12 Select Carnations, Picotees, ana Pinks. 
II—PROPAGATION BY SEED. 
The Carnation is propagated from seed chiefly 
with the view of raising new and superior varieties 
that will surpass the older ones of the same colour 
or introduce shades of colour not already in exist- 
ence. Some gardeners raise seedlings with the 
object of getting a great quantity of flowers for 
cutting from a small number of plants, because well 
grown seedlings produce a great profusion of 
blossom owing to the numerous crowns or shoots 
which seedlings develop the second year from seed. 
Admirers of any particular flower are usually 
actuated at first with a desire to learn how to grow 
it and take delight in their own handiwork, but 
sooner or later, if at all enthusiastic in their hobby, 
they are fired with an ambition to raise something 
worth perpetuating or even good enough to take its 
place alongside of the finest florists’ flowers, or even 
to secure the prize for the premier bloom of its class 
on the exhibition table. Such an ambition is 
laudable enough, and, with perseverance, the young 
aspirant may be rewarded beyond his expectations. 
Though not entirely a matter of chance, the 
beginner may succeed in securing something of real 
merit, before many years have passed, by per- 
severing intelligently along the lines which, in all 
human knowledge are lkely to give the desired 
result. To do this he must first secure a few good 
varieties, on the flowers of which he may set to 
work, or else procure a packet or two of seed from 
some grower or seedsman who has a reputation to 
sustain. Possibly not a single seedling of surpassing 
excellence may turn up in the lot, though that may 
not be the fault of the grower who supplied the seed. 
There is no object either in growing or in crossing 
bad varieties, where the collection is already replete 
with good ones. A beginner may actually bloom a 
first-class variety and get the credit for it, thovgh 
the honour might be due to the grower of the seed 
as in the case of Admiral Curzon (Easom). It was 
raised by James Milwood, of Derby, but sold to 
Easom before it flowered, in 1844, and is still one 
of the finest of its class extant. 
There is no more fascinating phase of gardening 
