36 THE CARXATION MANUAL. 



taking the form of a bush ; near Edinburgh I have 

 seen a tuft of the Clove Carnation five feet in 

 diameter, whereas in Sussex and Kent we have to 

 plant annually. I have incurred an amount of ex- 

 pense and labour with Carnations in Sussex which, 

 if expended in a sea-shore district, wrth favourable 

 soil, would have given me a paradise of Carnations. 

 In our island the area for shore gardens being very 

 large, one may see fi-om it how important the 

 flower in gardens in sea-shore districts may be, 

 valuable as it is in any place where it happens 

 to do well. Some sandy and warm soils, like that 

 of the Bagshot sands for example, are singularly 

 adverse to the Carnation ; these soils, however, do 

 not cover a large area of the country. 



In advocating an extension of ways of growing 

 this noble flower, I may perhaps be permitted to 

 state the results obtained in my own garden 

 in Sussex, and in a very important garden in 

 Suffolk, two districts widely different as regards soil 

 and climate. In my o^\ti garden I collected all the 

 kinds of Carnations of the self, or one colour, that 

 could be got in France or England, and grew them 

 both in lines in a very exposed and quite un- 

 protected situation, about five hundred feet above 

 the sea ; and also in groups and masses in the 

 flower-garden, generally with very happy and 

 distinct results both as to colour and beauty of 

 bloom, the failures being mostly from late planting. 



