Sports and Variations 



edges. Daybreak and its progeny give many one-sided flowers, when grown 

 in a very rich soil, and highly fed. Some varieties burst the calyx badly when 

 grown in a low temperature. Mrs. Thomas W. Lawson and Eldorado are 

 examples of this class. Other varieties burst the calyx if over-watered. 

 Mrs. Lawson is apt to do this, and during the dark winter months should be 

 kept a little on the dry side. Other varieties show a marked disposition to 

 develop rust, or other fungous diseases. Such kinds should be discarded as 

 seed or pollen parents. Breeding from disease-resisting sorts is to be pre- 

 ferred. 



Sports and Variations 



A carnation sport may be described as a distinct and definite variation 

 from the regular type of the variety. This variation may consist of a change 

 in color; that is, a plant bearing scarlet blooms may give a snow-white 

 flower upon one branch. The cuttings taken from this branch will probably 

 produce a certain proportion of plants that will reproduce the white form ; 

 but a certain number will revert toward the type, and produce scarlet 

 blooms. Some of the plants may produce white flowers ; others blooms that 

 are parti-colored, or variegated ; others will produce white blooms upon one 

 portion of the plant, and flowers of the type upon the remainder. Continual 

 selection from the branches producing the white blooms, and particularly 

 from plants that reproduce all white flowers, will finally fix the sport, and it 

 then becomes a variety. This type of sporting is called "bud variation." 



"Color sports" are frequently very unreliable, especially where there is 

 no variation in the habit of the plant ; but frequently color sports are accom- 

 panied with a variation in the habit as well, and, in such cases, they are apt 

 to be more permanent. 



There are also sports in time of blooming. For instance, a very late 

 variety may produce branches that give flowers early in the season, although 

 the blooms may be the same as those of the type. A selection of propagating 

 wood from these earlier flowering branches will, in time, fix a variety which 

 will remain constant as an early bloomer. 



There is also more or less variation in the habits of plants which might 

 be termed "foliage sports ;" that is, varieties with narrow foliage and rather 

 slender, weak stems, may produce strong shoots, bearing broad foliage ; this 

 characteristic may also be fixed by the process of selecting the propagating^ 

 wood. 



Frequently, variegated carnations will give self-colored flowers of the 

 same shade as the markings of the blooms which exist in the type. In such 



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