44 



THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



home they are by no means herba- 

 ceous, spreading and growing and 

 flowering the year round. You can 

 lift, divide and propagate new and 

 rare varieties the year round, and you 

 can lift large clumps before frost has 

 touched them and use them in decora- 

 tions. 



It is difficult to pick out even a doz- 

 en varieties, for new sorts are con- 

 stantly appearing and what is con- 

 sidered the finest this year may be 

 eclipsed by seedlings of next year. 

 Cannas that do not flower abundantly 

 and hold their flowers well will not do 

 for bedding, and those minus these 

 qualities will soon be lost sight of. 

 Italia and Austria, so beautiful as in- 

 dividual flowers, are useless planted 

 out as is most likely all that type. 

 Some of the best bedders, if not new, 

 are: 



Madame Crozy: Vermilion scarlet, 

 bordered with golden yellow. 



Florence Vaughan: Fine yellow, 

 mottled with crimson. 



Paul Marquant: Salmon. 



Souvenir de Antoine Crozy: A 

 grand variety; an improvement on 

 Mme. Crozy. 



Tarrytown: Rich bright red. 



Trocadero: Deep crimson lake. 



Charles Henderson: Deep crimson. 



Egandale: Soft red; fine dark foli- 

 age. 



President Carnot: Scarlet; dark 

 foliage. 



Chicago: Vermillion scarlet; fine 

 green foliage. 



President Cleveland: Orange scar- 

 let; one of the best. 



Rose Mawr: Rosy pink. 



Klondike: Orange. 



Admiral Avellan: Orange scarlet; 

 fine dark foliage. 



Papa: One of the best reds; im- 

 mense spike. 



Madame Montefiore: A fine yellow, 

 slightly spotted. 



And dozens of others. Test care- 

 fully the new varieties as they appear, 

 unless you have a chance to see a 

 whole bed of them growing. 



CANDYTUFT. 

 See Annuals. 



CAPE POND WEED. 



See Aponogeton. 



CARLUDOVICA. 



Though frequently considered among 

 palms and grown with them, yet this 

 handsome foliage plant is not a palm, 

 being more nearly related to the pan- 

 danus family. C. atrovirens has been 

 in cultivation for many years, but does 

 not appear to have become common 

 in the trade on this side of the ocean, 

 and as a matter of fact is seldom met 

 with outside of private collections. 



C. atrovirens is a stemless or nearly 

 stemless plant of 'bushy habit, the 

 leaves of which are bifid, plaited some- 

 what like those of a curculigo, and 

 very dark green, as indicated by the 

 specific name. 



This plant grows freely in a warm 

 house, and is not hard to please in 



the matter of compost, but makes 

 more rapid growth in light, rich soil 

 with good drainage, the latter point 

 being the more necessary from the 

 fact that an abundant supply of water 

 is needed for its welfare. 



Propagation may be effected by seeds 

 when these are obtainable, but more 

 often depends on division, as C. atro- 

 virens produces suckers freely, and by 

 washing out the roots these suckers 

 may be separated from the parent 

 plant without difficulty, and soon be- 

 come established plants. 



The carludovicas are said to be na- 

 tives only of tropical South America, 

 where a number of handsome species 

 have been found, one of which, C. pal- 

 mata, possesses additional interest on 

 account of its leaves furnishing the 

 material for the so-called Panama 

 hats, those luxuries of summer dress 

 that are unfortunately beyond the 

 purse of the average florist. But we, 

 may be permitted to grow a plant of 

 Carludovica palmata, and by exercis- 

 ing the imagination we may see the 

 patient South American native select- 

 ing one large young leaf, carefully re- 

 moving the stiff veins or ribs from it, 

 then slitting it into narrow strips, and 

 finally plating it into a shapely head 

 cover without separating the strips at 

 the stem end. Such ingenuity de- 

 serves a proper financial reward, but 

 in all probability the larger portion 

 of the profit is secured by the Euro- 

 pean or American hatter, who ulti- 

 mately retails the product. W. H. T. 



CARNATION. 



If not the most important flower we 

 grow, the carnation certainly stands 

 next to the rose, both in area of glass 



devoted to its culture and value of the 

 flowers sold. Of all our commercial 

 flowers the type of carnations we grow 

 are most distinctively American. They 

 are very different from the tree carna- 

 tion of Europe, which had the reputa- 

 tion of being perennial bloomers there, 

 but the flowers were few and far be- 

 tween and had no such stems as our 

 present day carnations. Nor are they 

 like the garden carnations which come 

 with a grand burst of bloom in June 

 and July, but have no tendency to 

 flower again for another year. It is 

 certain that our strain inheritsi the 

 blood of more than one breed, for 

 seedlings often revert back to varie- 

 ties that produce a strong growth and 

 few flowers, and some again are crop- 

 pers. 



The splendid varieties we have to- 

 day have been produced not suddenly 

 hut by the slow operation of the law 

 of evolution, aided by artificial selec- 

 tion. The first carnations that I at- 

 tempted to flower in the winter 

 months were La Purite, carmine, and 

 Edwardsii and President Degraw, both 

 white, all very free bloomers, and the 

 flowers were always used with short 

 stems. If we had disbudded and picked 

 the flowers with long stems I doubt 

 whether they would be as free as many 

 of our present varieties. 



Astoria was a pioneer among carna- 

 tions and a cross between it and Ed- 

 wardsii produced Buttercup, which was 

 a wonderful flower in its day and 

 which for years had no rival. From 

 1875 to 1885 there were no carnation 

 specialists and the few varieties intro- 

 duced during that time are gone and 

 forgotten. About the latter date ap- 

 peared Grace Wilder, the first of its 



Carnation Mrs. Geo. M. Bradt. 



