THE CARNATION AND PICOTEE 55 



I have made a careful selection, and the following are the 

 best : Calypso, pale rose; Horace Hutchinson, bright scarlet; 

 Lady Grimston, pinkish white, handsomely marked deep rose ; 

 Lord Rosebery, dark rose ; Lord Welby, dark crimson ; Mar- 

 got, bright rose ; Mrs. de Satge, bright scarlet ; Mrs. Everard 

 Hambro, crimson-rose; Mrs. Martin Smith,rose; Nell Gwynne, 

 pure white ; Prime Minister, light scarlet ; Princess May, 

 bright rose ; Sir Evelyn Wood, salmon-pink, darker stripes ; 

 The Churchwarden, crimson-scarlet; Trumpeter, very dark 

 scarlet, distinct. The old blush and pink Malmaisons added 

 to the above makes the best selection of eighteen varieties. 



Tree or Perpetual-Flowering Carnations. These are the 

 most delightful ornaments of the greenhouse and conservatory 

 in the late autumn, winter, and spring months, and they are 

 so easily grown that any amateur may enjoy their beauty and 

 delicious fragrance all the year round, for in truth they will 

 continue to flower all through the summer. Large well- 

 branched specimens will give at least a hundred blooms during 

 the season, but perhaps the most useful for ordinary purposes 

 are those grown and flowered in five and six inch flower-pots. 



Propagation and General Culture. As the shoots or slips 

 cannot be layered owing to their position on the plants, they 

 must be propagated entirely by slips or cuttings inserted into 

 pots of sandy soil, and placed in a propagating frame. The 

 earliest cuttings are put in early in January ; they form roots 

 in two or three weeks, and should be removed from the frame 

 as soon as they are rooted, pot them off into small flower-pots, 

 and gradually inure them to a cooler atmosphere. They do 

 better out of doors after the month of May, and should be 

 taken into the greenhouse early in September, when the 

 earliest of them will begin to flower. These one-year-old 

 plants are allowed to flower in five and six inch flower-pots, 

 and the same potting materials may be used as for the others. 

 If large plants are wanted, they may be repotted after flower- 

 ing, into eight and nine inch pots. For these larger plants the 

 soil ought to be packed in firmly over good drainage secured 

 by some quite fibrous loam over the potsherds. In the early 

 stages of growth the plants ought to be stopped. When they 

 are merely about four inches high the centre should be 

 pinched out, and this may be done a second time if the plants 

 are not bushy enough. The plants must be kept clean and 

 quite free from insect pests. An occasional fumigation with 

 tobacco smoke will effect this. 



A few of the best and most distinct varieties are : 

 Comus, white, fine form ; Countess of Warwick, rich crimson ; 

 Julian, very large, crimson-scarlet; Lizzie M'Gowan, white. 



