8 THE CARNATION MANUAL. 



or that any large proportion of the seedhng plants 

 will be as good as their parents, or resemble them 

 in any marked manner. The experience of" all the 

 best growers of seedlings proves that any such 

 expectation is doomed to disappointment. 



My own experience, founded upon many years' 

 observation, gives me something like the following 

 averages. 



In 100 plants, raised from the best strains, I 

 should expect about 12 to 15 per cent, to be 

 single and worthless. 



Seventy or eighty per cent., or perhaps more, 

 would probably give me double flowers of one sort 

 or another, some little better than singles, others 

 with a mass of small, badly-shaped petals, but 

 none of them showing any marked superiority 

 over existing varieties ; and I should be well 

 content if I got 5 or 6 per cent, worth growing 

 again, to test not only their value as good and dis- 

 tinct varieties, b;-it also whether they are vigorous 

 enough to grow freely in the open border. If they 

 fail in this latter requirement, they are not worth 

 preserving. 



Perhaps some would-be raisers may be a little 

 disheartened by this chronicle of my experience. 

 But the exquisite beauty and variety of colour of 

 the great proportion of the seedlings are alone a 

 sufficient reward. They may not be new varieties, 

 nor be perfect florists' flowers, but they will furnish 



