STANDARD OF POINTING 71 
tained for further trial, as it usually takes two, and some- 
times three years to determine whether they are valuable. 
The flower, not less than the plant, must possess some 
outstanding merit before it can be classed with the best. 
It is unfortunate that some of the finest Carnations, re- 
markable for their beauty in form and colour, should lack 
the perfume so characteristic of the “Malmaison” and 
old Clove Carnations. A flower of Enchantress, if it 
possessed the perfume of an old Scotch Clove, would 
indeed be an acquisition, and it seems to me the present 
type at its best can hardly be improved upon except in 
this direction. 
Seed of the Perpetual-Flowering Carnation may be pro- 
cured from most seedsmen, and can be relied upon to 
produce plants yielding a fine display of flowers of varied 
colours, both in the open garden and in pots, or planted out 
under glass. A small percentage of these will have single 
flowers, but even the single flowers are not to be despised 
for cut-flower purposes, As a guide to the good qualities a 
perfect plant and flower should possess, I cannot do better 
than quote The Perpetual-Flowering Carnation Society’s 
standard of pointing, one hundred points being the maximum 
number obtainable by the perfect plant and flower :— 
“Colour . ; ; z ; 5 . 20 points 
Size ; F i ‘ i ‘ « 20 4, 
Fragrance. é 3 ‘ ‘ ; . IO 4, 
Substance . ‘ ‘ ‘ : ; & EO. 45 
Calyx. ; 6 is ‘ i P a ee 
Habit of Plant . . ‘i e : # BO 4 
Form . : . . ° ° F eo SEG 44 
