August 27, 1892. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
817 
MY HOLIDAY ON THE 
CONTINENT. 
(Concluded from page 802 .) 
My next visit was to Messrs. Haage & Schmidt, 
who, in addition to a large seed growing garden, have 
a great deal of glass, and grow probably the largest 
collection cf Cactus in the world. I asked to be ad¬ 
mitted, and an English gardener was at once sent 
round with me. Passing through Fern houses, and 
Palm and Caladium houses, I was much struck with 
a plant growing on a brick wall, which proved to be 
Pothos celatocaulis I found that it had its root on 
a piece of wood like an Orchid, and climbed against 
the wall, the leaves lapping over one another like 
tiles on a roof, and lying against it as flat as if glued 
there. It is a self-attaching climber. The Cactus 
were growing in the open in frames or in high lean- 
tos out of which the glass had been taken. There 
was one stem of Cereus validus at least 16 feet long. 
Avery fine collection of the hedgehog sort, the old 
man varieties of Mamillaria and Pilocereus, some 
fine Bishops’ Hats (Astrophytum), in fact, a very fine 
and remarkable collection. Nothing seems to come 
amiss to Messrs. Haage & Schmidt ; there is hardly 
a plant known that they do not grow. 
Half way through the houses a gentleman joined 
us whom I afterwards, when at the Cactus frames, 
found to be Mr. Smith himself ; and from this point 
he alone took me over the establishment. Never 
have I had before such an intellectual gardening 
treat. He spoke English most fluently, and had that 
rare charm of being able to impart knowledge in the 
most modest way. He showed me the aquatic 
plants; and here I found growing in ordinary frames, 
cemented so as to hold the water, specimens of all 
kinds small and great. 1 will only mention two : 
Victoria Regia, which had been in bloom the week 
before, and the leaf of which was 3 ft. 10 in. across, 
and Euryale ferox, with a leaf of about the same size. 
After this we shall be having advertised, “ Every 
man his own Kew Garden. Victoria Regia frames 
for villa residences, price complete, /q. Apply, etc.” 
From the frames we went into the annual gardens or 
fields, and had a look at some of the Asters, which 
were just commencing to bloom (August 10th). 
I was much pleased with a bed of Iceland Poppies 
of three colours, many of the flowers being double. 
I understood that the orange coloured plants throw 
the most double seed, but that not above 40 per cent, 
can be relied on for double flowers. Messrs. Haage 
& Schmidt publish a catalogue containing upwards 
of 11,700 different kinds of seeds. It is indeed a 
work of reference. It is stated that Luther, who 
was a fervent botanist, used to devote his time when 
at Erfurt first to prayer, and after to the study of 
the then catalogue of the ancestors of Messrs. Haage 
& Schmidt. Anyhow the young German gardeners 
now always obtain a copy of the catalogue as a text 
book of the names of flowers. 
Before leaving Erfurt I went over the gardens of 
Mr. J. C. Schmidt, who is known throughout 
Germany for his cut flowers. Here I found ever¬ 
lasting flowers laid out on tables to dry in the sun. 
A very fine lot of Palm houses containing excellent 
plants of Cycas, the leases of which are used singly 
at funerals having a small bouquet attached to the 
end. I was told that there were some 2,000 large 
Cycas plants in the houses, and about 3,000 small 
ones. In the large Palm house was a fine specimen 
of Nicotiana colossea, grown from a cutting last 
year. It had just done flowering and must have 
been 16 ft. high, with a stalk 3 in. thick. Here they 
were growing a large number of Cucumbers, Prescott 
Wonder being the chief favourite in Germany. 
In the gardens there were a great many of the 
Japanese climbing Cucumber, which seemed to be 
very prolific. They were grown on three poles placed 
in a pyramid. I understand that this was the 
greatest success of all the novelties of last year. Mr. 
N. Schmidt is a large Rose grower also, having about 
100 acres of Roses and Briers. There are probably 
some fifty other establishments at Erfurt, of whom I 
know Messrs. Heinemann and Mr. Lorenz publish 
English catalogues, but I had not time to pay any 
further visits. I may say that the Begonias I saw in 
all the houses were very poor indeed by the side of 
what we grow at home, and the Gloxinias on the con¬ 
trary were very fine. 
Nancy. 
