CHAPTER XXIII. 



GEOGRAPHICAL BOTANY OF THE COMMERICAL DIANTHUS 



—PLANTS ARE EASILY MODIFIED BY CONDITIONS— 



—SLIGHT CLIMATIC DIFFERENCES IN ADJOINING 



COUNTRIES HAVE ENGENDERED NEW SPECIES. 



NATL^RAL adaptation by selection developed the five-petaled 

 pink of Greece into the polypetalous Dianthus of Eu- 

 rope, a biennial, bearing the second season only one brief 

 but profuse crop of bloom. Alegatiere in 1848, by artificial polen- 

 ization, a possibility science had just brought to light, selected tv^ o 

 varieties, if not species, crossed fertilized them and obtained 

 a product with a tendency to scatter its bloom through its entire 

 life, instead of bunching it as its parents did in a brief multitu- 

 dinous crop. From this habit Alegatiere's new variety or species 

 has been called the Remontant Carnation, because it continually 

 remounted itself with flowers. It is also called the Semperflorens 

 carnation, semper meaning constantly; florens, flowers— constantly 

 flowering. It is called carnation, meaning flesh, or flesh colored. 

 There can be no doubt that the carnation had a pink color when 

 thus christened. 



Alegatiere's new variety, or improved strain, has diffused itself 

 wherever men love and cultivate flowers. They have differentiated 

 and modified their habits and flowers to meet different climatic 

 conditions. 



THE DIANTHUS IN GERMANY. 



Eufurt and Quidenburg are the storm centers of the Dianthus 

 family of plants in Germany. Seedlings are germinated in frames, 

 under glass; when two or three inches high, they are transplanted 

 to the open field, in rows two feet apart and one foot between the 

 plants, where they will bloom the second season. They are 



