CARNATIONS IN TOWN GARDENS 73 



freely. The Marguerite Carnations certainly make 

 very good pot plants. If a good strain is secured, 

 the flowers will be quite double for the most part. 

 In a batch of seedlings, some of the straggling flowers 

 (if there are any) may be weeded out when potting 

 on the young plants. The seeds may be sown in 

 January for the earliest batch, and any time onwards 

 to the end of April, and a sowing early in August 

 will give good plants for early spring flowering. The 

 seeds may be sown in good loam with a little sand 

 added. The seeds should be sown thinly, otherwise 

 the seedlings will be liable to damp off. The seed 

 pots should be placed in a light position ; if kept 

 moist it will do no harm for the sun to come fully 

 on the pots. They should be potted singly as soon 

 as the seed leaves are well developed. The point is 

 to keep the plants short and sturdy from the start, 

 and for this purpose plenty of light and air is 

 necessary at all times. When potting into larger pots, 

 a liberal addition of manure may be used with the loam 

 and the soil made moderately firm. Liquid manure 

 may be given freely as soon as the flower-buds begin to 

 show. From seed sown in March or April flower- 

 ing plants may be had in about three months. They 

 give a great variety of colours, some of which are 

 very bright, and they have a pleasant, if not a 

 powerful perfume. There is no other class of Carna- 

 tions so easy to cultivate, but I would say again that 

 it is a mistake to class them with the ordinary border 

 or winter flowering Carnations, and I know that 

 many have been disappointed to find they cannot 



