THE CARNATION AND PICOTEE 123 



A very fine display can be obtained by growing seedlings, but 

 to obtain anything like good results seed should be saved 

 from the finest varieties in cultivation, and the flowers ought 

 also to be cross-fertilised. This is done by settng aside the 

 best varieties in [their respective classes, and using the pollen 

 of a variety with well-formed flowers and of decided colour. 



The seed bearer should be of robust habit and of good 

 constitution ; the flowers to be also of high-class quality. 

 The flowers of Tree or winter-flowering Carnations are cross- 

 fertilised in May and June. So also is the Malmaison for 

 seed. The border and show Carnation seed is obtained 

 by placing the plants under glass, and setting the blossoms 

 in July, as in that month the flowers are produced without 

 forcing. The seed will ripen in two months, and the pods 

 must be gathered as soon as the seed is nearly black. The 

 pods become brownish when the seed is ripe. Dry the seed 

 in the pods, and when it has lain in a dry place in the pod 

 for two or three weeks the seed may be removed, done up in 

 packets, labelled, and dated, and kept until the spring. The 

 Tree Carnation seed should be sown in February, and if the 

 plants are grown on and carefully attended to they will flower 

 in the autumn and winter of the same year. On the other 

 hand, the Malmaison and border Carnation seed is best if 

 sown about the end of March or early in April, so that the 

 plants have a full season to make their growth ; they will 

 flower in due course the following season. The flowering of 

 the seedlings is a time of excitement ; there will be some 

 pleasant surprises, and, until the amateur is seasoned by some 

 years of experience, times also of disappointment. I receive 

 hundreds of letters from amateurs in the course of the season, 

 and it is amusing to read the different notions they have of 

 the results to be obtained from sowing seed. Many have an 

 idea that they can reproduce the finest varieties from seed ; 

 others that if the seed is saved from the best varieties all the 

 seedlings may be like their parentage to a certain extent, and 

 if any varieties are produced amongst them with single 

 flowers, showing a reversion to the original parentage, the 

 easiest way is to blame the seed. Taking a hundred plants 

 raised from the best strains of seed, there would be a dozen 

 to fifteen plants with single flowers. Seventy or eighty would 

 be varieties with double flowers of unequal merit ; perhaps 

 five or six might be worth growing again to be tested against 

 the named varieties. 



The cross-fertilisation gives some very curious results. 

 For instance, it is intended to produce some new varieties of 



