THE CARNATION MANUAL. 89 



The major part of my theoretical information has 

 had to be acquired after 8 or 10 p.m., or before 

 8 a.m., being much occupied with business during 

 the day. 



My first plants were bought in the spring of 

 1886 ; and were planted in the open borders, but 

 did little good, as the wire-worm destroyed them 

 nearly all. The following year I got another and 

 larger assortment, and had a house twenty-eight 

 feet by nine feet built for them, where the 

 top and side lights could be removed at will. 

 There is a path in the centre, and then a kind of 

 small frame, about nine inches high and three feet 

 wide, on both sides. These frames are tiled at the 

 bottom mth square, flat bricks. The advantage of 

 the frame is that it shields the pots from the 

 cutting winds in the early spring, and allows of 

 damp cocoanut fibre, or other materials, being- 

 kept round the pots in very hot weather. Since 

 that time I have gTadually increased my collection, 

 and now have three houses for them, usually 

 flowering from 1,200 to 1,500 plants, in a garden 

 one-and-three-quarter miles fi-om the centre of 

 Birmingham, practically surrounded by houses, and 

 where the air is often thick Avith smoke, for the 

 block forms a kind of oblong quadrangle, my garden 

 being situated near the end of one of the long 

 sides. I prefer ten-inch pots to smaller ones for 

 all vigorous growers, usually putting three or four 



