58 THE CARNATION MANUAL. 



smoke circle, the Carnation will put on its best for 

 us even in the smallest of town gardens. The 

 great manufacturing to-\vns of the Midlands and of 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire have all their knots of 

 enthusiastic and successful cultivators of the flower. 

 At Sheffield, in one of the worst of climates, Mr. 

 Simonite has raised some of the finest varieties of 

 Carnations and Picotees that we possess ; and all 

 Mr. Dodwell's finest seedlings, up to the time of his 

 removal to Oxford a few years ago, were raised 

 within ten minutes' ride of Victoria Station. My 

 own flowers are grown in the same locahty, and, 

 indeed, the bulk of the exhibitors at the great 

 metropolitan and provincial shows are amateurs, 

 with town gardens, cultivating their plants under 

 all the citizen's wonted disabilities of bad climate, 

 cramped space, and scant leisure snatched from 

 busy avocations of every sort. 



The fact that, in spite of all, the town grower is 

 at practically no disadvantage when competing 

 with country -grown flowers, best shows the j^lant's 

 patient endurance of a smoke-laden atmosphere, 

 and well entitles it to be regarded as in every sense 

 a true to^vnsman's flower. 



For the beginner, the Carnation year may be 

 taken as commencing with the latter part of 

 September or beginning of October, when the layers 

 are ready to take off the old plants, and they 

 should then be obtained from the nurseryman. 



