76 CARNATIONS AND PINKS 



Soutli of France, where the culture is extensive and 

 well done, but the varieties are poor, splashed or 

 striped, and wanting in colour, and most of the 

 flowers ' bursters ' of the worst description. In those 

 same places it is reasonable to assume our American 

 Carnations should succeed well. 



" In England it is doubtful if they will ever show 

 their full beauty and freedom, owing to the absence 

 of sunshine in winter. At the Royal Horticultural 

 Society's Hall in February of last year I saw exhibited 

 there flowers of three of our Carnations, * Mrs. T. W. 

 Lawson,' * Maceo,' and ' The Queen,' and it is no 

 exaggeration to say that I would not have recognised 

 them except for their labels, although I grow all three. 

 The flowers shown there would not have been 

 accepted as a gift by even the street flower-sellers 

 of New York. This fact is not mentioned in a 

 derogatory sense, but to show the effects of condition 

 and environment. We can do nothing here with 

 English Malmaisons, nor with the grand outdoor 

 varieties, and similarly our Carnations raised and 

 grown continuously beneath bright winter skies make 

 a sorry display under the adverse conditions of the 

 English climate in winter. 



" The varieties favoured here are selfs of clear and 

 distinct colours, from white through shades of pink 

 to rose, red, and dark crimson. They must have good 

 stems from eighteen inches to thirty inches in length, 

 and no toleration is shown to bursters. A variety that 

 bursts its calyx is useless for the cut-flower market. 

 Great improvements have been made in our Carnations 



