THE CAKXATIUN MANUAL. V 



a profusion of lovely bloom, and neiglibours will 

 gratefully carry away and cherish many of the 

 plants which he himself may not care to grow. 



Another source of interest, and perhaps dis- 

 appointment, will be found in the very great 

 variations of colour presented by seedlings raised 

 from the same parents, and which occur to an 

 extent that is truly surprising. 



Desirous of obtaining a few good, light-edged, 

 purple Picotees, I crossed for this purpose "Her 

 Majesty " (Addis) with " Nymph " (Lord). 



From a batch of about five hundred seedlings 

 from this cross I obtained only one light- edged 

 Pico tee worth growing again, and it is now in 

 cultivation under the name of Silvia. What was 

 my surprise, however, to find among the seedlings 

 an unusual number of purple selfs, of different 

 shades of colour, and one of them is now widely 

 grown under the name of " Purple Emperor." 



Now in this case the parents had pure white 

 grounds, the only purple about them being a thin 

 wire-like edging to each petal ; and equally curious 

 is the fact that there was not a single white self 

 flower among the seedlings. 



I have raised thousands of seedlings, and could 

 write much on the curious variations of colour 

 observable in seedlings from white ground Carna- 

 tions and Picotees, as they are endless and unac- 

 countable ; but as I can lay down no methods by 



