GARDEN FLOWERS. 139 



eties of merit. The seed should be sown in wide-mouthed 

 pots or seed-pans, not too thick, and placed in a cold 

 frame : if hot too much crowded when they come up, the 

 plants may remain there till they are large enough to plant 

 out, in like manner with the pipings or cuttings, and the 

 treatment is the same throughout. As they bloom, throw 

 away instantly every one that is semi-double or single, and 

 all that are not as good or better than the varieties already 

 in cultivation. A very few of the seedlings may be worth 

 trying again, and of these a few cuttings should be reared. 

 The flowers of seedlings should be examined daily, almost 

 hourly, in order to destroy at once those that are good for 

 nothing ; for single and semi-double kinds can only spoil the 

 seed of the better sorts. It is not to be expected, with every 

 care and advantage in seed-saving, to get one improved 

 variety out of fifty, or even a larger number of seedlings. 

 For list of the best varieties see the latest trade catalogues. 



Carnation and Picotee ( Dianthus Caryophyllus, vars.). 

 These superb and highly scented flowers are precisely sim- 

 ilar as to the requirements of their cultivation. They are 

 propagated chiefly by layering. The shoots at the bottom of 

 the stems, being longer than those of the pink, can be pegged 

 under the surface to strike root, which they do when half 

 divided from the parent ; for by cutting them half-way 

 through, and pegging the cut part firmly under the surface, 

 the supply of nourishment from the parent plant being di- 

 minished, they endeavor to compensate for their loss by 

 forming roots. The shoots in this case do not droop, be- 

 cause the connection with the old plant is not cut off, as in 

 the removal of a piping ; consequently, there is not so much 

 risk of losing any of them. In cutting these stems, the knife 

 should go in slanting just under a joint (about the third joint 

 from the top) ; and, when nearly half through, they should 



