74 AMERICAN CARNATION CULTURE. 



florists and the public as concise and descriptive. The system ar- 

 ranged the colors of all carnation flowers into seven classes, which 

 are white, scarlet, crimson, pink, yellow, yellow- variegated and 

 white-variegated. Nineteen-twentieths of all the leading colors 

 pass naturally under these seven classified heads. 



A shaded carnation is one of these leading colors toned or 

 modified by another. 



A ^^/^(?^ carnation has irregular blotches of a different color 

 impressed on one of the above colors. 



A pe7iciled carnation has straight parallel lines of different 

 lengths impressed on the petals bearing a predominance of one of 

 the above colors. 



I have never seen a carnation flower with diversified colors 

 but they were impressed upon a ground color in which white or 

 yellow largely predominated, these being the base on which all 

 variegations are painted. 



Buttercup is a typical yellow-variegated carnation. It has 

 vermilion pencilings on a yellow ground. Chester Pride is a fine 

 sample of a white-variegated carnation with carmine stripes on a 

 pure white ground. Pink, scarlet and crimson are intensified 

 shades of the same color. The white class ranges from absolute 

 purity to a tinge of cream or pink. The yellow from deep orange 

 to light lemon. The pink from a cherry red to the slightest blush. 



The demand for white carnation flowers equals those of all 

 other colors. In hardy pinks, the variegations are always across 

 the petals; in carnations they are parallel with the axis. The yel- 

 low colored carnations are the slowest to develop into a satisfactory 

 class. They are more capricious, or susceptible to uncongenial 

 conditions than the other colors. It can be said there is not a 

 satisfactory yellow in cultivation. Many growers use a yellow- 

 variegated kind as a substitute for a pure yellow. 



The American system of color nomenclature is preferable to 

 the one in Europe, which divides the strains of colors intobizzars, 

 selfs, fancies and flakes. 



The cause of diversity of colors in carnation flowers can 

 never be scientifically demonstrated. Selection of color in parents, 



