434 REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON GENETICS. 
margin of colour round each petal. The prevailing colours are rose, red, 
or purple, of various shades, and a perfect picotee should have no spots or 
colour on the petals, except the fine line, or broader margin of colour. 
The white ground varieties have been brought to a higher state of 
perfection than the yellow grounds. 
The border carnation is again subdivided into self colours and what 
are termed fancies ; the last named have yellow, white, or buff grounds, 
marked and striped, of various colours—purple, rose, lilac, crimson, scarlet, 
&e. There are also the flakes and bizarres, the well-known types grown 
principally for exhibition purposes, and exhibited on white cards to show 
off better the flakes and stripes. The florists take advantage of this to 
dress out the petals with tweezers and pull out those that do not show 
the correct colours. 
The tree or perpetual flowering varieties are so named because they 
produce growths from the main stem, which in their turn produce flowers 
in summer and winter. 
The Malmaisons are a distinct class, and like the perpetual flowering 
varieties do best in a glass structure: they are known by their immensely 
large flowers, and many remarkably beautiful varieties have been produced 
by cross-fertilisation during the past fifteen years. We are indebted to 
Mr. Martin Smith, V.M.H., for producing many beautiful varieties, taking 
the pollen obtained from the blush and pink Malmaisons, and using it on 
the flowers of the best border varieties. 
Cross-fertilisation is necessary to obtain good results. You obtain a 
carnation of a vigorous habit, of medium height; the flowers holding 
their heads erect and a flower with a non-bursting calyx, the stigmatic 
part of the flower rises from the centre in the form of two horn-lke 
processes. ‘The pollen is found in the form of a yellow powder attached 
to the anthers ; it must be sought for amongst the petals, and be conveyed 
with a fine camel’s-hair brush to the stigma of the seed-bearing parent. 
At present not much has been done in the way of hybridising the 
carnation, but it may be hybridised with any species of Dianthus. Mr. 
Percy Williams produced a useful garden plant by applying the pollen of 
the common Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) to the stigma of a crimson 
coloured carnation, and produced a very double flower like a carnation 
with the foliage of a Sweet William. It is grown in gardens as Dianthus 
‘Lady Dixon.’ 
a 
