76 AMERICAN CARNATION CULTURE. 



organized, they exhale carbonic acid gas but not oxygen, they 

 circulate a sap touched with delicate chemicals that by the thauma- 

 turgy of sunlight turns to charming colors, shades, tints and tones. 



The green color of the foliage of carnation plants depends up- 

 on minute green globules called chlorophyl which float in the sap of 

 the epidermal cells. They also rely on sunlight for their emerald 

 hue. A plant grown in the dark is without a green color. Shades 

 of carnation foliage differ in varieties from a steel blue to a glau- 

 cous green. 



The experimental station of the state of Connecticut has an- 

 alyzed the petals of carnations and find they are composed of three 

 elements. 



Nitrogen 33 per cent. 



Phosphorus 8 " " 



Potash 59 " " 



This fact goes far to show the food on which petals feed. 



Carnation is a word of Latin derivation. It comes from caro, 

 meaning flesh, or flesh colored. It was first used to indicated the 

 color of the carnation flower, but has become so generalized as to 

 imply a genus of the Dianthus tribe of plants, varieties, and 

 any color flower the plant may bear. I have no historical 

 data to indicate the time this term was applied to any branch 

 of the Dianthus genus. It is now used to distinguish the 

 perpetual flowering kind from the single crop blooming pinks. 

 Out of thirty-six varieties of the remontant type introduced this 

 year (1901), the pink color predominates over any other color. 

 Out of nearly one thousand named carnations that have originated, 

 and been imported into the carnation zone of America during 

 the last forty years, so far as history has preserved, their colors 

 have been as follows : 



Pink of different shades, 25 per cent. 



Scarlet " 18 



Crimson " " 15 



White " 14 



Yellow-variegated shades, 15 



White " ii 



Yellow " " 2 



