36 THE BOOK OF THE CARNATION 



present day to be told that Malmaisons at first were 

 propagated solely from cuttings, that the young plants 

 were pinched to induce a bushy growth, and that speci- 

 men plants were produced without permitting the pro- 

 duction of flowers until they had attained the proportions 

 desired. I remember the first plant of Malmaison of my 

 acquaintance was a large specimen in full flower, with 

 the shoots and flower-stems tied to a globe-shaped wire 

 frame ! The plant is of course really a tree carnation, 

 and there was less difficulty in training it to that form 

 than at first sight might appear. By degrees the practice 

 of layering superseded propagation by means of cuttings, 

 though the older race of cultivators retained the belief 

 that plants were less healthy produced in that way. 



Malmaisons from layers are treated somewhat differ- 

 ently from other carnations. The general practice is to 

 set apart frame-space sufficient to hold the number of 

 plants to be manipulated. The plants are then turned 

 out of their pots, the ball sunk into the soil, and the 

 shoots pegged into some material that will produce roots 

 rapidly. Shortly after the emission of roots, the layer is 

 severed from the parent plant, permitted to make a nice 

 ball of roots, and then transferred singly to flower-pots 

 of four or five inches diameter. My own practice during 

 the past few years varies somewhat from the above 

 method. Acting on the well-recognized principle that 

 any check to a Malmaison is by any means to be avoided 

 or at least minimized, I have layered the shoots into 

 three-inch pots, in this way securing the young plants 

 against any check at this stage. There is a little more 

 labour involved in carrying out this method, but the 

 results, I think, amply compensate. Another system that 

 appears to me worth adopting in the north, where growers 

 are seriously handicapped in getting layers down suffi- 

 ciently early in the year, is that long customary among 

 cultivators of ordinary Carnations in pots, who root the 



