456 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [xXVIII. 



In three directions, therefore, the ideal carnation 

 of last century was like ours ; it was fringeless, a 

 "whole flower," and had a rounded center and flat 

 limb. The first of these characters — the fringeless 

 petals — had come to be a varietal character a hun- 

 dred years ago, but the other features were still, at 

 that time, largely the subjects of artificial dressing. 

 These artificial forms and characters, however, so 

 deeply impressed themselves upon growers that there 

 arose an apparently unconscious effort to breed and 

 select those forms which most nearly approached the 

 artificial standard ; so that what was once an arbi- 

 trary conception of the mind has now become a char- 

 acteristic feature of the plant. This is incontrover- 

 tible evidence that a conventional standard may serve 

 a useful purpose in the breeding of plants, and it 

 lends new interest to Mr. Thorpe's model flower. 



If the carnation has been modified so profoundly 

 in so many directions, is it too much to demand that 

 the size should be increased to four inches ? If we 

 examine this question historically, we find that the 

 early ideals said nothing about absolute size of flower 

 or length of flower stem. Characters other than big- 

 ness were sought in those days. Miller's points of a 

 good carnation are these (1752): 



"l. The stem of the flower should be strong, 

 and able to support the weight of the flower without 

 loping down. 



"2. The petals (or leaves) of the flower should 

 be long, broad and stiff, and pretty easy to expand, 

 or (as the florists term 'em) should be free flowers. 



"3. The middle pod of the flower should not ad- 

 vance too high above the other part of the flower. 



