ON RAISING SEEDLING CARNATIONS AND PICOTEES. 207 



which Mr. Gaines showed four plants, that presented so gay and beau- 

 tiful an appearance as to elicit the unrestrained admiration of all 

 beholders. 



ARTICLE V. 



ON RAISING SEEDLING CARNATIONS AND PICOTEES. 



BY A FLOHIST. 



The culture of the Carnation, though elaborately written upon by 

 many with ability and experience, has in one point, and that a very 

 material one, been either totally neglected or slightly or discouragingly 

 mentioned, I mean the progressive improvement of the flower and its 

 subvariety the Picotee, by raising new plants from seed. Hitherto 

 we have been taught that the production of new and fine varieties of 

 either Carnation or Picotee, is an extremely difficult and even arduous 

 undertaking — the proportion being from one to two good flowers to 

 one hundred inferior and worthless plants. With this I perfectly 

 agree, provided that the ordinary mode of obtaining the seed be pur- 

 sued. We are told that it is a plant that never produces seed in con- 

 siderable quantities, nor even any at all, unless in very dry and warm 

 summers and under peculiar treatment, and even then with difficulty, 

 arising, as it is stated, " from the extreme doubleness of the flower," 

 a mistake originating either from ignorance of the natural structure 

 of the flower and its physiology, or from want of sufficient experience 

 in the writer. The Carnation is one of nature's most brilliant offer- 

 ings to the flower garden, and although almost universally cultivated 

 and admired for the symmetry and fine colouring of its blossoms, and 

 for its delicate and grateful perfume, it is rarely seen in its fine va- 

 rieties, some of which are really splendid and admirable, eclipsing all 

 the flowers of its season, and making it pre-eminent as the ornament 

 of the summer, as the Dahlia is of the autumnal months. 



The scarcity of those fine flowers arises from two causes, — first, 

 from the jealousy of the few florists possessing them, who think them 

 worthy of being exhibited and distributed to the initiated only; and 

 secondly, from the neglect of raising plants from the seed of the best 

 flowers, and from such only. Any florist who has sufficient energy 

 and who wishes to derive more gratification from the culture of his 

 Carnations than he has yet enjoyed, may, by attending to the following 



