CHAPTER IX 

 CARNATION GROWING IN AMERICA 



THE following communication is from Mr. 

 Herrington of the Florham Farms, Madison, 

 New Jersey. He is President of the American 

 Carnation Society, and writes with authority on the 

 cultivation of the Carnation in the United States. It 

 is interesting to know the names of the varieties 

 grown in that country, especially in view of the trials 

 made in the British Isles of the much favoured 

 varieties raised or cultivated in America. " The 

 Carnation stands only second to the Rose in extent 

 of culture in America, and without available statistics 

 it may still in truth be asserted that millions are grown 

 annually, some enormous establishments being devoted 

 solely to Carnations. Any one of these has an annual 

 output of flowers running into hundreds of thousands. 

 The varieties are all of American origin, and belong to 

 the tree or perpetual - flowering race. Their pro- 

 genitors were French varieties of the Alegatiere strain, 

 imported about thirty-five years ago, and from these 

 has been evolved a race of winter-blooming Carnations 

 surpassing anything in Europe. Four years ago I 

 visited some of the great Carnation gardens in the 



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