PROPAGATION BY SEED 



THE wild flower designated Dianthus Caryophyllus is the 

 assumed parent of the long line of Carnations, Picotees, 

 and Clove Gilliflowers, an intense obscurity as already 

 mentioned resting on their early history ; but it is not a 

 little remarkable that all along from the time we have any 

 definite knowledge of them, sorts of the finer section, 

 alike on the Continent and in England, have been culti- 

 vated in pots, vases, or tubs, and protected from inclement 

 weather in winter, while alongside these, plants of a hardier 

 not by any means always a more robust strain have 

 been left to take care of themselves, exposed in the open 

 garden to every change of the elements. Theoretically, 

 all Carnations are hardy, but it is an incontrovertible fact 

 that a necessity exists, and has always existed, for treating 

 a certain number as not altogether hardy. Yet, as seed- 

 lings, all thrive in the open, though once reproduction by 

 other means has been effected a proportion betray a 

 constitution demanding protection and care. The plant 

 under some conditions is by no means short-lived, and I 

 have indeed had seedlings that throve during a number of 

 years, the plants extending meanwhile into large clumps. 

 The most perfectly adapted, as also the most natural 

 method of propagation would accordingly appear to be by 

 means of seeds, which, moreover, possesses other com- 

 mendable points, being at once the most facile, cheap, 

 and rapid method of creating a stock of plants that in 



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