3 i6 THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



in associating them with the lavish bloom of the gar- 

 dens of Hampton Court, for if anything could make 

 me permanently unpatriotic (which is impossible), 

 it would be the roses and picotee pinks of the dear old 

 stupid (human middle-class, and cold bedroom- wise), 

 but florally adorable mother country ! 



The method by which you may possess yourself of 

 these crowning flowers of the garden, for coronations 

 is one of the words from which carnation is supposed 

 but to be derived, is as follows : 



Be sure of your seed. Not long ago it was neces- 

 sary to import it direct, but not now. You may buy 

 from the oldest of American seed houses fifty varieties 

 of carnations and picotees, in separate packets, for three 

 dollars, or twenty-five sorts for one dollar and seventy- 

 five cents, or twelve (enough for a novice) for one 

 dollar, the same being undoubtedly English or Hol- 

 land grown, while a good English house asks five 

 shillings, or a dollar and a quarter, for a single packet 

 of mixed varieties ! 



Moral it is not necessary that "made in England" 

 should be stamped upon flower seeds to prove them of 

 English origin! 



If you can spare hotbed room, the seeds may be 

 sown in April, like the early Margarets, and trans- 



