THE TREE CARNATION 51 



SEEDLINGS 



These may be treated in the same way as named 

 varieties. Sow the seed about the end of January or 

 the first week in February in a little bottom heat, and 

 in the same house as the cuttings are struck. The 

 young plants will appear in a week or ten days, and 

 as soon as the seed leaves (cotyledons) are quite 

 developed the plants should be pricked out at once 

 into seed pans or boxes. They may be planted out 

 in the garden when the weather is favourable and 

 they have become inured to the open air, or they may 

 be grown and flowered in pots. The best plants are 

 those grown on in pots until the flowering stage. All 

 of them have flowers worth cutting for room decora- 

 tion. Some of the varieties will have single flowers, 

 but not many ; one or two in a dozen perhaps, but 

 for some forms of indoor flower decoration single 

 flowers are better than the double. 



The seed should be obtained from cross-fertilised 

 flowers; and the produce will be sure to give satis- 

 faction. There is also the additional pleasure of 

 anticipating the opening of the flowers on the seed- 

 ling plants. I have constantly urged upon amateur 

 growers the wisdom of raising seedlings. Writing as 

 I do now for the instruction of amateurs, I can freely 

 add that a great part of the pleasure I derive from the 

 growing of the Carnation has been in watching the 

 development of seedlings. I have tried all the classes, 

 and have been successful in most. Perpetual-flower- 

 ing Carnations are not liable to " rust," but green-fly 



