CHAPTER II. 



HISTORY OF CARNATIONS FROM ALEGATIERE TO STARR, 



1844 TO 1890. 



IN 1876 the question arose, "where, how, when and by whom, 

 was the perpetual carnation originated ?" Jene Sisley, an 

 eminent and reliable horticulturist of Monplaiser, Lyons, 

 France, under whose personal observation the facts transpired, 

 wrote for the Revue- Horticole, a French journal, only ten years after 

 the circumstances occurred, the facts attending the origin of the 

 new species of carnations, in answer to the above question. In 

 1886, ten years later, Jene Sisley recapitulated the same facts, 

 and his article was published in the i4th number of the 

 American Florist. 



The particulars cannot be more tersely stated than in the 

 language of Jene Sisley and we give his article verbatum. 



"I think it may be of interest to horticulturists and amateurs, 

 to be informed of the carnation's history which I published ten 

 years ago in a paper of limited circulation. According to several 

 horticultural writers, the carnation was cultivated two thousand 

 years ago, but we know no more of what was practiced in those 

 times than in any other science; it is only since the beginning of 

 this century (igth) that the facts of nature have been really 

 studied, and we can only relate what has lately been practiced. 



The perpetual carnation was originated at Lyons, France. 

 It was M. Dalmias, a celebrated amateur gardener to M. Lacene, 

 founder of the first Horticultural Society of that region, who ob- 

 tained the first really constant blooming carnation, in 1842. He 

 sent it out in 1844 under the name of Atim. It was the production 

 of an artificial fecundation, of a so-called species known by the vulgar 

 name of carnation of Mahon, or of St. Martin, the latter because 

 it was blooming by the middle of November, and fertilized by 

 carnation Bielson. 



This first gain was successively fecundated by Flemish carna- 

 tions, and in 1 846 Dalmais obtained a great number of varieties of 

 all colors. 



