Annals of Horticulture. 



. . flowers are too small. Fred. Dorner, scarlet, is too coarse, 

 a, „ew and its tendency to burst the calyx seems greater than it did 



carnations. t h e first year it was introduced. In all my experiments in the 

 raising of seedling carnations, I have carefully selected for 

 breeders those varieties which have little or no disposition to 

 burst the calyx and those having broad petals instead of those 

 having a great number. It is much better to have a given 

 number of petals well disposed than to have a confused mass 

 of petals; the latter flower lacks high character. Caesar has 

 some excellent qualities as a breeder, but its color is not good, 

 and it certainly possesses too many petals. It has a good 

 stem, a strong constitution, and, for a flower having so many 

 petals, its tendency to burst is not great. Much to my own 

 mortification and disapointment, I have never found a variety 

 which was entirely free from this fault of bursting the calyx. 

 "Some years ago, the first flower of one of my own seed- 



rie^s W ma a y lings pleased me greatly. It was beautiful in form and 

 stable" di st i nct in color, a large flower, stout stem, and it did not 

 burst the calyx. I raised every cutting from it. When the 

 plants flowered the following year, much to my displeasure 

 and discomfiture, the flower which did not burst its calyx was 

 the exception and not the rule, and it has never yet produced 

 a flower equal to the first one. When a plant is in its juvenile 

 state it is not advisable to even hope that it may prove to be 

 a winner. Two years ago a rather small plant, a seedling 

 carnation, produced a flower of good proportions and excel- 

 lent form, and well marked, but nothing remarkable promised. 



still better, and this year it is exceptionally good in every 

 way. It will render a good account of itself in the near fu- 

 ture. It often takes a new variety three or four years to 

 prove itself. The raising of seedlings is an expensive luxury, 

 if it be carried on in anything like a large scale. But there 

 is a mild form of excitement attending it which is thoroughly 

 enjoyed by the enthusiast. 



"The prices for carnations have not ruled so good this year 

 as last. This has been brought about by the supply being 

 Prices, somewhat greater than the demand. The drought of last 

 summer and autumn was influential in producing a less 

 rampant growth than is usual in a more moist season; that is 

 to say, it made a semi-ripened growth, which is believed to 



