CULTURE OF THE GENUS DIANTHUS. 
71 
“ These collars are made of white card paper, in the form of a 
circle, of three or four inches in diameter, with a hole in the 
centre, just large enough to admit the calyx, or pod, without 
much compressing it, and with a cut extending from the centre 
to the outside or circumference, like the radius of a circle : on 
these the petals are finely disposed, and the beauty of the carnation displayed to 
great advantage.” 
21. In the month of June, give the plants a top-dressing of leaf mould and 
sheep-dung, which will give them a very healthy appearance, and enable them to 
grow much stronger, and give a greater richness and brilliancy of colour to the 
flowers. 
22. Carnations are very apt to die off when they are just ready to flower ; this is 
occasioned by growing them too strong during the winter season : for when the soil 
is very rich in which they are grown during winter, they make a very large quantity 
of roots, become strong, and throw up flowering stems. These luxuriant stems 
being pithy, the sap cannot properly circulate ; this causes the plants to appear 
sickly, wearing a whitish hue, and when nearly coming into bloom they usually die, as 
though it was for want of water, which sometimes is injudiciously administered as a 
remedy. If the flowers are grown for competition this sudden loss cannot altogether 
be avoided, for the rich soil gives a far greater brilliancy of colour : yet some usually 
run and become almost one colour, and others die. The best way is, therefore, to 
pot or plant some in rather poorer soil, which will flourish, and do to perpetuate 
the sorts by, and the others will show the brilliancy of the flowers. 
23. The high coloured varieties being most subject to run in the colours, none 
of them should ever be potted in too rich a soil. 
24. When it is thought well to plant them out in a bed instead of pots, make 
the soil moderately rich, and trample it rather solid, after the manner of making an 
onion bed ; this is found in a great measure to prevent their dying off just before 
flowering, because it partially checks their luxuriant growth. 
25. Those who are curious usually take out carefully all petals that are not of a 
true colour, and if the remaining petals are carefully disposed, the loss will not be 
discovered. 
26. As soon as the flowers have turned the height of their perfection, the plants 
should be layered ; if done sooner, the bloom will be greatly impaired in consequence 
of the check given to the sap, by the operation of tongueing. 
27. Prepare a quantity of hooked pegs, and light soil composed of sandy loam 
and leaf mould. Prepare the layers by cutting off their lower leaves ; next stir up 
the old earth in the pots and fill up with the above soil not sifted ; then make an 
incision with a sharp penknife by entering about a quarter of an inch below a joint, 
and passing the blade of the knife up through the centre of it, and continue to one 
half or three quarters of an inch above it. The portion of the stem left below the 
bottom of the joint must be cut off horizontally close to the joint, and this part 
of the operation is completed. 
The incision being thus made, the layer must be gently pressed into the mould 
