CAR 



127 



CAR 



• 



of them being placed in the centre, to I very full picotees are not to be advo- 



form a crown. 



cated, a medium fulness is best. The 



"The whole would then, if well ar- I same disqualifications with regard to 

 ranged, produce the form of the half of I the petal and pod are applicable as to 

 an oval or elliptic, when held on a side ' the carnation." — Card. Chron. 

 view; having, when seen from above, j Soil. — Dr. Horner recommends — 

 a circular appearance. The colours, } " Two parts old pasture sods, two years 

 whether bizarre or flake, should be old, and one part old frame manure, 

 strong, brilliant, and distinct through- ' three years old, with a sufficient addi- 

 oiit. The ground colour should be a I tion of coarse river sand, to prevent te- 

 pure white; free from speck, spot, tint, [ nacity ofthe soil. Pasture sods reduced 

 or tin^eof any sort. Theflakes should I to mould, are preferable to soil taken 

 be bro'ad and bold, commencing at the from a greater depth, inasmuch as they 

 extreme edge, ofa proportionate width | contain the fibrous roots of the grass, 

 to the petal, running through to the cen- I which during their gradual decay afford 

 tre, or as far as the eye can discern, and ' a constant supply of most acceptable 

 diminishing in breadth as they approach [ nourishment." — Gard. Chron. 

 the centre, in the same ratio as the pe- | " Propagation. — Pipings stuck in this 

 tal. The distribution of colours should ! monld are to be covered with a hand- 

 be equal in every respect: in a flake, \ light, exposed fully to the sun ; but in 

 not less than three divisions in each j hot weather, in the evening, water 

 petal; in a bizarre, not less than five | poured over the hand-light; pick out 

 divisions, and properly arranged ; their ^ worms and slugs. If the pipings are 

 respective and united beauties should | placed in a box, covered first with a 

 be strikingly apparent. | bell-glass, which is to be exchanged for 



" Size should not be lost sight of, ' a small hand-glass, or a larger bell- 

 though it should never take precedence, | glass, as the pipings begin to grow, the 

 unless the other general properties were j boxes placed on a stage on the north 

 equal. The disqualifications of a car- i side ofa tree, and the stage resting on 

 nation are — a dead, loose, mutilated, j feeders, filled with lime-water, there is 

 or split petal, a petal having no white ; less trouble with insects, and the pipings 

 on the upper side ; a petal having (if a ; will grow very well, but not so rapidly." 

 flake) no colour upon the white on the — Gard. Chron. For the best mode of 

 upper side; a petal upon which (if a : obtaining piping's, see PinTc. 

 bizarre) there are not two colours upon j Raising Varieties. — Dr. Lindley says, 

 the white on the upper side; if the pod ] — " The fertilization of carnations 

 be split down to the sub-calyx, or cut I should be performed as soon as the stig- 

 away in any part." — Gard. Chron. j mas unfold. The action of pollen is 



" The properties of the picotee, with ' not instantaneous, but slow; and it is 

 regard to form and petal," says the same j necessary that it should adhere, 

 authority, " are the same as in the car- I *' Although it may produce no effect 

 nation, with this exception, that, as the at the time of applying it, yet it will 

 colour of the picotce is, or ought to be, eventually fertilize the seed-vessel, if 

 confined to the margin of the petal, a | the flower be kept dry. If the seed- 

 greater degree of fulness was admissi- i vessel grows, and yet the seed does 

 ble, proportionate with the lightness or not swell, it is because fertilization has 

 narrowness of the marking. The co- not taken place. It would increase the 

 lour should be clear and distinct, con- probability of procuring seed, to place 

 fined to the edge of the petal, and not the pots near a south wall. It is of no 

 running down orbarring; neither should use to cut out the centre petals when 

 the white in the slightest degree run the flower is very double." — Gard. 

 through to the edge of the petals, but Chron. 



whether lightly or heavily marked, the Sowing. — "The surface ofthe soil 

 colour should be regular, at an equal should be finely pulverized, and the bed 

 distance from the edge all round the raised somewhat above the level ofthe 

 petal, each petal having the same re- adjoining ground. The seed may be 

 gularity of colouring throughout the scattered broadcast over the bed, and 

 flower 



„^.. afterwards lightly pressed with the back 



" Although a full floweris not so ob- ' ofa rake." — Gard. Chron. 

 jectionable as in the carnation, yet, as ! " Seedlings are always more vigorous 



