  Bimodal globular cluster metallicity distributions have now been seen in a
handful of large ellipticals. Here we report the discovery of a bimodal
distribution in the dominant group elliptical NGC 5846, using the Hubble Space
Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). The two peaks are
located at V-I = 0.96 and 1.17, which roughly correspond to metallicities of
[Fe/H] = -1.2 and -0.2 respectively. The luminosity functions of the blue and
red subpopulations appear to be the same, indicating that luminosity does not
correlate with metallicity within an individual galaxy's globular cluster
system. Our WFPC2 data cover three pointings allowing us to examine the spatial
distribution of globular clusters out to 30 kpc (or 2.5 galaxy effective
radii). We find a power law surface density with a very flat slope, and a
tendency for globular clusters to align close to the galaxy minor axis. An
extrapolation of the surface density profile, out to 50 kpc, gives a specific
frequency S_N = 4.3 +/- 1.1. Thus NGC 5846 has a much lower specific frequency
than other dominant ellipticals in clusters but is similar to those in groups.
The central galaxy regions reveal some filamentary dust features, presumably
from a past merger or accretion of a gas-rich galaxy. This dust reaches to the
very nucleus and so provides an obvious source of fuel for the radio core. We
have searched for proto-globular clusters that may have resulted from the
merger/accretion and find none. Finally, we briefly discuss the implications of
our results for globular cluster formation mechanisms.