From Erfurt I travelled to Nancy to see what Mr. 
Lemoine had to show. His garden is small but very 
prolific. I noted a fine bed of Ceanothus, some thii ty 
varieties, some flowering, but mostly past ; a very 
fine collection of Fuchsias in potsoutside ; and a very 
good bed of Begonia Layfayette and another of Ful- 
gens, both of which do well in the hot sun. The 
Gladioli were just coming nicely into bloom, and 
were a sight quite worth the visit, all colours and 
hues, and the same may be said of the perennial 
Phloxes, which were just in their prime. The Pelar¬ 
goniums, for which the house is so famed, were 
mostly over, but from the remains one could see that 
great and special attention had been given to the 
plants. I noticed a fine border of Heliotrope, of all 
colours, growing about 3 ft. 6 in. high. It appears 
to be not quite so sweet-scented as the ordinary kind, 
and was obtained, Mr. Lemoine told me, by cross¬ 
ing the ordinary Heliotrope with the Peruvian.— 
J. C. Stogdon. 
--j.- 
PELARGONIUMS. 
The original confusion of the two genera, Geranium 
and Pelargonium was due to the great Linnaeus him¬ 
self, who failed to see that the distinctions were suffi¬ 
cient for the creation of separate genera. Succeed¬ 
ing botanists, even in the early numbers of the 
Botanical Magazine described Pelargoniums under the 
name of Geraniums ; and your correspondent, "A.D.", 
at p. 801, knows probably as well as most of us do 
that when once a garden plant gets distributed 
under a name, whether erroneous or otherwise, it is 
almost'impossible to correct a wrong one, especially 
after it has become familiarised with gardeners and 
the people generally. Probably relatively few of the 
public who speak of Geraniums when it means 
Pelargoniums would recognise a plant of the former 
if they saw it. 
A Geranium has regular flowers, and ten perfect 
stamens, while a Pelargonium has irregular flowers, 
five to seven perfect stamens, and a nectary or tube 
running down the side of the pedicel of every flower. 
There are other important distinctions, but the above 
should serve at a glance to put the public in the right 
track if at all observant. Florists have indeed 
altered the flowers by making them regular and as 
round as a shilling, but the other characters remain 
the same. Both genera belong to different groups of 
the same family. The confusion of common names, 
spoken of by “A. D .", is augmented when to the above 
an intermediate genus is added, namely, the Heron’s 
Bill (Erodium), which has five perfect stamens, and 
the flowers of some species slightly irregular. 
The Ivy-leaved Pelargoniums were derived from 
P. peltatum, a name applied by botanists owing to 
the stalk being inserted on the back of the leaf not 
at its base. The popular name of Ivy-leaved had 
evidently been applied after the plants were getting 
common in cultivation. It would be difficult to say 
with certainty how many species were used in the 
creation of the so-called zonal race, but it is pretty 
much within the truth to say that P. zonale and P. 
inquinans were largely used, the former giving rise 
to the characteristic horse-shoe shaped zone on the 
leaves, and the latter to those without any zone at 
all. Then again there are varieties in which the 
zone is very feebly displayed, a fact that creates no 
surprise seeing how great the intercrossing has been. 
The golden and silver tricolors, the bronzes, the 
bicolors and the golden leaved varieties all belong 
to the zonal group and have been selected on account 
of this variation of colour in the leaves. It would 
be rash to state that no others but P. zonale and P. 
inquinans have been used in the parentage of the 
above medley group, but with the hundreds of 
hybridists that must have been busy with the 
Pelargoniums in the early days of their introduction, 
it is to be feared that the pedigrees of the progeny 
must now be largely scattered to the winds on the 
death of the hybridists themselves. 
The large show and fancy Pelargoniums, some¬ 
times termed French or stage Pelargoniums, were 
derived from P. cucullatum. The so-called regal or 
decorative varieties, as well as the double or semi¬ 
double varieties, are also of this strain. Old- 
fashioned things like Rollison’s Unique must not be 
overlooked, as they were entirely different and re¬ 
called the appearance of the Oak-leaved Pelargonium 
quercifolium, which might have been one of the 
parents. The creeping stemmed and silver leaved 
Manglesi and the variegated Duke of Edinburgh, 
speaking from memory, have affinity with the Ivy¬ 
leaved section, which is now itself getting more or 
less mixed with other types. Several other species 
are grown entirely for the sake of their agreeably 
scented foliage, and they do not appear to have been 
altered from the originals in any way. They include 
P. Radula, P. denticulatum, P. tomenlosum. P. 
fragrans, and others ; but the above are the most 
common, and some of them are largely grown for 
market purposes. 
