DIANTHUS. 
187 
DIANTHUS. 
as though a part of it were bitten ‘little frost will not hurt them. 
off at this day. 
About the middle of November, the 
Dia'nra@us.—Caryophylldcee, or | plants should be removed to a green- 
Silendcee.—A genus of perennial 
| house, or shed, where they should 
and herbaceous plants, containing | be kept entirely in the shade, mere- 
several beautiful and well-known 
flowers. ‘The most popular perhaps 
of these is the Carnation (Dianthus 
Caryophy'llus), which is occasion- 
ally found in a wild state in Britain 
on oJd walls, particularly on the 
ruins of Rochester Castle, &c. In 
a cultivated state, the Clove Carna- 
tion may be called the breeder, or 
normal form, as it bears about the 
same relation to the variegated Car- 
nations as the self-coloured Tulips 
and Auriculas do to the named 
varieties of those plants. The 
varieties of Carnations are divided 
into three kinds: the Flakes, which 
are striped with broad bands of two 
colours; the Bizarres, which are 
striped or streaked, with three 
colours ; and the Picotees, which are 
much the hardiest, and only border- 
ed with a narrow margin of some 
dark colour, or dotted with very 
small, and almost imperceptible 
spots. Carnations should be grown 
in a rich loam, mixed with sand or 
peat to keep it open, and a little 
rotten cow dung, or vegetable mould 
to enrich it. They do best in pots, 
and the earth should be pressed into 
the pots as firmly as possible ; more 
so, indeed, than for any other plant. 
The plants raised from layers should 
be separated from the parent in 
August, and they may be potted 
three in a five inch pot. The pots 
should be well draimed, and the 
plants frequently watered, till about 
the middle of October, when the 
watering should be gradually de- 
creased. The layers, when first 
potted, may be kept :n the open air; 
shading them, for a few days after 
potting, from the san; and putting 
a band-slass over them, if there 
should be apprehenried any danger 
ef severe frost at night, though a 
ly protected from the frost, as they 
will bear a considerable degree of 
cold much better than too much 
heat. Here they may remain till 
March or April, according to the 
season, when they should be repot- 
ted, and, after a few days, turned 
into the open air. In May they 
may be either planted out in beds, 
or remove to larger pots for flow- 
ering, which they will do in June 
and July. When the buds have 
formed, the plants should be well 
watered morning and evening ; and, 
in the evening, they should be syr- 
inged over the leaves, always wait- 
ing till the sun has gone down. The 
principal points of beauty in a Car- 
nation are, that the stem should be 
strong and erect, the calyx well 
and regularly opened, the flower 
round, with the petals regularly 
disposed, the largest on the outside, 
and gradually decreasing in size to 
the centre, and the colours clear 
and distinct, those with a white 
ground being preferred. The stripes 
should also be broadest at the mar- 
gin of each petal. As the calyx of 
the Carnation is very apt to burst 
on one side before it opens on the 
other, and as this spoils the shape 
of the flower, many cultivators gent- 
ly divide the sepals with a pin, as 
soon as the buds are fully swelled ; 
and others slip a round piece of 
card-board, with a hole in the centre, 
over the bud while it is yet quite 
small, and push it up over the calyx, 
so as to force it to open first at the 
top. This piece of pasteboard is 
kept on after the expansion of the 
flower, and serves to keep the petals 
in their proper places. Others tie a 
strip of bastmat round the lower 
part of the buds, to prevent them 
from opening improperly. The 
