8 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 
exhibitions. Some will even tell you, that Kit was the father 
of the Art. Upon such occasions, he had as many applica- 
tions to dress flowers, as he had to dress wigs, for he was a 
barber and friseur by trade. The novices of that day, who, 
being unacquainted with the secret art, trusted to Nature to 
open, expand, and perfect their flowers, were no match for 
Nunn, for he began where Nature left off, and perfected what 
she had left imperfect. His arrangement and disposition 
of the petals were admirable, and astonished the novices.” 
Kit’s art of dressing is still an enviable art, and attainable only 
byafew. Hogg gives the names of 390 Flakes and Bizarres 
and 113 white-ground Picotees, but not one of them is now 
in existence. We are informed by the same author that 
the yellow Picotee was cultivated in England in the Royal 
Gardens, Frogmore, “obtained principally from Germany, 
and were the delight of all who saw them.” The Empress 
Josephine in the early years of the century had “an admir- 
able collection of yellow Picotees, at Malmaison.” Her 
gardens were at that time under the superintendence of the 
botanist Bonpland. Fortunately Hogg gives a coloured 
plate of what he termed a yellow Picotee, but it is not 
a Picotee at all as we understand Picotees. However, 
Picotees did not pass entirely out of existence. Probably 
the yellow Carnations and Picotees we now possess may 
be traced to the first yellow Carnation recorded in Eng- 
land, which was obtained from Poland and presented to 
Gerard the herbalist, before 1597, by his friend Nicholas 
Lete, a worthy London merchant, but there is no evidence 
that this is so. The yellow Picotees, beloved of Queen 
Charlotte and the Empress Josephine, were of a rich, deep 
yellow. This type of flower was taken in hand by a Mr, 
Richard Smith of Witney, Oxfordshire, about the middle of 
