.NURSERY WORK 



and so link up the spring and autumn crops of those grown under 

 glass. We shall have occasion to refer to this later on. 



If we were asked to offer an opinion as to the popularity of the 

 carnation we should suggest, as one great factor, this quality of 

 continuity, and as another its very gratifying length of stalk, which 

 enables it so efficiently to set off its charms and graces. For, we 

 think, that notwithstanding its many perfections in form, colour, 

 and sweetness, these would be seriously handicapped if they were 

 attached to a short, stiff stalk. 



This is from the popular point of view. Growers, while endorsing 

 both these reasons, would add to them others no less decisive. 

 They find in the carnation an easily grown subject, one of which 

 the stock can be quickly and readily increased ; one not too prone 

 to virulent diseases which take so much time and trouble to combat. 

 Another great merit is that it does not insist upon specially designed 

 greenhouses in which it must be grown, and if the specialist 

 has designed the most suitable kind of house in which to grow it 

 in quantity, the reason is that because he specialises he naturally 

 makes a special study of what his plants best appreciate. Add 

 to this that the finished flower lends itself to packing with the 

 greatest economy of space, that it is not ultra-fragile, and that 

 considerable value may be easily accommodated in quite a light 

 package, and the sum total of its merits mount up to a respectable 

 whole. 



The one demerit of the perpetual carnation, which though but one 

 is rather formidable, is its deficiency in perfume. Most of our popu- 

 lar dianthus, the pinks and the clove carnation among them, are 

 deliciously scented, and this was among their greatest merits. 

 For centuries past the carnation has been so closely associated 

 with perfume that it seems almost impossible to dissociate them 

 a scentless carnation being almost unimaginable and it is this 

 long tradition which makes us the more keenly alive to the lack of 

 it in this modern creation. That this has proved so little derogatory 

 to its advance in popularity is abounding testimony to its other 

 high qualities, for though the fastidious may still advance it as an 

 objection, there is no flower extant which has so quickly and 

 completely established itself as indispensable. Any florist is more 

 or less prepared to swear by it, and would emphatically declare 



