120 Select Carnations, Picotees, and Pinks. 
varieties in the collection. Here the work of 
observation must be continued unremittingly, noting 
the characters and qualities of the varieties selected 
as they reveal themselves and recording the same. 
Those which fall below expectations uncompro- 
misingly, may be discarded as unworthy of further 
care. 
By the end of January the selected seedlings will 
have bloomed sufficiently to enable the raiser to 
determine upon those worthy of a second year’s 
trial. Having discarded the worthless ones, the re- 
mainder should be propagated by cuttings about the 
first week of February. During the second season 
the raiser should be able to fix upon the varieties, 
if any, worthy of perpetuating, multiplying, and 
putting into commerce. 
In America the “profitable commercial life of a 
Carnation,” after being put into trade, is considered 
to range from four to six years. This, in the case 
of specially fine varieties, may be prolonged for ten 
or a dozen years or even more, if care is taken in 
the selection of stock for cutting, and by carefully 
cultivating the plants with the view of maintaining 
their vigour and keeping them true to the original 
type. After a number of years, however, most or all 
of them are liable to be superseded by newer and 
better varieties. Before being put into commerce 
the selected seedlings are thorcughly tested for two 
or three years in succession; and during the trials 
they are subjected to a drastic process of weeding 
out, until out of 6,000 to 8,oco seedlings perhaps 
only two or three varieties are retained for pro- 
pagation. The raisers are satisfied with this num- 
ber if they prove an advance upon existing varieties. 
Propagation by Cuttings. 
As with tree Carnations so with the American 
Carnation, the most popular and mest convenient 
method of propagation is by means of cuttings. 
Layering is very little practised in America, for the 
simple reason that the summers are too hot and dry 
for the success of the operation. Those who have 
their plants in pots may plunge the latter in soil and © 
layer the young shoots in the same manner as is 
done with Malmaison Carnations. 
Cuttings may. be taken at any time from: the 
middle of January to the middle of April.- Those 
inserted during ay and February will produce 
