THE CARNATION. 55 



sported, and run from their colours, in an extraordi- 

 nary degree. A neighbour of mine, who had also 

 his share of run-flowers that summer, attributed it 

 to his having neglected mixing slacked lime with 

 his compost, the doing which he had not omitted, 

 he said, for several years before. 



In discoursing also with an experienced gardener 

 the same summer on the subject, he attributed it to 

 the powerful influence of the sun acting upon the 

 corolla, or flower-leaves, whilst in embryo, which, he 

 said, would start the strongest or most predominant 

 colour, and make it suffuse and overrun the whole ; 

 for that evidently no change could take place in the 

 plant to produce that alteration in the colour, previ- 

 ous to the formation of the pod, notwithstanding all 

 the boasted prognostications about run-flowers, from 

 redness on the joints of the stalk, and red strokes on 

 the pod, before it opens. 



After all this discussion on the subject, I believe 

 I must leave it as I found it, uncertain and unde- 

 termined . 



