XXVIII.] EARLY MODELS FOR THE CARNATION. 457 



"4. The colors should be brigrht, and equally 

 marked all over the flower. 



"5. The flower should be very full of leaves, so 

 as to render it, when blown, very thick and high in 

 the middle, and the outside perfectly round." 



You will notice that nothing is said here about 

 size ; and although the ideal plant should have strong 

 stems, nothing is said about long ones, for there was 

 no cut -flower trade in those days. It was some time 

 later than this that definite size began to be men- 

 tioned. 



In 1807 Martyn added to Miller's model the re- 

 quirement that "the stem should not only be strong, 

 but straight, and not less than thirty or more than 

 forty -five inches high." But even these figures re- 

 ferred to the total height of the plant and not to the 

 flower stems ; and it may be said, also, that these 

 plants were not to be forced, as ours are. But 

 Martyn further adds that "the flower should be at 

 least three inches in diameter." This standard of size 

 was copied by many writers in England and Amer- 

 ica for a period of thirty or forty years, and there 

 is indication that it was often realized. In fact, 

 Vilmorin says, recently, that "some carnations have 

 flowers three and even four inches in diameter."* 

 Here, then, is the diameter of John Thorpe's flower. 

 But large flowers were known long ago. In 1613 

 Besslert figured carnations three and one -half inches 

 in diameter, grown in Switzerland. In 1788, Wm. 

 Curtis t figured a bizarre three and one -fourth inches 



* " Certains de ces CEillets avaient des fleurs de 8 et meme de 10 centimetres 

 de diametre." — Fleurs de Pleine Terre, 767. 

 t Hortus Eystettensis. 

 tBot. Mag. t. 30. 



