138 



THE YELLOW CAENATION AND PICOTEE. 



By James Douglas. 



The taste for yellow or bufF-coloured Carnations 

 has become so widely extended during recent years 

 tliat it becomes necessary in a " Carnation Manual " 

 to devote a separate chapter to this section. 

 Some persons have an idea that the Yellow Car- 

 nations and Picotees are new to English gardens; 

 others fancy they are tender plants requiring much 

 nursing in glass-houses. I may say at once that 

 the yellow colour is not new, and that they are not 

 tender plants. The first mention of a Yellow Car- 

 nation being grown in England is in Gerrard's 

 " Herbal," published in 1597, p. 472. At that early 

 period the Carnation was usually designated a 

 " Gilloflower," and after describing various coloured 

 varieties Gerrard proceeds, " also a Gilloflower with 

 yellow flowers, the which a worshipfull marchant 

 in London — Master Nicholas Lete — procured from 

 Poland and gave me thereof for my garden, Avhich 

 before that time was never scene nor heard of in 

 these countries." Early in the seventeenth century 

 it was extensively cultivated, and flowers had been 

 produced with various markings on this yellow 



