286 MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



On the Causes of Foulness op Colour in the Carnation. — There are 

 few circumstances which cause so much disappointment to the practical florist 

 as the running into colour, or sporting, as it is technically called, of his flowers. 

 It might naturally have been concluded, that a subject of such vast moment to 

 him would have been, from the first, carefully investigated, and its cause ex- 

 plained and made manifest, in order to its being remedied. Nothing, however, 

 has been attempted respecting it; so indisposed are men to think for themselves, 

 and so apt are they to follow the beaten track ! hence, ignorance is allowed to 

 prevail, and error to be perpetuated. 



It is the opinion commonly prevalent among florists, that the cause of sporting, 

 or foulness of colour, in the Carnation, is to be attributed to an over-nutritious 

 soil ; and hence the remedy universally prescribed is the growing of them in 

 a poorer or reduced soil, to make them return to, or preserve them in, a clean 

 state. It is my fixed belief, however, that the converse of this is the case, viz., 

 that the cause of sporting or running of the colour in this flower is really 

 dependent on a deficiency of nourishment, either in quality or quantity. On 

 considering the history and economy of the Carnation, we find that it is naturally 

 single, consisting of five petals, and is also a self, or a flower of one colour. Now 

 it is by cultivation in our gardens that it becomes double, the stamens being 

 converted into petals, and is also made to break into those beautiful stripes 

 which constitute the flake and bizarre. And as it is exalted cultivation which 

 has changed its character and raised it to this condition, so are neglect in its 

 culture and deficiency of its proper nutriment the cause of its degenerating and 

 running back again to its pristine state; reducing it first to a self, and eventually, 

 indeed, to a single flower. Any circumstances, therefore, which deprive the 

 plant of a due and full supply of suitable food, whether it be a poor sod, or it 

 be a cold and ungenial season, which cramps the energies of the plant, and 

 prevents the due elaboration of its nutrient juices, will cause the flower to 

 degenerate and its colours to run. I consider an untoward season tantamount 

 to a poor soil in its ultimate effects on the plant. The flake or bizarre state, I 

 rt'peat, is manifestly the effect of high cultivation, and the running into a foul 

 or self state must be considered a degeneration, induced by a low degree of 

 culture or defective supply of suitable nutriment ; and in this view of the case 

 nothing appears to be more unphilosophical, and more inconsistent with reason, 

 observation, and fact, than the attributing the variegated and brilliant colours 

 of the Carnation to a leprosy, a degeneration, and weakness of the vital energies 

 of the plant. The pink affords equal illustration of the position I wish to 

 establish ; it also is naturally single, but by culture it becomes double, and 

 acquires the beautiful laced colour on the edges of the petal; in un propitious 

 seasons, however, or when grown in poor soil, this characteristic marking, like 

 the stripes of the Carnation, becomes indistinct, or is altogether wanting. In 

 the case of the Tulip also, the circumstances are the same ; if the bulb of the 

 finest flower be left in the ground, it becomes flushed and foul in colour, and 

 eventually turns to a self or breeder state ; for the bulb, year after year sending 

 down its roots into the same portion of soil, at length exhausts it, and hence, 

 unable to meet with a due supply of food, it degenerates into its former state of 

 a self-coloured flower. 



I have but one experiment to adduce on this subject, interesting at it is, as 

 well to the vegetable physiologist as to the practical florist. I planted in pots 

 ten layers of a run purple flake Carnation — Ely's Lady Hewley ; five of them 

 in poor garden soil, the other five in cow manure, six years old, with a due 

 portion of sand. Those which grew in the poor soil still continued selfs ; while 

 of the latter three bloomed beautifully clear-flaked flowers, the remaining two 

 still continuing in the self or run state. This, like a single experiment, is cor- 

 roborative of my theory. 



A correspondent of the Chronicle mentions the case of a Carnation which had 

 been foul in colour for two years, becoming clean on its stalk, being nearly 

 cracked in two at a joint, and supposes that the return to a clean state was 

 owing to the over-supply of nourishment, which he thinks to be the cause of 

 foulness, being cut off from the flower. As this is a striking example, apparently 

 strongly militating against my theory, I shall take the trouble of giving its true 



