THE PICOTEE AND CARNATION. 53 



3. Each layer of petals should be smaller than the layer immediately 

 under it; there should not be less than five or six layers of petals laid regu- 

 larly, and the flower should so rise in the centre as to form half a ball. 



4. The petals should be stiff, free from notches, and slightly cupped. 



5. The ground should be pure white, without specks of color. 



6. The stripes of color should be clear and distinct, not running into one 

 another, nor confused, but dense, smooth at the edges of the stripes, and 

 well defined. 



7. The colors must be bright and clear, whatever they may be ; if there 

 be two colors, the darker one cannot be too dark, or form too strong a con- 

 trast with the lighter. With scarlet the perfection would be a black ; with 

 pink there cannot be too deep a crimson ; with lilac, or light purple, the 

 second color cannot be too dark a purple. 



8. If the colors run into the white and tinge it, or tlie white is not pure, 

 the fault is very great, and spots or specks are highly objectionable. 



9. The pod of the bloom should be long and large to enable the flower 

 to bloom without bursting it ; but this is very rare ; they often require to be 

 tied about lialf way, and the upper part of the calyx opened down to the 

 tie of each division; yet there are some which scarcely require any assist- 

 ance, and this is a very desirable quality. 



10. Decided superiority of perfume should obtain the prize when compe- 

 ting flowers are in other respects of balanced merit 



Properties of a good Picotee. — It is divided into seven classes. 

 Ijlled, heavy edged ; 2, Red, light edged; 3, Rose, heavy edged; 4, Rose, 

 light edged ; 5, Purple, heavy edged; 6, Purple, light edged ; 7, Yellow 

 ground, witJiout any distinction as to the breadth of the edge color. 



The characteristics of a good form are the same as for the Carnation, 

 but with regard to color — 



1. It should be clear, distinct ; confined exclusively to the edge of the 

 petals ; of equal breadth, and uniform color on each, and not running 

 down, (called sometimes feathering or barring), neither should the white 

 ground run through the colored border to the edge of any one of the 

 petals. 



2. The ground must be a pure white without the slightest spot. 



DiSqUALIFICATIONS OF A CaRNATION OR PiCOTEE : 



1. If there be any petal dead or mutilated. 



2. If there be any one petal in which there is no color. 



3. If there be any one petal in which there is no white. 



4. If a pod be split down to the sub-calyx. 



5. If a guard petal be badly split. 



6. Notched edges are glaring faults, for which no excellence in other 

 respects compensates. 



The reader must bear in mind that the foregoing rules are those Avhich 

 govern the various Societies that are in existence in England and Scotland 

 for the exhibition of this tribe of plants alone. Whether its cultivation 

 will ever arrive at that perfection in this country, as to enforce such rules at 

 our exhibitions, is for future Florists to determine. 



