A collection, consisting of forty varieties of these novel and useful plants, was grown at Chiswick during the past year. They were also, with one or two exceptions indicated below, presented to the garden by Mr William Bull, of Chelsea, and formed one of the features of interest in the garden during the late summer months. Having been received in the spring in the shape of small plants, it was decided to cultivate them in pots under glass, for which purpose these Pelargoniums seem especially useful. They were accordingly grown with much success in moderate-sized pots, and bloomed remarkably well in one of the span-roofed greenhouses, their healthy character reflecting much credit on Mr Barron and his assistants. The accompanying notes indicate the condition as to habit and inflorescence which these plants assumed, and may be regarded as recording as fair a verdict on their respective merits as could be arrived at from the growth of a single individual of each kind. The certified sorts, indicated by asterisks in the subjoined description-list, were the following: -

First-Class Certificates

Marie Lemoine, Madame Lemoine, Victor Lemoine, Gloire de Nancy.

Second-Class Certificates

Sparkhill Beauty, Imperatrice Eugenie, Andrew Henderson, Victor, Wilhelm Pfitzer, Memnon, Le Vesuve, Triomphe de Thumesnil, Triomphe de Lorraine, Signet.

The following is a transcript of notes made at intervals during the following season: -

Albina

Vigorous, with faintly-zoned leaves, the trusses small; the flowers of a deep rose-pink, rather darker in colour than those of Madame Lemoine.

Andrew Henderson**

This variety.is of moderately-vigorous growth, with faintly-zoned leaves, and compact trusses of orange-scarlet flowers very freely produced. It is an ornamental variety well worth growing.

Ascendancy

Moderately vigorous in growth, with faintly-zoned leaves; but too near Gloire de Nancy in the flowers.

Capitaine L'Hermite

A vigorous-growing sort now superseded, with faintly-zoned leaves and loose cerise-scarlet flowers.

Conqueror

A vigorous-growing variety, with green leaves and poor scarlet flowers.

Consul

A vigorous-growing sort, with faintly zonate leaves; the flowers light scarlet, in a loose truss.

Cottington

A dwarf-growing small-leaved bedding variety, with quite the habit and general character of the old Tom Thumb; the flowers scarlet, semi-double, loose, larger than those of Madame Rose Charmeux, and forming large and more showy trusses.

Delight

Dwarf and moderately-vigorous in habit, with indistinctly zonate leaves, and fair trusses of large thin flowers; but too closely resembling those of Gloire de Nancy.

Emile Lemoine

A variety of moderately-vigorous habit, having the leaves marked by an indistinct zone, and the flowers of a cream-colour, ragged, but forming dense trusses An inferior variety.

Emulation

A vigorous-habited green-leaved sort, with indifferent scarlet flowers.

Firebrand

A coarse-habited green-leaved sort, with carmine-scarlet flowers of inferior quality.

Gloire De Nancy***

A handsome and moderately vigorous-growing variety, still retaining a high position in the double class. It has green leaves, and good bold trusses of well-formed, full, double, rosy-carmine flowers. This proves to be also a good bedding plant.

Imperatrice Eugenie **

A variety of remarkably vigorous growth, which, in the case of the Chiswick specimen, scarcely proved itself to be a free bloomer.

The leaves are indistinctly zonate, and the rosy-pink flowers are full, and sufficiently good to render the variety deserving of further trial. It is reported to have been good in other collections.

Latona

A vigorous-growing sort, with green leaves; the flowers of a light scarlet, in small compact trusses.

Le Vesuve**

A vigorous-growing variety, of erect habit, with faintly-zoned leaves and fine trusses of large, well-formed, full, double flowers, of a light orange-scarlet colour. A very promising sort.

Madame Lemoine ***

One of the very best of the varieties in the whole collection. It is dwarfish in habit, with faintly-zoned leaves, and large, full, double, bright, rose-pink flowers, freely produced in good showy trusses.

Madame Rose-Charmeux

A dwarf-growing slender variety, of the habit of the old Tom Thumb, producing numerous small trusses of loose bright scarlet flowers. A bedding variety in the way of Cottington.

Marie Lemoine ***

A variety of first-class excellence. It is of dwarf stocky habit, with flat faintly-zoned leaves and large-sized flowers, forming abundant, bold, and effective trusses. This variety is much like Madame Lemoine in the colour and general aspect of its flowers; but it is of dwarfish habit, distinct in its foliage, and producing better flowers.

Martial De Chamfleur

A variety of moderately vigorous habit with green leaves and thin double scarlet flowers; now quite superseded.

