432 REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON GENETICS 
THE CARNATION. 
By James Dovenas, V.M.H. 
Lise the auricula this garden favourite is exceedingly variable in its 
character, and not only so, but is constantly reverting to its original 
source, or rather to the single form which may still be found on old 
castles in Normandy (and probably yet lingers in England), where it has 
been found growing with its roots searching for a scanty subsistence 
amongst decaying mortar and humus in small quantities. The gardener 
takes the progeny of this wilding, which has been improved by ages of 
cross-breeding and selection, plants it out in the garden or in flower-pots 
in a mixture of the best loam enriched with manure of various kinds, 
some of it composed of blocd and bones; and even this is not enough, 
the plants are stimulated with manure in the water applied to them, with 
the result that very large flowers are obtained. But the result of over- 
feeding in carnations is the same as over-feeding in men and animals, 
disease attacks the plant sooner or later, and in some cases it is difficult 
to eradicate it. 
How the wild carnation (Dianthus Caryophyllus) has been trained to 
its high state of perfection it is not easy to say. It is not necessary that 
hybridisation should have taken place, indeed it is unlikely. The plant 
may have been introduced to gardens from its native habitat. Cultivation 
would soon produce seedlings of varied forms and colours, some of them 
would have an extra petal or two, and saving seed from these, by a process 
of careful selection, semi-double and double flowers would be produced of 
various colours. ‘This process, as is well known, takes much longer in 
the case of a plant like the carnation than in that of such a fugacious 
flower as the poppy. The Rey. W. Wilks found a variation of the 
common poppy in his garden and with the instinet of a true gardener he 
saved seed from it, and next season the variation was greater, and he set 
himself the task of changing this noxious weed into a beautiful garden 
flower, and the Fellows of this Society know how great has been his 
success. The Shirley Poppies still produce flowers of many beautiful 
colours, but single; this must be because double flowers are not wanted, 
as the Shirley Poppies insist on taking to the double form freely enough 
when double flowers are wanted. This is an excellent illustration of what 
can be accomplished in a few years by one earnest and careful cultivator. 
We might desire to know the name of the gardener who first obtained a 
break in the wild form of the carnation, but that name is lost in remote 
ages. ‘lhe Romans may have brought the carnation into England, as it 
has been suggested that the carnation is not a native of Britain, and that 
it has either been sown or planted where it has been found. How 
botanists arrived at this conclusion Iam unable to say; but even if the 
seed of a double variety was sown, the offspring would soon become single- 
flowered only, as we find a percentage of 10 per cent. of single-flowered 
