Traits and Peculiarities 



9. WHITE VARIEGATED: White ground, with various colored mark- 

 ings. 



10. PINK VARIEGATED: This is a section which is the result of seed 

 sports derived from crimson crosses. The ground color of the flower is 

 usually of a deep Daybreak shade of pink, and the variegations are almost 

 always maroon, or crimson. 



11. A FANCY SECTION, which might be called Flake, of which class 

 Prosperity is a good example. 



There has been no particular reason for this classification, except to 

 keep similar varieties together in order to maintain a better control in the 

 scheme of breeding. 



Traits and Peculiarities 



Probably no commercial florists' flower requires more strict attention to 

 the details of culture, in order to grow it to the best advantage, than the 

 carnation. Undoubtedly, the florist meets with greater disappointments, and 

 his success in cultivating this flower is probably surrounded with more un- 

 certainties, than is connected with the culture of almost any other plant 

 grown for cut flower purposes. The carnation possesses so many individual 

 traits and peculiarities, that the study and patience of the grower are taxed 

 to the utmost. Then, too, the constant introduction of new hybrids, them- 

 selves the production of a generation of hybrids, seems to be developing an 

 increasing list of idiosyncrasies which tend to render successful culture 

 perhaps more difficult than it has been heretofore. This uncertainty in the 

 carnation character is so well known to hybridizers who have worked any 

 length of time in the production of new seedlings, that they insist upon test- 

 ing their new productions a number of years before coming to any definite 

 conclusion regarding their value. A seedling will frequently give the great- 

 est promise for one, two, or even three years, and then, even as late as the 

 fourth year, will indulge in such pranks as refusing to bloom, developing 

 spot, rust or some other disease to such a degree as to practically drive the 

 variety out of cultivation; or it will develop a disposition to burst its calyx 

 which seems impossible to overcome. 



Many of the seedling carnations which produce enormous flowers dur- 

 ing the first years afterward dwindle rapidly, until the blooms become of less 

 than ordinary size. On the other hand, some varieties, that at first do not 

 appear to possess particular merit, gradually increase in size and character,, 

 and in the course of three or four years are developed into valuable kinds. 

 Of varieties with this characteristic, the well-known Mrs. G. M. Bradt is an- 



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