34 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ February, 
shaped and funnel-shaped, with a limb of five rounded spreading lobes ; they 
are often described as solitary in the leaf-axils, but in vigorous specimens they 
grow in pairs, as in the figure, and they are produced abundantly towards the 
latter part of the summer. The other species referred to above, G. Pedicularia , 
is a plant of smaller but of more branching growth, with much more deeply-cut 
leaves, and having smaller and less abundant flowers, varying in colour from 
citron-yellow to deep yellow. 
The seeds should be sown in a cold frame, or if deferred till summer, in 
a sheltered seed-bed out-of-doors. As the American authorities give wet woods 
as the habitat of G. quercifolia , and Mr. Robinson found it in spongy ground 
above the Falls of Niagara, it seems probable that the plant requires to be grown 
—as so many other American plants do—in damp, boggy ground ; and this may 
be the explanation of the non-success of our cultivators when it was introduced 
before—some fifty years ago.—T. M. 
ON CROSS-BREEDING PELARGONIUMS.—No. II. 
ETWEEN the process of fertilization and the ripening of the seed, all that 
is necessary is to give the mother-plant room, air, and sunshine, and a 
fair supply of water, for if permitted to suffer too severely from drought, 
the fertilized pip, lihe the foliage, will turn yellow and fall. 
As soon as the seed has ripened, and shows symptons of a desire to take wing 
and be off, pick it, and enclose it in one of the pieces of demy paper; pencil the 
corresponding number of the tally attached to the stalk of the truss upon it, 
and at once deposit it in a tin-box, with a close-fitting hinged lid, which box 
should be kept in a dry, cool position, as exposure of the seed to the sun’s rays or 
heat after it has been gathered will render it slow to germinate, and cause dis¬ 
appointment, by the irregular manner in which and the lengthened period before 
it makes its appearance above ground. 
In proceeding to plant the seed, Note-book No. 2 comes into requisition, into 
which I first enter “ a number ” and the date of planting ; next, the number of 
the tally of the seed I am about to plant, also stating the name of the plant it 
came off, and of the plant it was fertilized by. I prefer planting the seed round 
and pretty close to the edge of a 48-sized pot, into which I first place plenty of 
drainage, then fill two-thirds full with my ordinary compost (see 1871, page 221), 
the remaining third I fill in with a compost consisting of one-third of the above, 
one-third peat, and one-third silver sand (well mixed and finely sifted), pressing 
it evenly and tolerably firmly down. Next, taking each seed separately in my 
forceps, I insert them to about the depth of a quarter of an inch into the mould, 
leaving the feather of the seed out; ten seeds will just go round, leaving a fair 
distance between each seed. I then take a wooden label and pencil on one 
side of it the number of the entry in book No. 2, and on the other the number 
of the tally from the paper in which the seed had been enclosed. 
I plant the seed at three periods of the year, viz., the middle of August, the 
