HORTIOITLTURAL DIVISION. 843 



HARDY CARNATIONS. 



There is comparatively little known in this country about hardy or 

 what the English call border carnations. The energy of American car- 

 nation growers has been directed almost entirely to the winter or house 

 type. This winter or forcing type is a modern evolution from the 

 hardy carnation, and there seems to be no reason why the two types 

 should not succeed equally well in this country. Gardeners of foreign 

 birth usually dismiss the hardy carnations by saying that our climate is 

 too hot and dry for them. While there may be much truth in this 

 position, it is also true that many and perhaps all of the border varieties 

 can be grown here with little trouble. Some persons have grown them 

 with perfect satisfaction for years, and visitors to the World's fair in early 

 August must have noticed a glowing bed of them upon the wooded islaad. 



In order to detei'mine if these plants can be successfully grown with 

 only ordinary care, such as any person can give, we secured seeds, in 

 the spring of 1892, of the following strains: Early Margaret, Self 

 Colored, Early Dwarf, Mixed Vienna, Red Grenadine, Splendid Rose- 

 leaved, PicotfC and some others. These were sown in boxes in the 

 greenhouse on the 8th of March, but they might just as well have been 

 sown out of doors when the season opened. The plants were set in the 

 field as the season advanced. A few of them bloomed in the fall. 

 They were allowed to go through the winter wholly unprotected, 

 although they grew upon bald hill-top; and the last winter was severe 

 at Ithaca. They all wintered well, and they began to bloom about the 

 middle of June and gave an uninterrupted display of bright colored and 

 interesting forms until late in August. Although the lot was a mixed 

 one, having come from seeds, all the varieties were interesting, particu- 

 larly the single flowers. If any one strain were more pleasing than 

 another, it was probably the Vienna, which bore single and semi-double 

 little flowers of very pure and dainty colors, ranging from ivory-white 

 to rose-red. Some of the plants had been taken up in the fall and 

 removed to the house for winter bloom, and here, too, the Vienna was 

 very pleasing. These hardy tjarnations will live on from year to year, 

 although so good results cannot be expected from the subsequent sea- 

 sons of bloom, and it is best to raise new plants from seeds. 



SHED FOR STRATIFIED SEEDS. 



Seeds of fruits and nuts and many hardy herbs usually germinate 

 best when placed in moist soil and subjected to frost. It is the practice 

 of gardeners to place such seeds in boxes between layers of sand, and 



