JANUARY. 
5 
ning to acknowledge their mistake ! This, I suppose, they would designate a 
clever business “ move.” As far as I am concerned they are welcome to all 
the benefits they may derive from it; and I accept their recantation in good 
faith, because it is better that they should “ repent” than “continue in sin.” 
To those who have but one standard of beauty, the florist’s standard re¬ 
quiring the circular form, Donald Beaton, Princess Lichtenstein, and Mrs. 
William Paul, may be recommended as in advance on all others of their colour. 
But while I am ready to support the axioms of the florist when applied to 
florists’ flowers, I sternly refuse to apply them to every object in the floral 
world, and I maintain that Beaton’s hybrid Pelargoniums are manifestly 
without their pale. To my mind there is a poverty of conception in being 
unable to discover beauty out of and beyond the florist’s pale, however sound 
may be his premises, however logical his conclusions. The late Mr. Beaton 
once said to me, in reply to a remark that the florist would never recognise 
the Stella race of Pelargoniums, “ Never mind; let me get novelty of 
colour, compactness of habit, freedom of flowering, flowers that will stand the 
sun and rain : the public will appreciate their qualities, and I will improve the 
form afterwards.” Alas! his life was too short to complete the task. But 
there remain among us others who can and doubtless will take up the work, 
and extend and perfect the new lines of beauty which he so successfully struck 
out. No impartial critic could for one moment contend that the florist’s Pelar¬ 
goniums produce anything like the effect of these hybrids when planted in 
masses in the flower garden. This is all that has been or is at present claimed for 
them. If the florist is not content with them as they are, let him cultivate the 
new and rich ground, to which the late Mr. Beaton has given him access, and 
draw forth productions in accordance with his own taste. A rich harvest will 
surely reward his skilful brain and industrious hand. But until he succeeds 
in combining his ideal of form with the valuable qualities these hybrids possess 
—namely, perfection of habit, freedom of bloom, novelty of colour, compactness, 
and indifference to sun, wind, and rain, we must continue to say that the race 
now before us is “ indispensable in the future of every well-arranged flower 
garden.” Of the sixteen varieties sent out from these nurseries last spring 
there is not one but what has been praised by some who are entitled to be 
heard. As, however, they have been constantly under my eye throughout the 
summer and autumn, it may be interesting to your readers to know the order 
of merit which I have assigned to them in my common-place book :— 
Indian Yellow 
Waltham Seedling 
Orange Nosegay 
Amy Hogg 
Black Dwarf 
Donald Beaton 
Duchess 
Alexandra 
Mrs. Wm. Paul 
Glowworm 
Princess Lichtenstein 
Scarlet Gem 
Magenta Queen 
Salamander 
The remaining two, Fulgens and Pillar of Beauty, I do not recommend for 
bedding-purposes, but for growing under glass, the latter as a climber, they are 
of uncommon merit. Now, in the adjustment offered above it must be borne in 
mind that it is founded on the experience of a single and peculiar season, for 
although these kinds bloomed with me in the summer of 1864, I was then too 
intent on propagating and seeding them to allow them to take their natural de¬ 
velopment. Hence it is just possible that another season’s experience may 
modify their positions. 
It is a fact well known to the florist that when new ground is once broken 
the disposition of succeeding generations to vary is often extraordinary. I 
have found it so with the offspring of Beaton’s hybrid Pelargoniums. Among 
the seedlings which bloomed here for the first time this summer I have found 
not only improvements on the originals in form and colours, for which I was 
