CARYOPHYLLE;. III. DIANTHUS. 



389 



hand-glass, and make an impression on the surface, in order to 

 know where to put in the pipings. The pipings should then be 

 planted in neatly and regularly, but never more than half an 

 inch deep, and about an inch distant from each other ; after this 

 they should receive a gentle watering, in order to fix the earth 

 more closely about them, and thereby keep out the air ; after 

 this watering they are to remain open, but not exposed to the 

 sun till their leaves become dry, after which the glass is to be 

 placed over them carefully on the same mark that was made by 

 it previously upon the surface of the soil. The bottom edge of 

 the glass is to be pressed into the soil to prevent the admission 

 of too much air. What further remains to be done is diligently 

 to attend to their management with respect to sun and air. The 

 soil ought to be kept regularly moist until they have emitted 

 fibres. Whenever they are watered the glasses should remain 

 off until their leaves are dry. The pipings should have a little 

 of the morning sun, but must be shaded when the heat becomes 

 considerable ; this may be prevented by placing mats upon a 

 slight frame of hoops. The glasses should be occasionally 

 taken off to admit air, dull cloudy warm weather is the best 

 time, but if this should not occur, the glasses may be removed a 

 little time in the morning. After the cuttings are tolerably well 

 rooted, the glass may be taken ofF altogether, as they will be no 

 longer necessary. But as the pipings do not all root at one 

 time, those that strike first should be taken out and planted in 

 pots, these may be known by the superior verdure and growth 

 of the plants. 



It is necessary to know the exact plants that the pipings have 

 been taken from, because it seldom happens that the pipings taken 

 from run or degenerated flowers, produce any thing but run flowers, 

 and consequently not worth preserving. The layers and pipings 

 of the most beautifully variegated flowers will frequently produce 

 run blossoms, but it is impossible to prevent this, especially 

 amongst the rich high-coloured sorts, when they grow in a rich 

 compost. Hogg begins sooner to put in pipings than putting down 

 the layers, before the shoots get hard and woody ; he begins about 

 the 1st of July. Plants raised from pipings are much sounder than 

 those raised from layers, but still as layering is the surest mode 

 he only makes pipings of such shoots as appear crowded, or too 

 short, or too high up on the plant, to be laid easily. He plants 

 them on a bed of dung blood wai-mth, in a compost of equal parts 

 of maiden earth, leaf-mould, rotten horse dung, adding a portion 

 of sand equal to a sixth of the mass, finely sifted together, that the 

 cuttings when stuck in may enter easily and without injury. The 

 best glasses for pipings are those made of common window glass, 

 8 inches square and 6 inches deep, and the less air they contain the 

 sooner will the cuttings strike root. If the weather proves dry 

 and hot they will require to be watered occasionally with a fine 

 rose early in the morning over the glasses, which for one fort- 

 night at least need not be removed if they are doing well. 

 After this the glasses may be taken off for half an hour occa- 

 sionally in the morning, and dried before they are put on again, 

 and if you find any of the pipings mildewed or rotten, pull 

 them up. At the end of 6 . weeks they will be sufficiently 

 rooted to be transplanted into small pots or a prepared bed, over 

 which it would be adviseable to place a frame and lights for a 

 week or ten days, till they take fresh root. There they may 

 remain till the middle of September. In taking them up, if you 

 find any not rooted, but sound, and their ends hard and callous, 

 do not let them remain upon the same spot, but remove them 

 to another bed, with a little temporary heat, and cover them 

 with glasses as before ; this will not fail to start them, and 

 hasten their fibring. 



Propagation by seed. Carnation-seed is rather difficult to 

 raise or ripen in this country, owing to the moisture and cold 

 of the autumnal months. It is generally procured from Vienna, 



and different towns of Switzerland, and if put in vials and well 

 corked will keep for years. To raise it in this country Mad- 

 dock gives the following directions. Those flowers which have 

 few petals generally produce most seed, but they should be 

 possessed of the best properties in other respects, viz. their 

 petals should be large, broad, substantial, and perfectly entire at 

 the edge, and their colours rich and regularly distributed, and in 

 due proportion throughout the whole blossom. The plants 

 should be selected from the rest, and their pots should stand 

 upon a stage, defended against earwigs, in an open part of the 

 garden, in which situation they should remain during bloom, 

 and until the seed is perfectly matured ; their blossoms should 

 be defended against rain, by having glass paper or tin covers 

 suspended over them in such a manner as to admit the free cir- 

 culation of the air ; the pots should neither be kept very wet 

 nor very dry ; nor will it be proper to cut or mutilate the plants 

 either for their layers or for pipings, till the seed becomes ripe, 

 because it would certainly weaken them, and consequently in- 

 jure, if not destroy their seed. When the bloom is over, and 

 the petals become withered and dry, they should be care- 

 fully drawn out of the pod or calyx, being apt to retain a degree 

 of moisture at their base, engendering a mouldiness or decay in 

 that part, which will destroy the seed. There is another me- 

 thod adopted successfully in ripening seed, which is, when the 

 petals begin to decay, they are to be taken out as above, taking 

 care to leave the two styles ; the calyx is then to be carefully 

 shortened, and an aperture made on one side of the remainder, 

 so that no water can possibly get between the capsule and the 

 calyx ; but this must be performed with great care, not to in- 

 jure the capsule. It is best to allow the open side of the calyx 

 to incline a little down, so as to prevent moisture from enter- 

 ing. The seeds ripen in August ; this may be known by the 

 capsule turning brown, or the seed black, or of a dark-brown 

 colour, but if gathered before it is perfectly ripe, the greatest 

 part proves small, pale-coloured, and unproductive. When 

 gathered it should remain in the capsule till the middle of May 

 in the next year ; it is then to be sown in pots filled with the 

 compost, and have a little fine mould sifted upon it, barely suf- 

 ficient to cover the seed ; the pots should then be placed in an 

 airy situation in the garden, be shaded from the heat of the sun, 

 and kept moderately moist, but never very wet. As soon as 

 the young plants have six leaves, and are about three inches high, 

 they should be planted out on a bed of good rich garden mould 

 at about 10 or 12 inches asunder, and be defended from excess 

 of rain and severe frosts by mats on hoops, placed over the bed 

 in the usual manner ; they will generally blow the following 

 summer. Hogg's directions differ in nothing of importance from 

 Maddock's. He says it often happens out of 200 blooming 

 plants, you will not be able to get two pods of perfect seed. 

 More seed was saved in the dry summer of 1818, than in any 

 seven preceding years. Seedlings require two years to bloom, 

 and the chance of getting a good new flower is reckoned as 1 to 

 100. If a florist raises 6 good new Carnations in his life time 

 he is to be considered fortunate. Seed out of the same pod, he 

 says, is reported to produce flowers of all the different varieties, 

 flakes, bizarres, &c. Emmerton experienced that seed from a 

 scarlet flake will produce a scarlet-bizarre and a rose or pink flake. 

 Soil. Hogg takes three barrows of loam, one and a half of 

 garden mould, ten ditto of horse-dung, one ditto of coarse sand ; 

 let these be mixed and thrown together in a heap, and turned 

 two or three times in the winter, particularly in frosty weather, 

 that it may be well incorporated. On a dry day towards the 

 end of November, he takes a barrow full of fresh lime, which, 

 as soon as it is slacked, he strews over while hot in turning 

 the heap ; this accelerates the rotting of the fibrous particles of 

 the loam, lightens the soil, and destroys the grub- worms and 



