 
to succeed Beaton. But he had very nearly done me 
when he came to take possession. He did not bring the 
crimson Geranium with him, and I left without it; but 
with a strong assurance that I should have it next season. 
It was at some remote cottage, and no more than a mere 
cutting of it could be had. Well, I had it at last; and 
in the second batch of pure seedlings from it one of the 
seedlings appeared, from the seed-leaf, quite different 
from anything I had ever seen, and that one is now 
the Imperial Crimson ; and the Imperial Crimson is the 
nearest to the original crimson mentioned by Miller that 
art has hitherto been able to effect. The original Crimson 
rose with a shrubby stalk five or six feet high; the 
Imperial Crimson will not rise above one foot, and is 
different in the style of growth and in the colour of the 
flower from all other Geraniums. Therefore, it does not 
come into competition with a single kind now in existence. 
It is the head of a new race : and I venture to predict 
that it will last as long as the Golden Chain; the colour 
of it will agree with that of any one of the present race 
of bedding Geraniums. On a riband border it will come 
in next after the Golden Chain; and, by-and-by, it will 
form one row of the much-coveted shaded assemblage 
of tints, from white to dark purple Geraniums. But the 
original tendency to run into Nosegays is the first point 
to which it should be applied. I am only two years 
in advance of other breeders who may now follow the 
same track with equal chances of success; but my ex¬ 
perience is freely and willingly offered to any one who 
chooses to ask any particular point in this strain of cross¬ 
ing. I know the effects of crossing the Imperial Crimson 
with every Geranium now in general cultivation, and 
much time may be saved by going the right way to work. 
A clear scarlet Nosegay of the colour of Tom Thumb is 
of no use in planting ; the one cannot set off the other. 
All that could be gained with a Tom-coloured Nosegay 
would be this : — a stranger could see you had two kinds 
of scarlet Geraniums—two beds or two rows—which he 
might not perceive if the two were Punch and Tom Thumb. 
Therefore avoid crossing it with scarlets, unless it is to 
prove what I say. Mrs. Vernon is one of the best to 
cross with it for reddish purple ; and the “ old crimson 
Nosegay,” which has no crimson in it, is the best to cross 
for dark purple. Crosses between the Imperial Crimson 
and Ilarlcateay are extremely pretty, and very useful in 
planting front rows. This is the cross which will yield 
all the Dendrobium tints ; and crosses between it and. the 
old purple or pink Nosegay will give an improved habit 
to the old race. The Model Nosegay is of that cross, and 
is now the best bedding Nosegay out of my own hands, 
except my Miller s Nosegay, which is too dark for some 
people. I sent it to be tried and seen at Kew. Mr. 
Craig seemed particularly taken to it. But the Model 
Nosegay is more an answer to a question put to me hun¬ 
dreds of times, “ What is a Nosegay ?" 
There is my model of what a Nosegay should be. Buy 
it and prove it; if you like that style, help us to improve 
and multiply the colours, or tints : if it should not come 
up to your fancy there is little harm done. On a riband 
border it will come in between old plants of Tom Thumb 
and old plants of Punch or Compactum. In shading, or 
in riband planting, one row of any Nosegay has the same 
effect in “cutting colours” as a row of white flowers; 
but with white stripes the harmony of colours is entirely 
gone : while by the use of the right tints in Nosegays the 
harmony of colours is complete, with a distinct difference 
in the styles and habits of the plants, which is the great 
aim of those who have been pushing me these fifteen 
years past to do something for the style. I despaired of 
success for a very long time ; but since I got hold of the 
Crimson I look upon it merely as a work of time. And 
now I invite the best breeders in the three kingdoms to 
compete against me, and prove who is the cleverest man 
among them. As I have had a long practice, and a two- 
years’ start of them, I cannot enter the lists—it would 
not be fair to do so. 
During the first three generations of this strain of 
crossing, 999 seedlings out of every thousand will not be 
worth a straw; but crossing with the best kinds, in the 
third generation, will give more than one-half of the 
seedlings good enough for private use : after that the 
improvement is more rapid. Crosses between Imperial 
Crimson and Model Nosegay will be very pretty for riband 
work, but not worth for trade. There are two match 
beds of Model Nosegay in the centre of the Experimental 
Garden this season; and anything we plant there, is, or 
should be, good enough for the Queen. But we can 
hardly muster enough of Imperial Crimson for one bed 
next season. Every little morsel of it was swept right 
away from me—but I had my own price for it; and Mr. 
A. Henderson, who came down to see it, never hinted at 
abating one farthing from my price. But, recollect, the 
plant is not merely a new Geranium w ith a new colour, 
but an entirely new strain, or race, in the order to w'hich 
all Geraniums belong; just the same as if it were new 
from the banks of the Orange Fiver in the Cape Colony 
—that strain being a vast improvement on the habits of 
the best growing bedders. 
But we must certainly improve our lawms before we go 
very deep in shading. It is like putting the gentleman 
on the top of the beggar to attempt the finer touches of 
our art of planting while Plantains, and Daisies, and 
Dandelions cover the face of the lawn: that would be but 
