78 AMERICAN CARNATION CULTURE. 



modified by natural and artificial light. The Marquis is more 

 impressive by sunlight, and Croker, by gas light. 



A learned professor of an experimental station exploiting 

 plant wisdom formally stated in an address that the first car- 

 nations were "blue" a most irrational inference in the light of 

 their history. Past generations may not have been as wise as 

 plant managers of modern "stations," but they never before have 

 been charged with the solecism of calling black white, or uniform- 

 ly naming a pink object to illustrate a blue color. 



A. Linton counted 172 buds and blooms on a California variety 

 named Majesty and thinks a good specimen would yield 500 flow- 

 ers during a season. A typical plant of such carnations during its 

 blooming period might yield 25,000 petals; more than ten square 

 feet of petaline canvass,every flower leaf textured with tri-strands of 

 nitrogen, phosphorus and potash, twirled in the spinneret of nature 

 wove to fabric in life's subtle loom, moistened with mordants in a 

 calyx-crypt, and juggled into perfumes and witching colors by the 

 magic wand of simple sunbeams. 



Nature's sweetest lyric is syrnboled by a flower. It is a meta- 

 phor in her loftiest poetry, and emblems the divinest emotions that 

 ever thrilled the heart of man. Mythology says carnations sprang 

 from the blood of rival lovers, and typify disdain, but modern 

 romance makes them hieroglyphs of warmer and more generous 

 affections. 



Pink carnations indicates Purity, 



White " " Fascination. 



Scarlet " " Dignity. 



Crimson " " Ardent love. 



Yellow " " Refusal. 



White- var. ' ' ' ' Friendship. 



Yellow " " " False. 



Red " " Acceptance. 



