vi.] BIZARRES, FLAKES, SELFS, PAINTED LADIES 157 



bulbs in July or August, 6 inches apart ; shade carefully 

 and water until they are established, and, under 

 favourable conditions, they will bloom from September 

 through a good part of winter up to April and such 

 blooms ! 



CHAPTER VI 



CARNATIONS 



FOR centuries the Carnation has been the most popular 

 of our garden flowers. Parkinson, the earliest writer on 

 garden plants, describes no less than fifty kinds which 

 were then cultivated. We have many of them still, and 

 though some have been lost, others quite as good have 

 taken their place. They may be classed under four 

 groups Bizarres, Flakes, Selfs, and Painted Ladies. True 

 Carnations have their colours arranged in longitudinal 

 stripes or bars of variable width on each petal, the 

 ground colour being white. 



Bizarres (Odd or Irregular) are those in which stripes 

 of two distinct colours occur on the white ground, and their 

 merit rests on the purity of the ground and the clearness 

 and evenness of the striping. Scarlet Bizarres are marked 

 with scarlet and maroon, Crimson Bizarres have crimson 

 and purple ; Pink and Purple are marked with these two 

 colours. 



