The Ideal Carnation 



tribute to an ideal carnation. Mr. Glenny said : "As there is nothing more 

 essential to the improvement of flowers than a knowledge of what would 

 constitute perfection, it may be acceptable if we give a slight sketch of the 

 principal features desirable in some of the more popular of our ornamental 

 plants and florists' flowers, that those who raise from seed may be aware of 

 the points most esteemed when they select for future cultivation. The claims 

 which seem more or less to predominate are: First, Perfume; desirable in 

 everything, whether gay or otherwise; witness the violet, mignonette, pink, 

 stock, carnation, wallflower, sweet pea and heliotrope among flowers ; and the 

 rose, thorn, sweetbrier, honeysuckle, magnolia, clematis, etc., among shrubs. 

 Second, Continuous Blooming; even without perfume, as in the scarlet 

 geranium, verbena, china rose, dahlia, convolvulus, heliotrope, calceolaria, etc. 

 Third, Elegance of Habit in the Plant, as in the fuchsia, and in most 

 evergreens, especially the holly, box, laurel, and nearly all the coniferae. 

 Fourth, Splendor of the Flower; as in the camellia, pelargonium, erica, 

 azalea, rhododendron, ranunculus, anemone, etc. All these points are desir- 

 able, and although some subjects may possess only one of these in an ele- 

 mental degree, there are others which possess more than one, though perhaps 

 not so desirable as some others may possess the individual properties." 



In discussing this question, Air. Glenny, referring to the tulip, remarks as 

 follows : "As regards individual properties and qualities, perhaps no flower 

 has caused more discussion than the tulip. The form alone has occupied the 

 attention of many who have endeavored to upset those laws which were laid 

 down in 1832, but which stand to this day as the only standard in spite of all 

 that has been w^ritten to the contrary from that time to the present day." 



In the same magazine, descriptions and cuts of perfect picotees as well as 

 perfect carnations are given, with reproductions of the varieties of these re- 

 spective flowers which growers had been able to make approach most closely 

 the arbitrary ideal outlined. A reference to Figs, i and 2 will give the 

 reader a good conception of the ideal which the carnation grower of 1850 

 was seeking to produce among picotees. Fig. i was described as the Mrs. 

 Norman, a heavy edged picotee, raised by N. Norman, a well-known culti- 

 vator, of Woolwich, and was raised from seed saved from Headley's King 

 James fertilized with pollen of Ely's Emperor, both heavy, red edged flowers. 

 Comparing the two cuts, the modern carnation grower will be at once im- 

 pressed with a stifif, wooden-like appearance of the illustration denoting the 

 perfect picotee. Again referring to Figs. 3 and 4, we have what at that day 

 was laid down as the proper dimensions of a perfect carnation, and also one 

 of the best examples of the bloom that nearest approximated the ideal of that 



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