February 24, 1912. 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



155 



1 



CARNATION MAY DAY, 



During the past two or three years a 

 considerable number of perpetual carna- 

 tions of quite exceptional merit have been 

 introduced to cultivation, and prominent 

 among them is the charming variety, May 

 Dav which at once obtained attention, and 

 is regarded with much favour by cultiva- 

 tors. This excellent carnation is of Ameri- 



can orig:n 

 <'ountry in 

 the 



and 

 1909. 



at the English 

 following, when 

 sessinir merit of 



was introduced to this 

 and made its appearance 

 exhibitions in the 



in tne year 

 it was recognised as pos- 

 a high order. At the ex- 

 hibition held by the Perpetual Carnation 

 Society, on June 9, 1910, it received 

 the award of a First-class Certificate, and 

 was one of the three varieties with which 

 Mr. W. Wallace, of Eaton Bray^ won the 

 American Carnation Society's silver cup, 

 offered as the premier award for thiee 

 vases of American novelties. 



The flowers of May Day are large in size 

 and of fine form, with shell-like petals 

 and borne on long, stiff stems. The colour 

 :'s siilmon-pink, with satin-like finish. Its 



free growth and abundant and continuous 

 flower 



production i ender the 

 equally valuable in private gardens 

 commercial establishments. 



variety 

 and 



COLOUR. 



The question of which of the two organic 

 worlds, the vegetable or the animal, pre- 

 sents the wider range and greater bril- 

 liancy of colour, is a very open one. The 

 flower lover would, at first sight, be fully 

 justified in claiming pre-eminence in that 

 i-espect for his pets, but both the ornitholo- 

 gist and the entomologist could cite plenty 

 of ground for, at any rate, an equality, 

 and when we come to the sea anemones, 

 many seaAveeds, and also many fish espe- 

 «^'ially tropical ones, we shall certainly find 

 that even our richest rainbows of the floral 

 wor'd find worthy rivals in many sections 

 OT the other realm of life. How colour is 

 I>n)duced is, in maay instances, somewhat 

 ot a mystery. Actual pigments are by no 

 nieans necessary, as the very rainbo-w itself 

 proves. The most brilliant and the purest 

 'lilts can be produced b}- mere molecular 

 '"nditions which t«nd to break up the pure 

 ^^liitc light of the sun into its constituents 

 'I'l <onvey them, to the wonderful nerve 

 \VM(Mii of our eyes in such a way as to pro- 



tin- most diverse effects. 'Thus it is 

 '\it 1 tile hoinitiful tints displayed by the 

 Pii . inotln-r .,1 pear!, etc., in the inorganic 

 |\orl(l. and many of the tints of feathers of 



and s<>a!es of butterfiios, are donbt- 

 "•-^ due to ligiit refraction more than 

 "jil Pismentation or presence of actual 

 ounnn; matter. Whetiier. however, the 

 ■ "lo'irs We perceive are <lue to n^fraction or 

 ■^^mcnts IS rather a distinction without a 

 ai chtterence, since even in the pigments 

 eir colour is only due to decomposition o 

 " ^^■l^te light rays, part of whose com 



i : 



4> .f-t-> 



. ......v^wT^-^ .>,incc even in the pigments 



^ir colour is only due to decomposition of 

 nnn . ''Sht rays, part of whose com- 

 pom^nt colours they absorb and reject the 



^ a special colour impression to the 



other colours are displayed, generally in 

 their petals and corollas^ but sometimes, as 



in poinsettias and hydrangeas, associated 

 leaves are so modified as to display bril- 

 liant colours instead of chlorophyllic green, 

 and thus indirectly produce the same effect 

 as brilliant petals by attracting the insect 

 world to act as fertilisini>; intermediaries. 

 The infinite delicac}^ of the evolution of 

 colour in flowers is seen in tlie fact that 

 their tints often p^^es through various 

 gi-ades of change during the transient life 

 of the blossom. 



of difi^crently coloured pigments, but that 

 colours were often due to varied pigments 

 arranged in superposed cell layers. These 

 pigments consisted of coloured grains, with 

 interstices between them, and a very slight 

 change in the position of the containiag 

 cells suflficed to show one layer through the 

 other or to hide one entirely beneath the 

 other, as the case might be, and thus pro- 

 duce a quite different colour eff^ect upon 

 the eye, though the actual materials pre- 

 sent were i<lenticai. From this we can see 



Each of these changes that very slight constitutional changes in 



t 



'A J 



G.M.t090 



- rr 



CARNATION MAY DAY. 



A distinct American perpetual-flowering va riety, with finely-formed flowers of a bright 



salmon-pink hue. 



Ilicrofore it is obvious that the colour nioans some subtle alteration in the power a plant may pi wluce very marke<l differ- 



cn,,ii v 7\'; '-^^^"y an innate 



; } of the object seen, but a quality 



' refuses to retain. In the plant 

 , the prevailing colour is green due to 



i W n^i P't'^r'^ tiny grains of 



'< Pl'v I which practically do all the 



; ork of the world by' utilising the 



l,v ts "'Y'''"* sunbeam and 



J nint,,;,! "P gas and inorganic 



ani ;; ' ^ assimilable nutrition fo? the 



'^^t't. It IS mostly in the flowers that 



of selection of the light rays to be absorbed 

 or rejected as explained above. As a result 

 of selective cultivation, flowers Ikivc often 

 been induced to assiune quite other tints 

 than the normal wild ones, and occasion- 

 ally^ and not rarely, we find one and the 

 same plant suddenly producing ''sports" 

 quite distinct in hue from the type. 



Mr. E. A. Bunvard, in a very interest- 

 ing lecture at the Horticultural Club, 



ences. It is a curious and interesting fact 

 that, although, as we have said, ch'orophyll 

 in its iu)rin;d gr<*en state is tht* pr*'v:»icnt 

 tint of vei;ctation during tlu^ a:*tivc jx^riod 

 of growth, it isvi'tcapable wln^n thit piM'iod 

 ends, and its work is finiRh<Ml, of displaying 

 in its decay in the autumn such a brilliant 

 and varied garment of colour fis then 

 clothes our landscapes in a myriad other 

 tints, as if it almost seems tired of its un- 



demonstrattxl that such changes may not be assuming working vestments, 

 due to the actual introduction, as it were, 



C. T, D. 



