234 GENERAL REVIEW. 



produce of an accidental intermixture of a florists' Pink with 

 a crimson Sweet-William." 



In Carnations the seedlings have a great disposition to follow 

 the colour of the seed-bearing parent. 



An old garden form named Fairchild's Mule is supposed to 

 be the result of a cross between a Dianthus superbus and D. 

 caryophyllus (see Darwin, 'Loves of the Plants/ p. 216). For 

 figures of the earlier-introduced species of Dianthus, see the 

 earlier numbers of the ' Botanical Magazine.' 



Layers. The best florists' or exhibition varieties of Pinks 

 and Carnations are generally propagated by layers, July or the 

 beginning of August being the best time. Layering is a simple 

 operation, and a sure one if neatly performed. Take a basket 

 of fine sandy earth, a sharp budding-knife, and a quantity of 

 small pegs made of an old birch broom or dried stalks of the 

 common Brake Fern. Select the best-developed shoots for 

 layerings, and stroking up the leaves in the left hand, just 

 remove their tips with the knife, and then trim off the lower 

 leaves. Select that part of the shoot below the terminal tuft of 

 leaves, and make a transverse but sloping cut about half-way 

 through a joint ; then bend down the shoot to the surface of 

 the bed, and secure it with one of your little pegs ; then cover it 

 with soil from the basket, leaving the ends of the shoots only 

 free, and the operation is complete. Where several shoots are 

 layered on the same plant or " stool," the earthing-up process 

 may be left until the slitting and pegging operations are finished. 

 When layering is performed early say in July the plants 

 (layers) become well rooted and ready for potting off or plant- 

 ing out before winter. Shortening the tuft of leaves serves no 

 useful purpose except that it enables the cultivator to see the 

 future growth of the layered branch, and so judge of the root 

 formation going on below the soil. 



Pipings or Cuttings. This method of propagation is gene- 

 rally adopted for " Tree Carnations," now so largely cultivated 

 as cool greenhouse plants in most gardens, as well as for the 

 ordinary varieties of Cloves, Picotees, and Pinks. In Messrs 

 Low's nursery at Clapton, where hundreds of Tree Carnations 

 are propagated every year, the common practice is to pull off 

 the ends of the shoots and insert them at once in pans of light 

 earth, sand, and leaf-mould, placed in a moist atmosphere on 

 a gentle bottom-heat ; and, so treated, failures are very rare. 

 Hardy Pinks and Carnations may be treated in the same way, 

 or the shoots may be cut below the third or fourth joint with a 

 sharp knife. Have ready pans of light compost, well drained 

 and covered with a layer of sand, into which prick the cuttings, 



