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CULTURE OF THE GENUS DIANTHUS. 
Culture op the Carnation. This is a plant of much value amongst florists. 
It appears to have been totally unknown to the ancients, in its cultivated state, 
although it has from time immemorial been a favourite flower in Europe : Gerard, 
in 1597, received it from Poland. It has been occasionally found in a wild state, 
in England, growing on rocks and walls : the generally received opinion, however, 
is, that it is a native of Germany and Italy, where it is much cultivated. In the 
beginning of the seventeenth century, there seems to have been about fifty good 
sorts known ; and the most popular cultivator, at that time, was a florist of the 
name of Tugge, who lived in Westminster. Early in the eighteenth century, as 
many as 350 or 360 valuable sorts were cultivated, which appear to almost equal 
our catalogues of the present day. Hogg, in his Treatise, published in 1820, enu- 
merates the same quantity of sorts then in his possession. About the beginning of 
the last century, the first Florists' Society was formed, and shortly after several 
more, which awarded prizes to successful competitors, and which at once accounts 
for so large an assortment of Carnations at that time. 
The florists of the present day divide the Carnation into the following classes : — 
1. Bizarres, (from the French, signifying irregular, odd,) which consist of those 
whose flowers are striped with irregular spots and stripes, having two colours on a 
white ground. 
2. Flakes. Such as have only one colour on a white ground, being in large 
stripes going quite through the petals. 
3. Pjcotees. Such as have a fringed edge, usually a white ground, spotted or 
pounced with scarlet, red, purple, or other colours. 
The following are considered by florists the requisite properties of a good 
Carnation : — 
1. The flower stem should be straight and strong, growing not less than thirty 
inches high, nor more than forty-five. 
2. The flower should not be less than three inches in diameter, and should be 
supported by the stem without dropping. 
3. The calyx should be strong, about an inch long, firm enough at the top to 
keep the base of the petals in a circular body, rising about half an inch above the 
calyx. 
4. The petals should be long, broad, and stiff, easy to expand, and make free 
flowers ; the outer circle of petals, turning off gracefully, in a horizontal direction, 
and substantial enough to ably support the interior petals, which should decrease in 
size as they approach the centre, and with them the centre should be well filled up ; 
they should lie over each other in such a manner as that their beauties can meet 
the eye at once : their edges should be perfectly entire, without either notch, fringe, 
or indenture ; and of whatever colours the flowers may be composed, they should be 
perfectly distinct. 
5. The centre of the flower should not rise too high above the other parts ; but the 
whole flower should be somewhat flat and even, and perfectly round at the outside. 
6. Each petal should have a due proportion of white, which should be perfectly 
pure and free from blemishes or spots ; — of Bizarres, somewhat less than one-half; 
Flakes, about one-half ; and Picotees, a little more than one-half. 
