142 Select Carnations, Picotees, and Pinks. 
XIV.—SPORTING OR ‘RUNNING “OF 
CARNATIONS. 
Carnations are as hable to sport or more sb0, 
perhaps, than any other florists’ flower, and for a 
great number of years has given considerable 
trouble or disappointment to growers of this 
favourite flower. Of two or three plants raised 
from cuttings or layers the previous year and 
grown under the same conditions of soil, tem- 
perature and moisture precisely, one may _ bear 
flowers of a different colour from the rest, though 
all were cut from the same plant. The aberration, 
if such it may be termed, is of long standing and 
of frequent occurrence, having been mentioned by 
Thomas Hogg, writing in 1819. 
Other flowers offering parallel cases at the pre- 
sent day are the old English or florists’ Tulips, 
Pansies, Violas, Dahlas, Chrysanthemums,and Sweet 
Peas. The most interesting and remarkable case, 
perhaps, is that presented by Laburnum Adami, 
which has dusky purple flowers, giving rise on the 
one hand to the large yellow flowers of Laburnum’ 
vulgare, and on the other to the smaller, pale 
purple flowers of Cytisus purpureus. It is likewise 
of very frequent occurrence in Ten-Weeks and East 
Lothian Stocks, which being annually raised from 
seed give the grower less uneasiness than when his 
favourites are valuable named varieties perpetuated 
by cuttings or layers. 
Any variety of Carnation may give rise to sports, 
but most disappointment has been caused by the 
sporting or “running” of the fine Scarlet and 
crimson Bizarres and Flakes. The white ground 
colour of the former may be obscured and marred 
by the suffusing or running of some of their colours 
over it, thus destroying one of the essential pro- 
perties of a Bizarre. Flakes may behave in the 
same way or give rise to flowers of a uniform hue, 
or self colour. 
Some writers and growers have attributed this 
behaviour to an over rich compost, and others to a 
poor and infertile soil; but when an attempt was 
made to prove this theory by experiment the 
