56 Select Carnations, Picotees, and Pinks. 
What has been said of bizarred and flaked flowers 
applies with equal force to the Picotee, the beauty 
and design of the flower being emphasised by the 
regulation and symmetrical disposition of the edged 
petals. Even a self-coloured flower has its beauty 
greatly enhanced by the regular disposal of twisted 
or folded petals. 
It has been urged that the dressing of flowers, and 
the use of paper collars and show boards are 
altogether inartistic; but a more correct way of 
putting it would be that such a mode of exhibiting 
them was lacking in picturesque effect. The 
particular lines of beauty which the florist has 
laboured to create, during a long period of years, 
would be entirely lost uf the peculiar beauty of the 
individual were ignored for the sake of spectacular 
effect. Rather should the promoters of exhibitions 
strive to bring out the many-sided features of the 
Carnation, which has varied into so many types of 
beauty, by encouraging all phases of the flower, in- 
cluding the symmetrical and refined creations of the 
florist together with vases of blooms cut with long, 
leafy stems. Types with strong stems carrying their 
blooms stiffly erect are merely another type of 
beauty, that may be superseded in another direction 
by long, drooping, or gracefully arching stems for 
artistic, picturesque and spectacular effect, accord- 
ing to the design or purpose for which they are 
used. An exhibition of Carnations that represented 
only one particular phase of this many-sided flower 
would be equally monotonous, whether made up 
wholly of flowers in vases, or blooms on show boards. 
Dressed individual blooms are admirably adapted 
for the comparison of different varieties, and also aid 
the eye in singling out the various fine points of a 
flower. Gracefully disposed bunches of flowers are 
more fitted for spectacular effect as a whole. 
Since dressing was first commenced, Dodwell, a 
master of the art, quoting a brother florist, says that 
there has been an advance in everything that “con- 
stitues beauty in the flower, as stoutness of petal, 
smoothness, fine texture, richness and regularity of 
colouring, and harmonious distribution, resulting in 
greater symmetry, and contrast and variety, and 
therefore eliciting increased delight and a larger 
measure of approbation.” 
No skilled exhibitor would think of placing on the 
exhibition tables flowers from the open border that 
