104 CARNATIONS AND PINKS 



some flowers of medium size, the petals notched, and 

 white with centre of crimson-claret colouring, and 

 it does not split so badly as some varieties. John 

 Ball, Mrs. Darke, and Modesty may also be chosen. 

 These five will probably satisfy the beginner, as 

 having a certain refinement of growth and colouring 

 and not the unruly stems of Boiard, Empress of 

 India, and the majority of this section. 



The most elementary forms of the single Carnation 

 of the present day have a disc of colour more or 

 less dark round the eye of the flower. It is reason- 

 able to suppose that in the remote past some of the 

 colour of the centre appeared on the petal margins, 

 faintly and imperfectly at first, but suggesting to the 

 raisers of those days the possibility of continuing the 

 colour on the petal edges, so as to secure what is 

 known as " lacing." How long the period occupied 

 in developing this characteristic is not known, but 

 it is certain that about the year 1770 a grower named 

 Major produced in the south of England a Pink with 

 the petals laced in a more highly developed form 

 than had been previously known. It had the name 

 of Lady Stoverdale, and efforts were made to develop 

 this characteristic of lacing, until it became a con- 

 spicuous feature of the Pink. The laced Pinks of 

 to-day have no doubt been derived from Major's 

 Lady Stoverdale of 130 years ago, but led on year 

 by year until it has culminated in the perfect lacing 

 seen in the Rector, Duke of York, James Thurstan, 

 and others. 



