HISTORY OF THE CARNATION 13 



important advances in the flower. In addition to the classes 

 named by Rea, there were also red and blush, blush and 

 white, selfs, tri-coloured, which were obviously yellow 

 fancies, and the very first mention of an edged flower, or 

 as we would now call it, a Picotee. Its name and descrip- 

 tion is perhaps worth recording, " Fair Helena, only edged 

 with purple." The fashion in large flowers continued 

 to increase, by-and-by to such an extent that those 

 sorts alone were esteemed that produced a double bud, 

 or an inner pod as it was termed, as is sometimes seen 

 in the present-day Malmaison. Very great care and 

 skill was expended on the preservation of the earlier- 

 formed petals, till those on the inner pod were also 

 expanded. The plants cultivated exclusively in pots, 

 were disbudded to one bloom on each. From the fact 

 that seedlings possessed of calyces that split were alone 

 preserved for cultivation, they were popularly known 

 as Bursters, ordinary varieties with whole calyces being 

 called Whole Blowers, these being disposed of in flower 

 borders as unworthy the serious attention of the advanced 

 florist. Shortly after the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century a quite new disposition of the sections occur. 

 These were Piquettes, or Picketees, Flakes, Painted 

 Ladies, and Beazarts, or Bizarres. The last named were 

 still of the Burster type, and it was not until 1740 that 

 the hitherto neglected Whole Blowers ousted these large 

 and coarse varieties from chief position. The new type 

 of flowers seem to have been introduced from France, 

 because they were called also French Flakes. Serrated 

 petals were noted at the same time as a serious blemish, 

 but these were gradually eliminated, and by the end 

 of the century the edges of the petals were perfectly 

 smooth. These changes witnessed also the transference 

 of the unit of perfection from the flower to the petal. 

 The disposal of the marks in Bizarres and Flakes was also 

 subjected to clearly defined rules ; and, as a fact, we know 



