8 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



exhibitions. Some will even tell you, that Kit was the father 

 of the Art. Upon such occasions, he had as many applica- 

 tions to dress flowers, as he had to dress wigs, for he was a 

 barber and friseur by trade. The novices of that day, who, 

 being unacquainted with the secret art, trusted to Nature to 

 open, expand, and perfect their flowers, were no match for 

 Nunn, for he began where Nature left off, and perfected what 

 she had left imperfect. His arrangement and disposition 

 of the petals were admirable, and astonished the novices." 

 Kit's art of dressing is still an enviable art, and attainable only 

 by a few. Hogg gives the names of 390 Flakes and Bizarres 

 and 113 white -ground Picotees, but not one of them is now 

 in existence. We are informed by the same author that 

 the yellow Picotee was cultivated in England in the Royal 

 Gardens, Frogmore, "obtained principally from Germany, 

 and were the delight of all who saw them." The Empress 

 Josephine in the early years of the century had " an admir- 

 able collection of yellow Picotees, at Malmaison." Her 

 gardens were at that time under the superintendence of the 

 botanist Bonpland. Fortunately Hogg gives a coloured 

 plate of what he termed a yellow Picotee, but it is not 

 a Picotee at all as we understand Picotees. However, 

 Picotees did not pass entirely out of existence. Probably 

 the yellow Carnations and Picotees we now possess may 

 be traced to the first yellow Carnation recorded in Eng- 

 land, which was obtained from Poland and presented to 

 Gerard the herbalist, before 1597, ^Y ms friend Nicholas 

 Lete, a worthy London merchant, but there is no evidence 

 that this is so. The yellow Picotees, beloved of Queen 

 Charlotte and the Empress Josephine, were of a rich, deep 

 yellow. This type of flower was taken in hand by a Mr. 

 Richard Smith of Witney, Oxfordshire, about the middle of 



