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THE FLOWER GROWER'S GUIDE. 



Maurice Kivtere. — Amaranth red, purplish leaves, 

 tall. 



M. J. Goos. — Purple and red, medium. 

 *Otto Mann. — Carnation red, medium. 



Paul Bert. — Orange scarlet, purple leaves, dwarf. 

 Picturata. — Yellow, spotted carmine, tall 

 *President Carnot. — Carmine and ^purple, purple 

 leaves, medium. 



* Selection of Twelve Varieties. 



CARNATIONS, PICOTEES, AND PINKS. 



Combining, as these plants do, at least three good properties — hardiness, beauty, and 

 fragrance — there is no wonder at their having been favourites in our gardens for genera- 

 tions. Carnations were the gillyflowers of the old masters in floriculture, and were 

 grown and written about more than three hundred years ago, the grand old author 

 Parkinson (15GT — 1656) observing, " The single in every woman's garden, the double 

 possessed by few." Dianthus caryophyllus is supposed to be the progenitor of the 

 flowers under notice, a native plant, with single flesh-coloured blooms, though other 

 species of the genus have probably not been without influence in the ennoblement of 

 the varieties as we know them to-day. But though these delightful flowers have been 

 in cultivation so long, they are right in the front rank of modern favourites, and among 

 hardy summer flowers approach the rose in popularity : not, it must be admitted, as 

 Florists' Flowers of the most refined beauty, but rather as border flowers for general 

 decorative purposes. From the true florist's point of view, not a few of the varieties 

 now being raised and honoured do not represent advance but retrogression ; they, how- 

 ever, meet the desire of thousands who grow them, and make them happier by their 

 possession. 



Many, if not most, of the decorative carnations, which are now so extensively culti- 

 vated, are what are known as Selfs, the whole flower consisting of one colour, though 

 there are exceptions. Varieties of this useful section are being added to in ever-increas- 

 ing numbers yearly until the lists are almost becoming too formidable. There is no 

 such increase in the parti-coloured flowers of the refined type, so much prized by old 

 and true florists. These varieties consequently possess more permanent value, and to 

 them are usually attached the raisers' names. 



There are no strict and clearly defined points of merit formulated for decorative 

 or border carnations, picotees, and pinks, for the guidance of exhibitors and judges ; 

 but there are for the advanced Florists' varieties, and exhibitors of the blooms must, 

 to be successful, follow much the same lines as were laid down by former generations 

 of florists, and which will be summarised in due course. 



