680 



The Weekly Florists' Review, 



MARCH 24, 



In one house was noted a lot of fine 

 young stock of the new chrysanthe- 

 mum, Mrs. O. P. Bassett. These are 

 being grown for the F. R. Pierson Co,, 

 Tarrytown, N. Y,, who are to introfiuce 

 it. It is a yellow sport from Mrs. H, 

 Robinson. 



A house of Adiantum cuneatum that 

 has produced freely for years is no 

 longer giving satisfactory results. The 

 plants do not seem to start good 

 growtli again and the fronds produced 

 are small and without substance. They 

 think the trouI)le is due to the previous 

 close picking of fronds from the plants 

 and will this year throw out the old 

 stock and take a fresh start with new. 



A house of smilax has been very 

 profitable this season. They have cut 

 four crops from the house during the 

 season and all has sold at good figures. 



They are now using coal for fuel en- 

 tirely, having discarded crude oil alto- 



gether. The increase in the price of 

 oil made the coal the most economical. 

 On the place there are seven boilers, 

 two of 150 horse power each, four of 

 lUO horse power each, and one of 75 

 horse power, making a total of 775 

 horse power. Heating is by steam. 



Artesian water is used and it has 

 given perfect satisfaction except that 

 the small amount of lime it contains 

 sometimes spots foliage a little, espe- 

 cially the smilax. 



Perfect apparatus for distributing 

 liquid manure is provided. Cow ma- 

 nure is used mainly. 



An improvement that will be added 

 this season is a long shed in which soil 

 and manure can be stored. 



In marketing their product Messrs. 

 Bassett & Washburn have noted a con- 

 tinued increase in the call for the high- 

 er grades of stock though prices have 

 I averaged more moderate. 



THE EVOLUTION OF THE CAR- 

 NATION. 



It is well once in a while to give a 

 backward glance, for thus we better 

 realize where we are at now. The cul- 

 tivation of the dianthus, of which our 

 present carnat.on is an oftsp.ing, 

 originating in the course of the evolu- 

 tion of this plant specialty, dates back 

 centuries, beyond the resources at our 

 command: it is shrouded in mystery. 



To give an example of the evolution 

 of a plant specialty, I will name one 

 of more recent date, the dahlia. It is 

 only a century ago when the first 

 plants, a single red variety, w re 

 brought from Mexico to Spain, from 

 where it found its way to other parts 

 of Europe. And what has wrought 

 this wonderful change in that genus 

 of p'.ants? (^ulture only. I remember 

 so well when a boy running through 

 the meadows of my native valley, in 

 the black forest mountains of G?r- 

 many, hunting for early spring flow- 

 ers, one of them the common meadow 

 daisy (Bellis perennis). I delighted 

 in transplanting some of these single 

 blooming plants from the meadows in- 

 to the garden and watch the effect on 

 them. Invariably the second year they 

 generally developed into double flow- 

 ers. The blush color in some changed 

 to a deep pink, in others to a pure 

 ■white, all the result of cultivation. 



The dianthus, or common pink, un- 

 derwent the same changes, the cul- 

 tural treatment consisting first of all 

 in an improved mode of cultivation, 

 and next cross fertilization. The cross- 

 ing of the extremes in color, form and 



haliit has wrought the changes in and 

 made our carnation of the present day. 

 An improved higher cultivation is and 

 will be the foundation of all improve- 

 ment. We may make crossings with 

 all possible care, giow seed, but lack 

 in a careful, judic.ous cultivation, and 

 the results will be a going backward, 

 a tendency toward primitive c:ndi- 

 tions and with a more rapid gait than 

 were our forward strides, 



Under a common ordinary culture, 

 seed growing is a much easier matter 

 than under a high culture. All our im- 

 provements in color. s;z? an;i fljwer, 

 ever-b'ooming habit, st cng^r stem, in 

 fact all the requirements of the present 

 time, we have, so to speak, to wring 

 from nature itself. She is rath;r un- 

 willing, and often caTs a halt, as most 

 every grower of new varieties has evi- 

 dence in the imperfection or total ab- 

 sence of one or the other of the sex- 

 ual organs, lefusing to produc; s?ed, 

 and closing the only means of further 

 development. It is onl.v necessary to 

 call attention to the many thousands 

 of seedlings grown every year and 

 point to the very few that in the end 

 will show an improvement over ex- 

 isting varieties, to realize the task of 

 producing new ones. The tendency to 

 return to primitive naturalness is very 

 strong and any lack in cultural treat- 

 ment will promote it. 



When we look back, when we con- 

 sult the history of this genus of plants, 

 as far as it is traceable, we are over- 

 whelmed with the wonderful changes, 

 evolutionary changes, that required 

 centuries to bring about. To all ap- 

 pearances, the color of the primitive 

 variety was a purplish pink, single 

 flower, often found yet among seed- 



lings; and now look at the array of 

 color, and size and fo.m of boom. 

 The change in their habit is even more 

 remarkable: from their short time of 

 blooming, as yet sh.,wn in the garden 

 pink, they have developed into ever 

 bloomers. And I ask again, wliat has 

 wrought these changes? Culture only. 



To come from these backward glan- 

 ces to the present: All the fundamen- 

 tal principles in the evolution of the 

 carnation that have been paramount 

 in the past are still so in th= p.es.nt, 

 and will be the same in the future. If 

 we lack in our improved mode of cul- 

 ture we will go backward; if we do 

 not further improve it, we will stand 

 still. It is not alone the originating 

 of improved new varieties wherein 

 progress is manifest, it is as much the 

 judicious mode of cultu.e to sustain 

 them. Nature may endow a new vari- 

 ety with a larger boom, a stronger 

 stem, and more freedom in blooming, 

 a point so much desired at present, 

 and if one thinks he can tiain such a 

 variety down to an oidinary culture 

 and retain all these qualities, he reck- 

 ons without mother nature. To cut 

 away two pounds of solid growth, con- 

 sisting of stem and blooms, from a va- 

 riety, with only the same allowance of 

 cultural care and nourisliment one 

 will give another variety to grow one 

 pound, is the same thing as when one 

 expects an equal amount of work from 

 a horse only half fed as from one that 

 receives its full quota. 



What is culture but a judicious sup- 

 ply of all the lequirements a plant 

 needs for its fullest development? and 

 one of the foremost of these is the 

 supply of nourishment to the full ex- 

 tent that a plant is able to assimilate. 

 We can never expect a p ant to grow 

 and bloom to its fullest capacity when 

 the elements that enable it to do so 

 are not within its reach. It is amus- 

 ing to remember, when at the begin- 

 ning of the decade, new varieties and 

 larger, better blooms appeared, in- 

 credulous growers attiibuted it solely 

 to a high manuring. They did not 

 then admit a belter c.-ire had its share 

 also. But when the higher manuring 

 (we say now feedinel and better care 

 were improved upon, and became more 

 judiciously and advantageously ap- 

 plied and still better resu ts were ob- 

 tained, they woke up to tlie necessity 

 of following suit or stop growing car- 

 nations. And yet there is up to this 

 date some that cannot make up their 

 Blind to deviate from their mode of 

 cultivation of twenty years ago. 



Our present stage of progress Is 

 not yet understood by many. They 

 cannot comprehend where we are at. 

 We arrive at phases incomprehensible 

 to many. Chief among these is the 

 scant production of suitable regulation 

 cuttings by some of the newer free 

 blooming varieties; even when the 

 production of flowers is not greater in 

 number it is certainly so in size of 

 stem and bloom. The young growth 

 matures earlier, assumes the formation 

 of buds at once, and the result is that 



