160 AMERICAN CARNATION CULTURE. 



If it were not for usurping the prophetic functions of Isaiah, 

 I would name a carnation destined to sound a note on the key 

 board of progress that has not yet been heard, but prophecy is al- 

 ways doubtful until it becomes history. 



Mutilation by disbudding is not a factor in evolving carna- 

 tion flowers with longer stems. Emasculation is not transmissi- 

 ble. No feature in carnations has developed more rapidly than 

 the length of the flower stems. It ranges in 40 years from a flower 

 without a stem to one on a three-foot stem. The drawing nature 

 of glass has powerfully abetted selection in evolving this feature. 



The calyx is the outer series or whorl of floral leaves. Or- 

 ganology has failed to discover the true functions for either the 

 calyx or petals of a flower. The calyx is not an essential part of 

 a flower. In poppies and mayapples it falls off when the flower 

 begins to open, and is entirely absent in the lily, tulip, and flowers 

 of many forest trees. 



Since the introduction and cultivation of carnations in Amer- 

 ica the calyx part of its flowering mechanism has been very de- 

 fective. The joined edges of its sepals have been disproportion- 

 ally weak and ruptured from the pressure of the petals within; the 

 petals falling down between the torn edges, destroying all the 

 beauty and value of the flower. It is thought that a disproportion- 

 ate amount of moisture adds to the turgescence of the petals and 

 aggravates the lesion, while ventilation and sunshine strengthen 

 the sutures of the sepals and lessen the difficulty. 



Beyond these two insufficient therapeutic suggestions no 

 remedy has been discovered, or scientific cause assigned for car- 

 nations rupturing their calyxes. If all artificial aid was with- 

 drawn from carnations, as they now exist, a cataclysm of extinc- 

 tion would immediately follow. All that would soon remain 

 would be a five-petaled pink. The first step in their devolution 

 would be a reduction of the number of their petals and the restor- 



