HYBRIDS AND CROSSES. 81 



merits and demerits are determined, and he is fortunate, if out of 

 the whole batch, he is able to save two of sterling merit. 



Peter Fisher says: ' 'November is an ideal month for fertilizing. 

 If crossings are made in this month, the seed can be sown by the 

 first of February and have three months' growth before planting 

 out of doors, where most of them will bloom. I have had plants 

 bloom four and a half months from the time of sowing the seed. 

 Plants that bloom late have not much commercial value. Plants 

 of strong, fleshy growth are less productive of bloom than plants 

 of a wiry habit and narrow foliage. The pollen should be applied 

 on a bright sunny morning, and if impregnation takes place, the 

 bloom will wilt within twenty-four hours." 



Many things are to be considered by the originator of new 

 carnations, as the selection of parents to secure in the progeny, size, 

 form, substance, color, length and strength of stem, none which 

 however, he can count on against chances. Wonderful possibili- 

 ties lie hidden in the capsule of a cross. The labor of a hybridist 

 is bewitchingly enchanting. He sees in the pollen grain an un- 

 leased spark of vital lightning; in a primal cell of the ovary, a 

 marvelous mixture of sexual forces that may wash new petals with 

 strange colors, toned in the wonderland of life. 



Carnations, as with all double flowers, perfect but few seeds. 

 The seed pods contain on an average twenty black seeds, and the 

 time to gather them may be known by the brownish appearance 

 of the seed vessel. Fertilized seeds are worth $i.oo per hundred, 

 and if sown as soon as gathered, they germinate sooner than 

 when long dried. They may be planted in pots, or flats, and kept 

 moderately warm and moist. Give plenty of air; when the second 

 leaf is formed, transplant into pots, and in time set out in the 

 open ground and treat them as rooted cuttings. 



The first show of merit, or demerit in a cross is not perma- 

 nent: it may marvelously advance or recede in excellence before 

 it reaches the plane of its permanent habits, Mr. Dorner, an 

 eminent cross-fertilizer, says some of his less promising seedlings, 

 in the end, came out on top. 



Carnation seedlings have unstable characters. Before they 

 reach the level of their true existence, they vibrate for years be- 



