CHAPTER XXVII- 



NEW SPECIES OF CARNATION DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF 



DIANTHUS SUPERBA AND DIANTHUS SEMPERFLORENS 



THEY REQUIRE ESSENTIALLY DIFFERENT 



TREATMENT. 



FOR fifty years, hundreds of men have been cross-fertilizing 

 the best seedling carnations that have sprung from Alega- 

 tiere's origination, and they have obtained a species of car- 

 nation as distinct from Alegatiere's as it was from the species 

 that gave it birth. Structural difference is the basis of all 

 Classes, Orders, Genera and Species of the botanies. There is 

 not the wide gape of difference between species as some imagine. 

 Species do not spring into being full panoplied, like Juno from 

 the brain oi Jupiter. Darwin says: "varieties are incipient species 

 and require persistent congenial environment to take on the full 

 and stable character of a species." It may be difficult today to draw 

 detailed distinctions between the old and new species of carnations, 

 but time will survey their boundaries and drive the division 

 stakes. A species includes all individual plants that are alike in 

 roots, stems, leaves and in florescence. Martyn says that there are 

 as many species of plants as there are invariable structures in 

 plants. If La Puritie and Mrs. Lawson had been found growing 

 wild by Linnaeus, the plant wizzard of the world, he would have 

 classed them as different species. 



La Puritie and Edwardsii were true specimens of the Semper- 

 florens 'type of the Alegatiere carnation. Their characters and 

 habits are well remembered by all the oldest florists. They grew 

 from 12 to 15 inches high, bore their stemless two-inch flowers in 

 profusion on small, tough, wiry, procumbently inclined stems. 

 They were cultivated on the dry-side, were small feeders, with web- 

 like anastomosing roots, were immunes to drouth, loved micaceous 



