364 Cultivation of the Carnation and Picotee. 



decomposed as to be readily run and rubbed through an inch 

 riddle. If you find this too light and sandy, there must be a 

 sufficient quantity of marl or stiffish loam mixed and well 

 incorporated with it, to make it altogether rather of an ad- 

 hesive quality, which will make it suitable for every kind of 

 florists' flowers. On the other hand, if your turf has been 

 procured from a field of stiffish land, then a sufficient quantity 

 of coarse drift or river sand, or old mortar rubbish beaten to 

 pieces, or both, should be riddled and well mixed with it — 

 these being excellent materials for internal drainage, which is 

 the principal object of such a mixture with such a soil, and 

 absolutely necessary for the health and vigor of the carna- 

 tion ; lime is also very good for the purpose, though it does 

 not possess any vegetative influence : above all, you must 

 endeavor so to manufacture your compost as that it shall 

 become permeable and retentive in imbibing a necessary 

 quantity of water, and yet admitting of sufficient percolation 

 for the exudation of a superabundance. 



PROPERTIES OF A FINE CARNATION AND PICOTEE. 



The peculiar properties of the picotee, whose blossoms dis- 

 play such varied and fanciful delineations, presenting all the 

 delicate and softer tints of the carnation without its precise- 

 ness and regularity, have caused it to be cultivated separately 

 and as far removed from each other's society as might be 

 convenient, lest the pollen of the picotee, with its spotted 

 leaves and indented edges, should become impregnated with 

 that of the carnation, and so spoil its breed. This precau- 

 tion, however, is only necessary where the florist's attention 

 is principally directed to raising fine blooms from seed ; and 

 all danger is removed by the admirable method of propagating 

 this flower by means of layers, the particulars of which have 

 been described. The markings of the picotee seem pen- 

 cilled by the hand of Nature in her sportive mood ; at one 

 time on a snow-white ground a vast profusion of small irreg- 

 ular spots appear — red, black, or purple ; at another a few 

 straight lines, or dashes of the pencil only, are seen on some 

 of the larger petals ; then a fanciful mixture of both together, 



