THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



icals up to our own day, when I began to insist that all flowers 

 should be drawn as they are. The artist should never be influenced 

 by any *' rules " or " ideals " whatever, but be allowed to draw what 

 he sees. This all conscientious artists expect, and it is the barest 

 justice. If we raise new forms, or what we consider "perfect" 

 flowers, let the artist see them as they are, and draw them as he sees 

 them, without the confusion of drawing impossible hybrids between 

 what he sees and what he is told is perfection in a flower. It was 

 the want of this artistic honesty which has left us so worthless 

 a record in illustrated journals of the century, where the artist was 

 always told to keep to the florist's " ideal " as to what the flower 

 should be, and hence the number of plates of flowers of many kinds, 

 all " drawn " with the compass. Behind the florists' plates of this 

 century we have the pictures of the Dutch flower-painters contain- 

 ing fine Carnations, well grown and admirably drawn after nature. 

 These artists were not confused by any false ideal to which they 

 were to make the flower approach, and so we have a true record of 

 what the Carnation was 200 years ago. In these pictures we 

 generally see the finer striped and flaked kinds given the first place, 

 which is natural, as such varieties are apt to strike people the most ; 

 and in those days little consideration had yet been given to the 

 question of effect in open gardens, but in our own day this question 

 has been forced upon us in very unpleasant ways by masses of crudely 

 arranged, and not always pretty flowers. One of the aids in effect is 

 the Carnation in its pure and lovely colours — colours which no other 

 flowers possess. It would be a pity to use these lovely colours only 

 for " button-holes " and for the house, when they may afford us such 

 welcome colour in our summer and autumn gardens, in the days when 

 people see and enjoy their gardens most. 



Hitherto the effect of the Carnation in masses has been mostly 

 judged of from the Clove Carnation, but fine as this is, it is not so 

 good as other varieties which are better, stronger, flower longer, and 

 are finer in form, such as " Murillo," " Carolus Duran," ' Comte de 

 Melbourne," " Frangois Lacharme," " Madame Roland," " Paix 

 d'Amiens," " Marquis de Dampierre," " Mdlle. Rouselle," " Alice, Aline 

 Newmann," "Countess of Paris," and "George Maquay." These represent 

 the Carnation of our own day in its finest form, perfectly hardy, if 

 layered in the summer, and planted early. Rooting well before winter 

 in easy and bold groups, they afford pretty effects of colour from 

 foliage alone, and even in winter time adorn the garden. Some 

 varieties are very continuous in bloom, like the " Countess of Paris," 

 and these should be added to as time goes on. 



Over a very large area of the United Kingdom Carnation culture 

 may be carried out well, and perhaps most successfully near the sea. 



