54 THE CARNATION. 



planted in the open ground in ordinary soil, will 

 often sport, though not so frequently. 



An old florist, who had grown Carnations for 

 more than thirty years, and who had often tried 

 them in poor soil, as well as in rich, assured me that 

 he had found them to sport in both, but oftener in 

 the rich; but that every season was not alike, for 

 they would change some years more than they would 

 in others. He concluded with this remark, that 

 the gout would attack the poor liver as well as the 

 rich, if there was a disposition in the body to have 

 it such was the case, he conceived, with the Car- 

 nation. 



Some again affirm, without being able to explain 

 the process, that it is owing to the fixed alkalis not 

 being properly neutralized by the vegetable and 

 vitriolic acids, that the natural colours are dis- 

 charged. I confess that I am not chemist enough 

 to understand such an operation of nature. 



The summer of 1818, it will be remembered, was 

 a very hot and dry summer, and there was a general 

 complaint among the florists that their flowers had 