Mary Elizabeth

A dwarf-growing variety, with faintly zonate leaves and rose-pink flowers, paler than, but not equal in merit to, those of Madame Lemoine.

Memnon **

This is a meritorious variety of moderately vigorous growth, with faintly zoned leaves; the trusses are of fair size and compact, consisting of close well-formed light scarlet flowers. Distinct and promising.

Monsieur E. G. Henderson

A dwarf-habited variety; the leaves with an indistinct zone; the truss good, bearing large flowers, but too near in colour to Gloire de Nancy.

National

Vigorous in growth, with faintly zonate leaves and good double flowers in close trusses, but in colour too much resembling those of Gloire de Nancy.

Navarino

Of dwarf habit, with indistinctly zonate foliage; the trusses apparently small, and the flowers rosy carmine, rough. A very inferior form of Gloire de Nancy.

Review

A rather vigorous and straggling growing sort, with the leaves green, and the flowers of a light scarlet colour, growing in small trusses.

Rosetta

Of vigorous growth, with green leaves and small trusses of scarlet flowers, which are rather deeper tinted than in other scarlet-flowered varieties; but they are too narrow-petaled and ragged.

Signet**

A rather desirable variety, of moderately vigorous growth, with the leaves densely zonate, the trusses well filled, and the colour a rosy carmine, in the way of Emile Lemoine; but the individual flowers are of better form.

Sparkhill Beauty**

This variety is of moderately vigorous growth, with faintly-zoned leaves and close trusses of bright rose-pink flowers, very much resembling those of Madame Lemoine; superior to that sort as regards smoothness of petal; but, taking other points into consideration, the preference must be given to Madame Lemoine.

Splendour

A coarse-habited tall-growing sort, with green leaves, and scarlet flowers in loose trusses.

Sunshine

Of vigorous growth, with the leaves green, the flowers deep rose-coloured.

Surpasse Gloire De Nancy

A variety of moderately vigorous habit, with green leaves; the flowers too nearly resembling those of Gloire de Nancy, but not equal to that variety either in truss or in the quality of the individual blossoms.

Tom Pouce Cerise

A dwarfish-growing variety, with faintly zonate leaves and compact trusses of pale cerise-scarlet flowers.

Tom Pouce Rose

A dwarf-growing variety, with faintly zoned leaves and dense habit; the flowers are of a rosy pink, loose and rough, and by no means equal in quality to those of Marie Lemoine.

Triumph

Coarse-growing, with faintly zonate leaves, and large loose flowers of an orange-scarlet colour, similar in tint to those of Le Vesuve, but of inferior quality.

Triomphe De Lorraine**

A variety of some merit, being of moderate growth, with faintly zonate leaves and close trusses of carmine-scarlet flowers, of the same colour as those of Emile Lemoine.

Triomphe De Thumesnil**

A vigorous-habited sort of some merit: the leaves are green, not zoned; while the flowers, which are scarlet with a faint tinge of cerise, are large and full.

Troubadour

A tall coarse-growing variety, with indistinct zones and poor trusses of light-scarlet flowers.

Victor

A coarse-growing sort, with faintly zonate leaves and orange-scarlet flowers in good-sized trusses, but not equal to Le Vesuve.

Victor (G. Smith)**

Dwarf and free-blooming in habit, with the leaves faintly zoned and the scarlet flowers in compact trusses. The flowers are of the same colour as those of Wilhelm Pfitzer, and closely resemble those of that variety, but the foliage is smaller. A variety well worth growing. Received from Mr G. Smith.

Victor Lemoine***

One of the finest of the varieties in the whole collection. The plant is of a rather vigorous habit of growth; the leaves are marked with an indistinct zone and the flower-trusses are larger. The flowers themselves are somewhat rough, having serrated petals; but they form a fine head, and are of a rich orange-scarlet, brighter than Le Vesuve.

Vivian

A variety closely resembling Gloire de Nancy in every respect, but scarcely equal to it in merit; the leaves are very indistinctly zonate.

Wilhelm Pfitzer**

One of the useful second-class sorts, of moderately vigorous growth, with indistinctly zonate leaves, and fair-sized trusses of good full flowers of a light-scarlet colour. Received from Messrs Carter & Co.

Zelinda

Dwarf in habit, with indistinctly zonate leaves. The flowers are small and poor, scarlet, resembling those of Triomphe de Thumesnil, but not so freely produced. - 'Proceedings of the Royal Horticultural Society.'