54 



THE BOOK OF GARDENING. 



Of trembling winter, — the fairest flowers o' the season 

 Are our carnations, and streak'd gillyflowers, 

 Which some call Nature's bastards." 

 And so we love our Carnations for old-time associations as we 

 do for their sweetness and surpassing beauty. There is no need 

 to write a historical retrospect on these flowers, the fairest and 

 sweetest in the garden ; but they are now divided into so many 

 classes and sections that the tyro in their culture is puzzled to 

 comprehend the arrangement of the fancier. 



Classification. — For garden and exhibition purposes. Carna- 

 tions are divided into the following classes : 



Scarlet Bizarres have the petals striped and flaked with scarlet 

 and maroon on a white ground. Crimson Bizarres have crimson 

 and purple on a white ground. Pink and Purple Bizarres have 

 those colours on a white ground. Purple Flakes have purple 

 flakes and stripes on white. There are also Scarlet and Rose 

 Flakes (Fig. 31 a). Then there are Selfs. These, of course, have 

 the flowers all of one colour. Fancies include all the varieties that 

 cannot be admitted in any of the other classes, such as those 

 with a yellow- or a white-ground, as well as those mottled, 

 flaked, or spotted with various colours. 



Picotees (Fig. 31 b) are really Carnations, and are comprised 

 in both the White- and Yellow-Ground sections. They have a 

 continuous edge of colour, wide or narrow, the rest of the flower 

 being white or yellow, and the fewer stripes, spots, or bars, on 

 the petals, the more are they esteemed. The Yellow-Ground 

 Picotees have not yet attained to such a high standard of 

 excellence as the White-Ground. The latter for show and garden 

 purposes are divided into six classes, according to the colour or 

 width of the margin, thus : light and heavy red edges ; light 

 and heavy purple edges ; light and heavy rose and scarlet edges. 



Culture. — The Carnation is propagated by seed, layers, 

 and slips, or cuttings. The first method is employed to 

 obtain new varieties. Whether cross-fertilised or not, the 

 Carnation is certain to vary very considerably from seed. 

 Many of the seedlings will be as good as, or better 

 than, the parent plant, but many more of them will not be 

 so good, and even if the seed is obtained from the finest 

 double flowers, there will still be a number of single-flowered 

 varieties among them — about ten per cent. These varieties with 

 single flowers are pretty enough, but very fugacious, evidently 

 because they fertilise so readily. There is much pleasure in 



