162 How TO Grow Cut Flowers. 



must be given a lower temperature; nor will it do to 

 deprive them to any extent of their foliage. I consider 

 this a fruitful source of some of the obstacles we meet to- 

 day, and shall have occasion to refer to it again under the 

 head of the diseases to which this plant is susceptible. 

 It will have been observed by those acquainted with 

 carnations, that the conditions most suitable to their 

 development in the open air, are to be found in the 

 month of September. It is then they make the most 

 rapid as well as healthy growth, and if we would 

 obtain the most perfect success it is well for us to study 

 nature's methods during the month spoken of. At 

 this season of the year the days are usually warm but 

 the nights cool, and in the latter part of the month, 

 mercury often indicates fortj'. I do not believe in grow- 

 ing carnations cool, as it is termed, if that means the 

 thermometer should never be allowed to rise above 

 sixty during the day if it can be kept that low. Sep- 

 tember days are warm, and from this we may conclude 

 warmth with plenty of air is not injurious, and if the 

 temperature remains at sixty during the evening, grad- 

 ually falling from that during the night, even to forty, 

 it is much more in accord with the condition of things 

 in the month referred to, than to aim to keep a low tem- 

 perature both day and night. While a mean degree is 

 given at fifty-six, there is no doubt but that varia- 

 tions during the twenty-four hours of from seventy-five 

 at noon to forty or forty-five at four in the morning. 



