484 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



with a thin strip of matting to prevent their bursting. In hot 

 weather syringing up to the time the buds are showing colour 

 is very beneficial in keeping down thrips, invigorating the 

 plants, and inducing gradual and perfect opening of the buds. 



By the first or second week of July, according to the season, 

 the greater number will be showing colour, and will then need 

 to be protected from injury by sun or ram. 



Where the stock is not large, or where stock and garden are 

 both large, a glass house affords, without doubt, the most con- 

 venient quarters for flowering — a free circulation of air and 

 shading from hot sun being matters of course. Where, how- 

 ever, as in my own case, the stock is comparatively large and the 

 garden relatively small, the erection of a glass house large 

 enough to take all the plants would be too great a sacrifice of 

 garden space. By putting up a light but sufficiently strong 

 woodwork over the stage, and a covering of very good calico 

 stout enough to resist heavy rain while admitting light freely, a 

 glass house may be dispensed with. Such a simple structure 

 I have found sufficient to resist the heavy rain-storms of the last 

 three seasons, without the least injury resulting to the blooms. 

 The flowers, even in the cold summer of 1888, developed per- 

 fectly under this protection, both as to colour and form— the 

 first-prize twelve Carnations and twelve Picotees at Oxford 

 that year, and at Westminster last year, and the first twelve 

 Carnations and first six Picotees at Chiswick this year having 

 been all flowered in this way. 



Opportunity should be taken in the early morning before the 

 sun comes on, and again in the evening as soon as it has gone 

 off, to lift the awning, so as to give both plants and bloom the 

 full benefit of the air, and in warm, settled weather I keep it off 

 at night altogether. 



Seed should be saved by careful fertilisation of the best 

 varieties in each class of Carnations and Picotees. It should be 

 sown about the latter end of March or beginning of April in 

 pans, which should be placed in a cold frame. It will germinate 

 in about ten days or a fortnight. The young plants are pricked 

 out in boxes soon after they show the second leaf, and early in 

 June are planted in the beds where they are to bloom the follow- 

 ing year. 



Having dealt so far with purely cultural details, it may be 



