DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF NEW PLANTS. 
271 
THE FIRST PELARGONIUM. 
The curious in horticultural matters may find some interest 
in the following scrap : 
“ It appears that the first Pelargonium seen alive in England 
was that called triste, a tuberous-rooted species, which has since 
become scarce. It is thus spoken of by Gerarde in his Herbal , 
‘ There is of late brought into this kingdome, by the industrie of 
Mr. John Tradescant, another more rare, and no lesse beautiful 
than any of the former (Storksbilis), and hee had it by the name 
of Geranium indicum noctu odoratum , this has not as yet beene 
written of by any that I know. I did see it in floure about the 
end of June, 1632, being the first time that it floured with the 
owner thereof.’ ” 
In the next century many were imported from the Cape of 
Good Hope by the Hutch ; and before 1732 six species were 
grown in Slierarde’s garden at Eltham. Linnseus knew 25 
species cultivated in Europe, and he called them Geraniums. 
L’Heritier, in 1787, divided the genus nearly as it now stands. 
In 1812 there were 102 species enumerated in the Hortus 
Kewensis. 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF NEW PLANTS. 
CyrtandracE/E. —-Didynamia Angiospermia. 
Chirita Moonii (Gardner). There have been few of the many 
visitors to the Royal Gardens of Kew, during the season of 1848, 
who have not been struck with the beauty of the present plant, 
as exhibited in our stoves. Two to three feet in height, its 
leaves rather copious, opposite, or verticiMate, of a pale, pleasing 
green, the flowers mostly wliorled, and larger and more delicate, 
and as highly coloured as the largest-flowered Gloxinia; and 
some or other of these plants blossoming throughout the summer. 
The species is a native of Ceylon. Mr. Moon was the discoverer 
of it, at “Four Kories,” and it appears in his ‘Catalogue of 
Ceylon Plants’ under the name of Martynia lanceolata. It exists 