As I have already stated, Geraniums and Pelar¬ 
goniums belong to different tribes of the same family, 
and so do Tropaeolums, Balsams, and Oxalis.— F. 
-—- 
BEGONIAS AT BEXLEY 
HEATH. 
There is now a fine display of tuberous Begonias at 
the Begonia Nursery, Crook Lodge, Bexley Heath, 
where Mr. T. S. Ware grows the bulk of his stock. 
Ihere are three houses filled with large plants, in 
which the display is now a gorgeous one. Several other 
houses are filled with young plants, either seedlings 
or cuttings in various stages of development, and in 
the grounds around the houses are small seedlings 
planted out wherever a small piece of ground can be 
had. A short distance away is a piece of 
nursery ground consisting of heavy yellow loam, the 
greater part of which is planted with Begonia seed¬ 
lings sown in January and planted out in June In 
this place alone are 200,000 seedlings in beds about 
100 ft. long, about two or three beds of each colour 
being planted. The season not having been favour¬ 
able to the growth of seedlings, they are not very 
large, but many fine varieties both single and double 
may be detected in the beds. A fine strain of bronzy 
yellow kinds have been raised as the result of cross¬ 
ing. Altogether the strain is a fine one. 
In front of Crook Lodge are some charming little 
beds of double varieties very suitable for the purpose, 
including the Marquis of Stafford, doublerosy scarlet, 
of small size and Miss French, a very fioriferous 
creamy white variety with larger flowers. In one of 
the houses is a set of varieties with salmon, sulphur 
and white flowers suitable for basket work. 
Single Varieties. 
The named varieties are of course all in the houses, 
and a charming display the single ones make. 
The purest white perhaps is Purity, but Bexley White 
is perhaps a finer thing with large flowers and broad 
leaves. Goliath is suffused with orange on yellow 
and is darker in the centre. A fine blush white is 
Pride of Bexley. A clear bright yellow is Velleda, 
with broad foliage, and the latter is also characteristic 
of Devonia, with orbicular yellow flowers tinted with 
bronze. The finest orange we noted was Perfection, 
with bright uniform orange, orbicular flowers. A 
bright scarlet is Superba, and Challenger has maroon 
crimson flowers deepest in bud. On the contrary 
Dean Swift has soft scarlet-red flowers. A dwarf 
sort is Crimson Bedder, about 12 in. high with medium 
sized crimson scarlet flowers. 
A very choice thing in its way is a large bright 
yellow flowered variety named Sovereign, with large 
huge leaves veined with silvery lines like an Anthu- 
rium. On the other hand Shelly is suitable for basket 
work, having deep red, white-centred flowers droop¬ 
ing on long stalks. Very distinct also is Bicolor, a 
sulphur variety with a rose edge. Grandiflora has 
large, deep scarlet flowers, produced on stems about 
six inches high. A pretty variety is Novelty, with 
carmine flowers and a white centre. The quantity 
of flowers produced by the bright scarlet Aurora is 
wonderful. Angola is also fioriferous with somewhat 
drooping deep pink flowers. The bright j'ellow 
blooms of Felicia are borne in drooping cymes and 
in quantity. Very choice is Sunset, with the flowers 
scarlet externally and orange internally. Distinction 
is in the way of Novelty, with carmine flowers and a 
small white centre. 
Doubles. 
The double varieties are also very numerous, and the 
most of the finest are collected together in one house, 
but others in great numbers are to be seen in several 
of the houses in all stages of growth, both seedlings 
and cuttings. A large quantity of Duchess of Teck 
is conspicuous in one of the houses by its large 
primrose flowers, bronzy stems, and dark green 
leaves. They were raised from cuttings last year 
and are now approaching their best condition. The 
Duke of Teck has bright scarlet flowers of great 
depth with broad guards, and is considered by Mr. 
Ware as the finest double in cultivation. A soft 
primrose variety with broad sepals is Baronne de 
