108 PBACTICAX FLOBICULTUItE. 



one continued sheet of snowy whiteness from November 

 to May. It is perhaps the most profitable of all winter 

 flowering plants grown by the florist. 



Figure 36 is a section of Carnations (or Pinks, as they 

 are sometimes called) growing, planted out on one of the 

 green-house benches. Of late years this has become one 

 of our most popular winter flowers, and perhaps more 

 space is devoted to it than to any other flower. Its cul- 

 tivation is easy and simple, and for that reason it is less 

 profitable here perhaps than anything else grown. The 

 cuttings are treated exactly as the Verbenas, already 

 described. As the plant is quite hardy, it is plant- 

 ed out from the green-houses early in spring, (at the sea- 

 son we plant cabbages), in the open ground, at about one 

 foot each way. The flowers are not allowed to develop 

 during the summer, but the buds are cut off as they appear 

 the flowering resources being husbanded for winter. 

 In October they are lifted and planted on the benches. 

 Many of these plants produce over a hundred flowers. 

 The sorts grown are very few, mainly carmine and pure 

 white. The Carnation, however, comprises many hun- 

 dred varieties ; but we find comparatively few flower sufli- 

 ciently freely in winter to warrant their growth ; though 

 for private collections a score of sorts might be grown to 

 represent the different colors and markings. 



CHAPTER XVHL 



PROPAGATION OF LILIES. 



The increasing interest taken in the Japan and other 

 Lilies renders their rapid increase a matter of much inter- 

 est, not only to the commercial florist, but to the amateur 

 cultivator, who may wish to increase his stock of some 



