THE CAKNATION MANUAL. 167 



flower itself, and the progress it has made during 

 the time you have known it ? A difficult question 

 in some points to answer. There are some flowers 

 which were known in those days which still hold 

 their own, as, for instance, " Admiral Curzon," 

 " Falconbridge," and " Lovely Ann," and 1 hardly 

 think that in their respective classes they have been 

 beaten ; but, unquestionably, there is now a large 

 number of first-rate varieties, and, generally speak- 

 ing, greater vigour in the plants. I think this is to 

 be expected. 



I thmk that Picotees show a greater improve- 

 ment than Carnations ; the new sorts are, to my 

 mind, more free from " bars " than the older ones ; 

 while the greatest progress has been made in what 

 I think to be the most beautiful class — the rose- 

 and-scarlet-edged section. The delicate and lovely 

 edges of rose and scarlet are most attractive, and, 

 as far as I recollect, in my younger days they were 

 few and had not a section to themselves, but were 

 classed under red edges ; while now it has even been 

 proposed to separate them still further, and make 

 one class for " rose " and another for scarlet edges. 

 The Yellow Picotee, too, has wonderfully advanced. 

 I remember when they were few and small in size, 

 when Barrard's " Euphemia " (which would now not 

 be tolerated) was the chief flower of the class; but 

 the seedHngs raised by Mr. Douglas, Mr. Turner, 

 and others have supplied us with several most 



