68 AMERICAN CARNATION 



never saw a carnation flower fumigated the night before it was 

 cut, ship or keep well; Rob't Craig thinks "substance" of the 

 petal a hard thing to define, and flowers that possessed the alleged 

 "substance" to his knowledge have quickly "gone to sleep;" Mr. 

 Hill thought some ingredient is lacking in the soil when flowers 

 fade quickly; Mr. Kasting says he has had much experience in 

 handling carnation flowers and if they are cut at the proper time, 

 and kept in the proper temperature, there would be no trouble 

 about them "going to sleep;" Mr. Herr thought there was as much 

 art in picking carnation flowers as there was in growing them; 

 Mr. Baur objects to the word "picking" instead of cutting; Mr. 

 Murchie thinks pollenization is a large factor in the early wilt- 

 ing of carnation's blooms; Mr. Crabb thinks sulphur and other 

 chemicals put in bundles of tobacco stems to preserve them, when 

 burned in the house, had much to do with the flowers withering; 

 Mr. Ward was disposed to blame the express companies; Mr. 

 Fisher said the "Adams Express Co. controlled New England 

 territory." 



The above is an abridged interchanging of views that took 

 place between these eminent carnation savants at Buffalo. There 

 is a sub-vestige of philosophy in all the suggestions excepting the 

 one of "Adams Express Co. controlling the territory .of New 

 England." 



There are no caprices in nature. Things are called versa- 

 tile and erratic from ignorance of the line of causes that produced 

 them. There may be a conspiracy of causes in producing a 

 marvel, as in the freakish and fantastical duration of carnation 

 blooms. A flower grown in great heat and moisture would not 

 keep long in reversed conditions. Flowers subject to tobacco fumes 

 long, and strong enough to strangle to death Greenflies, must 

 throw the life of a supersensitive and feebly organized petal into 

 avticulo mortis. After feritilization, the petals of flowers having 

 served their purpose, immediately wither, and there is a period in 

 a flower's life between a plastic petal and its decay in which its 

 texture is the strongest to endure. A factor controlling the most 

 causes of a carnation flower's duration is ignorance ot the phys- 



