156 AMERICAN CARNATION CULTURE. 



ing, between the yesterday and the tomorrow of life. (It is then 

 a ripened plant. All fruits are but ripened pistils.) 



The stems of the plant are then firm and compact; its nodes are 

 solid, almost woody; leaves tough and leathery: stems erect, cir- 

 culating but little sap; it has stopped growing and is fortifying for 

 the swoon of winter. It should then be lifted and benched, it 

 matters not if the soil is dust, without a particle of dirt to the 

 roots; the thermometer 90 degrees in the shade, with a little 

 moisture the plant will scarcely flag. It has then rounded the 

 first epoch of its life, vitality is torpid, heretofore it has lived to 

 grow, hereafter it will live to persist. The same conditions 

 apply to all biennials. 



This fact crystallizes in itself all nebulous theories and ex- 

 periences of carnation growers about early and late lifting, in 

 warm or cool, in wet or dry weather. The principle is as inexor- 

 able as the law of nature governing biennial life. 



There has existed in America about 1000 named carnations 

 since the first were introduced in 1864; about 200 of this number 

 have been importations from Europe and California. It is sense- 

 less history to cumber records with the names of worthless and 

 extinct carnations. 



There are two financial features in growing carnations. One 

 is for the production of their bloom, the other is for the "pips" and 

 rooted cuttings the crop may afford. Most growers combine both 

 features, and all growers endeavor to root enough cuttings to 

 supply their own demand for plants. 



There are statements in an old work called "Flori Historica," 

 published in 1829, that carnations then had perfect calyxes, long 

 stems, and bore three and a half-inch flowers. They must have 

 been a different carnation from the species now known by that 

 name, for the kind in cultivation now did not originate until 

 thirty years after that work was printed. 



