OPINIONS OF EXPERTS. J58 



fifty-five; 1895, one hundred and twelve; 1896, seventy-two; 

 1897, sixty; 1898, twenty-five; 1899, forty-five; 1900, forty; 

 1901, thirty-eight. 



The extraordinary increase of new carnations in 1884-5 was 

 due to a large number of named seedlings from California. An 

 insuperable difficulty in determining the year of a carnation's in- 

 troduction is in the records confounding the year it is named, and 

 often advertised, with the year it is offered for sale or dissemi- 

 nation, The number introduced annually is only proximately 

 correct. 



Mr. Witterstatter, a very reliable and laborious cross- 

 fertilizer says that most of the carnations he has exhibited and 

 put on the market were accidents and surprises, on the crosses 

 he made. He has kept a record of 2700 cross-fertilized seedlings; 

 he is modest enough to admit he never was behind life's curtain, 

 and knows nothing of the play of her secret unseen vital forces, 

 but thinks the, pollen parent most likely to influence color and 

 the mother parent the vigor of -the product. Beyond this he 

 knows nothing of the mysterious alchemy of heredity. 



Mr. Dorner, also an eminent cross-fertilizer, says that if there 

 is any rule in cross-fertilization that he has learned, it is that the 

 lack in one parent should be supplied by the other; that color can- 

 not be depended upon at all; that two crimsons may beget a white. 



Mr. Bissold, a practical cross -fertilizer, says that a man may 

 use a thousand seedlings and not get the same shade of colors as the 

 ones he uses. He never could obtain a yellow or dark pink. 



The late Charles Starr was the pioneer cross-fertilizer and 

 rocked the cradle of new carnations in America. He introduced 

 them to public favor, and or ginated fifty new varieties in which 

 yellow and variegated colors predominated. 



Mr. Fisher says further that he has raised strong growing 

 plants, evidently a new botanical creation, that would not yield 

 more than eight flowers the whole season. Varieties with wiry 

 stems and narrow foliage are invariably free bloomers. He thinks 

 flowers three and four inches in diameter can be reached on 

 plants with these primitive habits and of great floresence. 



