XXVIII.] THE OUTDOOR CARNATIONS. 461 



size can become a permanent varietal characteristic 

 under common treatment. The four -inch flower can 

 be produced, because it has already been recorded ; 

 whether the other characters of Mr. Thorpe's flower 

 will appear will depend much upon the care which 

 we give to forceful cultivation. This means increased 

 cost, and the grower must decide whether it will be 

 worth the while. It is by no means certain that a 

 dollar flower would be profitable. 



m. 



Border Carnations. * 



A year ago I urged upon this Society the importance 

 of encouraging the cultivation of the outdoor or 

 border types of carnations, which have been an im- 

 portant feature of European gardens for centuries. I 

 then called attention to the fact that only one of the 

 several leading families of carnations is commonly 

 known in this country, — the winter or forcing types. 

 It is a signal illustration of the fact that plants adapt 

 themselves to our own ideals, that the great develop- 

 ment of our greenhouse gardening in recent years 

 has resulted in a wonderful evolution of forcing 

 varieties and in a corresponding poverty of border 

 varieties ; so that while the border varieties are the 

 original stock from which all other types of carna- 

 tions have come and are still the most important 

 family across the Atlantic, in this new country, with 



' I Read before the Third Annual Meeting of the American Carnation Society 

 at Indianapolis, Indiana, February 21, 1894. Printed in the Report of the So- 

 ciety for 1894, pp. 47 to 49 ; also in Florist's Exchanjse, vi. 218. 



