BREVITIES. 157 



Syringing with bordeaux mixture discolors the foliage of 

 carnations. 



To understand the physiology of a carnation's life is to 

 stand on the ultimate in growing it. 



Carnations are being bred toward strong canes and away from 

 fragrance and productiveness of bloom. 



Cultivate carnations in the field after each rain and between 

 rains. Cultivation is a substitute for rain. 



Scrupulous cleanliness and close attention to all the details 

 in growing carnation will make success a certaint3^ 



A carnation grower, with the description given of the dis- 

 eases in Chapter XX, and a dollar and a half microscope, can 

 easily determine the character of any trouble that affects his 

 plants. 



Every carnation grower should have hygrometers, and ther- 

 mometers in his houses, and a microscope in his pocket. These 

 instruments ring the bells when the Red Spider, frigidity, and 

 disease knock at the door. 



The best varieties of carnations {^Diaiithiis Sempeiflorens) is 

 the loftiest evolution of the little five-petaled pink, mentioned by 

 Theophrastus two thousand years ago. Its main development 

 has been in the last fifty years. The science of botany demon- 

 strated the practicability of artificial hybridization, and cross-fertil- 

 ization, by which the carnation in the last forty years has reached 

 an evolvement that the slow and uncertain processes of nature 

 would not have accomplished in as many centuries. 



