CHAPTER VIII 



BORDER CARNATIONS 



THE tremendous impetus given to the cultivation of the carnation 

 by\the advent and exploitation of the perpetual flowering varieties 

 has not been without its effect upon the fortunes of the parent 

 stock the far more better known and even now most widely grown 

 border carnations. This type, though somewhat overshadowed, 

 perhaps only temporarily, by its more obtrusive offspring, has lost 

 none of its popularity, and none of its virtues, but, on the contrary, 

 has added to both. It is, and will remain what it has been for 

 centuries, the " good old English flower " ; its cult will never die 

 out, and the centuries to come will cherish it as warmly as did the 

 elegant courtiers who hovered like butterflies about our " Good 

 Queen Bess." 



" This fairest of flowers," extolled by the world's greatest poet 

 more than three hundred years ago, is as full of vitality as ever, 

 and every year its ardent devotees (we call them specialists 

 nowadays) who labour so earnestly and assiduously for it because 

 they love it, are improving it in the right directions. Having 

 due regard to its outstanding qualities, they sacrifice nothing of 

 its complete hardiness, or its splendid form, content with its 

 old and regular outline, its exquisite perfume and its prodigality 

 of blooms, but adding new shades, new combinations, new 

 perfections, and increased strength, as become those who have 

 very near to their hearts the welfare and progress of this their 

 favourite flower. 



In our esteem for the border carnation we hold ourselves as 

 second to none, but this would not alone justify a lengthy reference 

 to it in this work. Had we not a profound faith in its commercial 

 value and possibilities we should have passed it by as we pass by 

 many other good and useful garden plants which do not possess 

 that qualification. But more than with most plants the commercial 

 possibilities of the border carnation do exist ; existed long before 

 our time, and can boast a far longer record than almost any present- 



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