98 NEW ZEALAND GARDENING. 



down (called sometimes feathering or barring], neither 

 should the white ground run through the coloured border to 

 the edge of any one of the petals. 2. The ground must be 

 pure white, without the slightest spot. 



Disqualification of a Carnation or Pico fee. i. If there 

 be any petal dead or mutilated. 2. If there be any one 

 petal in which there is no colour. 3. If there be any one 

 petal in which there is no white. 4. If a pod be split down 

 to the sub-calyx. 5. If a guard petal be badly split. 6. 

 Notched edges are glaring faults, for which no excellence in 

 other respects compensates. 



Soil. Fresh loam is absolutely necessary, procured from 

 an old pasture if possible. Add to this about one-fourth of 

 two-year-old well decomposed cow manure, and the same 

 quantity of leaf mould. A small quantity of finely sifted 

 old lime rubbish will be found useful to mix with it. Wire- 

 worms are very destructive to all of the Carnation tribe ; a 

 good look out should be kept for them when planting the 

 beds. 



Thinning the Buds. Select three or four of the most 

 promising on each stem, and strip off the remainder. This 

 rule applies only to such as are intended for exhibiting as 

 cut blooms. 



Propagation : by Seed. A perfectly double flower cannot 

 produce seed ; to do so the flower must be only partially 

 double, and the seed-pods will be shorter, and the seeds 

 fewer in such flowers than in single flowers. Save seed from 

 flowers as double as possible ; gather it as soon as it is ripe, 

 and keep it dry and cool through the Winter. Sow in boxes 

 in September, placed under glass or on a warm border. In 

 November, or as soon as the young plants are sufficiently 

 large to handle, transplant them on a bed enriched with 

 leaf mould, or very decayed hotbed manure. Plant them 

 nine inches apart, and let them remain in that bed through 

 the succeeding Summer and Winter. They will all flower 

 the season following. Mark such as are good, name them, 

 and layer them in the way to be described presently. After- 

 wards treat them exactly like your old varieties. 



By Layers. A layer is a branch or shoot brought down 

 to the ground, and when rooted, separated from its parent. 

 The materials wanted for layering are a sharp small knife, a 



